Part of the lower river battery at Fort Donelson, overlooking the Cumberland River
A portion of Fort Donelson National Cemetery
Fort Donelson National Battlefield in Dover, Tennessee, preserves the site of the American Civil WarBattle of Fort Donelson. The battle concluded the Forts Henry and Donelson Campaign, in which Union General Ulysses S. Grant and Admiral Andrew Hull Foote captured three forts, opened two rivers, and received national recognition for victories in February 1862, the first major Union victories of the war.
The most vulnerable area in the Confederate defensive line in the Western Theater was the state of Kentucky. The Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers were potential avenues for a Union invasion through the state and into Tennessee and beyond. But since Kentucky had declared itself neutral in the conflict, defensive works could not be built within the state without alienating the local population.
Two engineers detached from the 1st Tennessee Infantry, Adna Anderson and William F. Foster, set to work in earnest on May 10, 1861, to find suitable ground just inside the Tennessee border to simultaneously cover the two rivers. They then focused on surveying possible sites along the Cumberland River, looking at the high ridges and deep hollows near the Kentucky border[#endnote_border]. In mid-May, on the west bank of the river not far below the town of Dover, Anderson laid out the water battery of Fort Donelson twelve miles from the Kentucky line. The new fort was named in honor of Gen. Daniel S. Donelson[#endnote_name], who, along with Colonel Bushrod Johnson of the Corps of Engineers, approved of the site. Construction was begun by a large force of men brought from the nearby Cumberland Iron Works[#endnote_works].
The park preserves much of the original battle site, including the river batteries and the eroded remains of the fort itself, but the area in which the Confederate States Army assaulted on February 15, 1862, is largely in private hands, occupied by residential development. The Cumberland River was dammed in the 1960s and this area is currently referred to as Lake Barkley. It covers an area roughly similar to the original river while at flood stage, as it was during the battle.
Cemetery
Fort Donelson National Cemetery, at 15.34 acres (62,080 m²), contains 670 Union dead, reinterred in 1867. There are also numerous veterans from later wars. The cemetery is presently unavailable for further burials.
Notes
↑ The river landing community of Lineport, Tennessee, was considered before the area near Dover, Tennessee, was selected.
↑ The general was a nephew of Andrew and Rachel Donelson Jackson.
↑ One of the many iron ore furnaces in Stewart County, Tennessee. It was located at present day Carlisle community, 10 miles South of Dover, Tennessee.
Gott, Kendall D., Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry—Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862, Stackpole books, 2003, ISBN 0-8117-0049-6.
