Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 36.djvu/296

 From the Times-Dispatch, January 17, 1909. CAVALRY RAIDS IN THE WAR OF SECESSION.

'''Major-General John B. Floyd and the State Line— Surrender of Fort Donelson.''' Captain R. F. Gross, of the "South Wales Borderers," whose command was a part of the advance guard of General Lord Roberts in the recent Boer War, has favored us with a copy of his notes on the "Cavalry Raids in the War of Secession." Captain Gross spent several days in Richmond during October last, and in one of our war talks one evening at Captain Gordon McCabe's he mentioned the fact that he had made a study of the cavalry raids during our War of 1861-1865, and particularly those of General J. E. B. Stuart; whereupon Captain McCabe and I expressed a wish for copies of these notes, feeling sure that the observations of an accomplished military student, who had seen much army service, and who wrote as Colonel Henderson did in his "Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War" from an impartial British standpoint, would be exceptionally interesting. In his letter transmitting the paper Capt. Gross modestly speaks of it as "very rough and unpolished," but we find it decidedly otherwise; and, as he has given us permission to do what we like with it, we will give the readers of the Confederate column the pleasure of reading a few selections from his admirable papers. R. W. H.

The surrender of Fort Donelson by General Buckner to General Grant was one of the deplorable events of the early war period, which gave rise to much controversy and bad feeling. The object of the Confederates was to hold Fort Donelson until General Albert Sidney Johnston could safely retreat from Bowling Green, and then to make good their own escape. After three days of hard fighting it was determined at a council of the principal officers, on the night of February 16, 1862, that the destruction of life attendant upon a further effort to extricate