We visited Fort Donelson National Battlefield several times while we were camping at Land Between the Lakes. The NRA is run by the Forest Service, so it isn't a National Park Service site like the fort, but they are quite near to each other so it was easy to find the time to visit. We drove through once with my parents and saw much of the site, but then we went back after they left for home and saw the rest of the tour.
"Fort Donelson will hereafter be marked in Capitals on the maps of our United Country..."
Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant was becoming quite famous as he wrote these words following the surrender of Confederate Fort Donelson on Sunday, February 16, 1862. The Union victory at Fort Donelson elated the North, and stunned the South. Within days of the surrender, Clarksville and Nashville would fall into Union hands. Grant and his troops had created a pathway to victory for the Union.
While the main visitor center is being repaired/renovated the battlefield's visitor center is located at the local community's visitor center.
Out front of the building are several informative Civil War signs.
As I've said elsewhere I'm a sucker for signs and always enjoy taking pictures of them after I've read them so that I can read them again later.
It is also nice that you could learn about the battle even if the visitor center was closed for the day.
A normal assortment of products are available in the small gift shop area before you enter the main exhibit section.
The Dover Hotel is one of the places we visited on our second day of visiting the park.
These items that you could pick up and touch were a nice experience.
We also watched the park film.
Maps of the area are especially useful when you're looking at a battle's history.
This display explained how ironclad vessels changed warfare. It was quite a different experience to have cannonballs bounce off the target instead of causing considerable damage. It also made riverside fortifications much more vulnerable than they had been in the past as ships could often approach close enough to cause significant damage.
After leaving the temporary visitor center we drove onto the grounds of the actual battlefield.
This is the regular visitor center closed off for work.
This is the first monument we came to along the road was the Confederate Monument.
Erected by the Tennessee Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1933, the Confederate Monument commemorates the Southern soldiers who fought and died at Fort Donelson. The exact location of Confederate graves is unknown.
--from Fort Donelson NB website
I haven't yet seen a Civil War battlefield that wasn't covered with statues and monuments.
"We lived luxuriously in comfortable tents and log huts," one Fort Donelson soldier wrote in the more tranquil days before cold weather set in and the armies clashed... The reconstructed log hut represents the approximately 400 huts built for the fort's garrison by soldiers and slave labors as living quarters, some 100 of them inside the 15-acre fort.
-exhibit signage
Evelyn was more than willing to pose in front of a cannon.
The fortifications provided a good view of the barge as it continued on the river.
I've always found it fascinating that we still have so many remnants from the Civil War. Battles that lasted a few days or weeks often resulted in so much change that we can still see the earthworks
The signs that put the location you were viewing into the context of the entire battle were quite useful and informative.
Tomorrow I'll finish up describing the remainder of our visit to the battlefield.
~Matt
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