Buckner immediately sent a messenger to Grant, asking for terms of surrender; but, while the negotiation was in progress, he permitted Floyd and Pillow to sneak off with about three thousand of the troops, amid the execrations of those who remained. Grant was ready to renew the conflict when the white flag was raised on the battlements of the fort. Buckner proposed an armistice till noon, which seemed to suggest a very complicated arrangement of details in regard to terms. In reply, Grant wrote a very brief note, acknowledging the receipt of the rebel general's communication, and adding, "No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." If General Buckner had never been formally introduced to General Grant, this little note would have been a full-length photograph of the man. The unfortunate rebel replied, accepting the terms, though not without taking occasion to protest against them as ungenerous and unchivalrous, and to remind the conqueror of "the brilliant success of the Confederate arms yesterday." Grant, with a generous regard for the feelings of Buckner, hastened to the headquarters of the latter, at Dover. The two generals had been companions at West Point and in the old army, and Grant displayed a tenderness for the sensitive nature of the defeated soldier which is highly creditable to him. He assured him he did not wish to subject him to any unnecessary mortification, but while all public property must be yielded up, the officers would be permitted to retain their side arms and their personal property. They breakfasted together and talked over the affair, thus happily ended for one, thus disastrously ended for the other. During the interview which followed, Buckner alluded to the inferior force of his adversary at the commencement of the siege. "If I had been in command, you wouldn't have reached Fort Donelson so easily," said he, with a natural desire to explain the cause of his misfortune. "If you had been in command, I should have waited for reënforcements, and marched from Fort Henry in greater strength; for I knew that Pillow would not come out of his works to fight, and I told my staff so, though I believed he would fight behind his works."