General Henry A. Wise, commanding Roanoke, also demanded troops and supplies. He received little from Benjamin's War Department that had no arms to send, as the Union blockade was preventing supplies from being imported. That Confederate armories were empty was a fact not publicly known at the time. Benjamin and Davis hoped that the island's defenses could hold off the Union forces, but an overwhelming number of troops were landed in February 1862 at an undefended point, and the Confederates were quickly defeated. Combined with Union General Ulysses S. Grant's capture of Fort Henry, the site of the Battle of Fort Henry, and Fort Donelson in Tennessee, it was the most severe military blow yet to the Confederacy, and there was a public outcry against Benjamin, led by General Wise.