Historic site in Kentucky and Tennessee, US
Fort Donelson National Battlefield
preserves
Fort Donelson
and
Fort Heiman
, two sites of the
American Civil War
Forts Henry and Donelson Campaign, in which
Union Army
Brigadier General
Ulysses S. Grant
and
Flag Officer
Andrew Hull Foote
captured three
Confederate
forts and opened two rivers, the
Tennessee River
and the
Cumberland River
, to control by the
Union Navy
. The commanders received national recognition for their victories in February 1862, as they were the first major Union successes of the war. The capture of Fort Donelson and its garrison by the
Union
led to the capture of Tennessee's capital and industrial center,
Nashville
, which remained in Union hands from February 25, 1862, until the end of the war, and gave the Union effective control over much of Tennessee. This struck a major blow to the Confederacy early in the war.
The main portion of the park, in
Dover, Tennessee
, commemorates the
Battle of Fort Donelson
(
36°29′41″N
87°51′22″W
/
36.49472°N 87.85611°W
/
36.49472; -87.85611
). Fort Heiman, in nearby
Calloway County, Kentucky
, was a Confederate battery in the
Battle of Fort Henry
.
History
[
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]
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 of the South through Kentucky and into Tennessee and beyond. Since Kentucky had declared neutrality, the Confederacy could not build defensive works within the state without risking alienating the local population. The local population in western and central Kentucky was pro-Confederate. Kentucky's westernmost (First) congressional district elected a secessionist and Lincoln proclaimed it to be in rebellion.
Adna Anderson and William F. Foster, two engineers detached from the Confederate
1st Tennessee
Infantry, set to work on May 10, 1861, to find suitable ground just inside the Tennessee border to cover the two strategic rivers. They surveyed possible sites along the Cumberland River, noting the high ridges and deep hollows near the Kentucky border.
[4]
In mid-May, on the west bank of the river not far below Dover, Anderson laid out the water battery of Fort Donelson, twelve miles (19 km) from the Kentucky line. The new fort was named in honor of the Confederate General
Daniel S. Donelson
[5]
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.
[6]
Administrative history of the park
[
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]
The site was established as
Fort Donelson National Military Park
on March 26, 1928. The
national military park
and
national cemetery
were transferred from the
War Department
to the
National Park Service
on August 10, 1933. The park was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
on October 15, 1966. It was redesignated a national battlefield on August 16, 1985. Public Law 108-367 (October 25, 2004) increased the authorized boundary of the national battlefield from 551.69 acres (2.23 km
2
) to 2,000 acres (8.09 km
2
). On October 30, 2006, Calloway County transferred the Fort Heiman site, which was purchased through the
Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves
' Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund, to the Park Service. Fort Heiman had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 12, 1976.
Park today
[
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]
The park preserves much of the original battle site, including the river batteries and the eroded remains of the fort, but the area in which the
Confederate States Army
attacked on February 15, 1862, is largely in private hands and occupied by residential development. The Cumberland River was dammed in the 1960s; 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. The
Civil War Trust
(a division of the
American Battlefield Trust
) and its partners have acquired and preserved 368 acres (1.49 km
2
) of the battlefield, most of which has been conveyed to the NPS and incorporated into the battlefield park.
[7]
Cemetery
[
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]
The
Fort Donelson National Cemetery
, at 15.34 acres (62,080 m
2
) in Stewart County,
[8]
contains 670 Union dead, reinterred in 1867. There are numerous veterans from later wars. The cemetery is presently unavailable for additional burials.
Notes
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- The National Parks: Index 2001?2003
. Washington:
U.S. Department of the Interior
.
- Gott, Kendall D.,
Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry?Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862
, Stackpole books, 2003,
ISBN
0811700496
.
External links
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