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With Buckner now in command of the Confederates, arrangements for surrender went forward. His note to Grant asked for terms. Grant replied with his historic "unconditional surrender" message.
With surrender decided, Floyd, soon after midnight, ordered the 20th Mississippi to move down to Dover, a village south of the fort, and guard the boat landing there. The plan was for a river steamer to land at daybreak, take on board Gen. Floyd and his staff, two Virginia regiments, and presumably, the 20th Mississippi as well. The Confederates would then be ferried across the Cumberland to an upstram landing, and from there would rejoin Gen. Johnston at Nashville.
The steamer tied up at the landing about daybreak, and Baxter watched as two Virginia regiments were ferried across the river, and the vessel return and take aboard the other two Virginia regiments and the Virginias artilleries. He then watched helplessly as the steamer cast off without him and the rest of the Mississippi regiment. It is not clear why they were abandoned. One version has it that Floyd intended sending the steamer back for the 20th; another has it that he never had any such intention. In any event, the result was the same. Baxter and 453 members of the 20th Mississippi were left waiting at the landing. They surrendered because there was no other option.
After the war Baxter was to recall the action at Fort Donelson with just a trace of bitterness: "Fought that battle (the breakout against McClernand?s Division) on the 15th of February, 1862. We licked the Federals and I was surrendered, February 16th, and sent to Chicago and there remained a prisoner of war until September 22, 1862?
But despite the surrender, Baxter and the other members of the 20th Mississippi could take rightful pride in their Fort Donelson experience. They had behaved as seasoned veterans -well-disciplined and well-trained. Maj. William N. Brown, acting commander of the regiment, reported to the Confederate Secretary of War that: ?At Sewell Mountain, Cotton Hill, and Fort Donelson their manly endurance of privations, prompt obedience to orders, and their eagerness for the fray was never excelled by veteran soldiers of any army, and has entitled the 20th Mississippi to
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