Showing posts with label Fort Donelson National Battlefield. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fort Donelson National Battlefield. Show all posts

Monday, May 13, 2013

The River Batteries: Fort Donelson National Battlefield



C. S. A.

THE RIVER BATERIES

CAPTAIN JOSEPH DIXON (KILLED)
CAPTAIN CACOB CULBERTSON
COMMANDER

The Lower Water Battery established at this point mounted eight 32-pounder guns and one 10-inch Columbiad.  Company A, 50th Tennessee, under Captain T. W. Beaumont, manned the four guns on the right, and Company A, 30th Tennessee, under Captain. B. G. Bidwell, manned the four guns on the left.  A detachment of Captain Reuben R. Ross’ Battery of Maury Artillery under Lieutenant H. S. Bedford operated the Columbiad, which was emplaced on the extreme left.

On February 13, 1862, this battery engaged in a duel with the U.S.S. Carondelet.  Near the close of the bombardment, which lasted nearly an hour, a projectile struck and disabled the third gun from the left and killed Captain Joseph Dixon, Commander of the river batteries.  It also disabled for a short time Captain J. B. Shuster, and killed and wounded two or three privates.


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Gun Positions: Fort Donelson National Battlefield



The four mounds in this section of the water batteries are some of the first structures built to defend the river.  The Confederates mounted three 32-pounder cannon here but moved them before the gunboat attack.  From this position they could not be effective against ironclads.




SOURCE: Interpretive Marker at Tour Stop 4, Fort Donelson National Battlefield (pictured at right).

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Fort Donelson: Life at Fort Donelson


Soldiers and slaves built over 400 log huts as winter quarters for the soldiers garrisoning and working on the fort.  In addition to government rations of flour, fresh and cured meat, sugar, and coffee, every boat brought boxes from home filled with all kinds of things a farm or store could provide.  Off-duty soldiers from the local area hunted and fished in the same locations they had frequented just months before as civilians.  Some time after the surrender, Federals burned the cabins because of a measles outbreak.

SOURCE:  Tour Stop 3, 2010 National Park Service Brochure for Fort Donelson National Battlefield.

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.  Besides rations of flour, fresh and cured meats, sugar, and coffee, every boat brought boxes from home filled with things a farm or store could provide, including uniforms and clothing.  The reconstructed log hut represents the approximately 500 huts built for the fort’s garrison by soldiers and slave laborers as living quarters, some 100 of them inside the 15-acre fort.  When winter came, these crude huts with their canvas roofs made from tents and their fireplaces made from stone, stick and mud, warded off the wind, rain and snow, and kept many Confederates from freezing to death.  Most of the thousands of soldiers who arrived shortly before the battle were housed in tents or slept beneath a blanket on the ground, and suffered terribly in the bitter February cold.



No one knows exactly what the cabins at Fort Donelson looked like, but they probably didn’t differ much from those pictured here, built by confederate soldiers at Centreville, Virginia in the winter of 1861-61.



The only known contemporary illustration of the Confederate encampment within Fort Donelson appeared in the March 17 [sic], 1862, issue of Harper’s Weekly.  The view is from the area occupied today by the National Cemetery.


Fort Donelson’s de-fenders wore a wide variety of clothing, as this photograph of captured Fort Donelson soldiers shows.  Few had uniforms, most wore citizens’ clothes.  Many of the officers had the regular gray uniform, while others wore U. S. Army blue.







SOURCE:  New Wayside Exhibit at tour stop 3, Fort Donelson National Battlefield (pictured at left).



Quarters For The Troops

On the hillside before you, inside the fort walls, stood some 100 log huts, part of 400 built in the area to house the confederate garrison.  The activity of hundreds of men probably created acres of mud during winter snows and spring rains.  After the battle Union forces occupied the fort.  They later burned the cabins because of a measles epidemic and abandoned this position in favor of a new fort built where the National Cemetery is today.


SOURCE:  NPS Historical Marker Placed in front of the log hut, Fort Donelson National Battlefield (pictured above and to the right.  This marker has since been removed and replaced with the new wayside exhibit pictured above.)

  • Originally posted: April 1, 2011,12:52 AM.
  • Revised: May 5, 2013, 6:33 PM

Friday, April 26, 2013

Stankiewicz’s Battery: Fort Donelson National Battlefield


In February 1862 Capt. Peter K. Stankiewicz commanded a battery of one 8-inch howitzer and 2 9-pounder iron guns at this location.  This battery helped defend against Union Gen. C. F. Smith’s attack on Confederate Gen. Simon Buckner’s position about ½-mile in front of you on February 15.  The cannon here is an original iron gun mounted on a reproduction carriage.

Artillery was essential for both Confederate and Union armies, supporting infantry and cavalry by terrorizing and demoralizing the enemy troops.  Confederates placed artillery in fort Donelson and around the town of Dover in an attempt to control the Cumberland River and prevent a Federal invasion of Tennessee.



Photographs of Confederate artillery are rare, and none of Stankiewicz’s Battery is known to exist.  This one of the Palmetto Battery was taken near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1863.







SOURCE: Interpretive Marker at Fort Donelson National Battlefield (pictured at right).

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Fort Donelson: Wayside Exhibit



The Mounds of earth you see before you are the remains of Fort Donelson, which originally covered 15 acres.  Confederate soldiers and enslaved African Americans built the fort over a period of seven months.  The walls, made of logs and earth, stood 10 feet high.  Although not as permanent as brick or stone, earthen walls provided better protection against enemy fire.

Confederates built the fort to protect the upper and lower batteries along the Cumberland river from land attack.  The fort, however, never came under direct land attack.  All fighting except for the ironclad gunboat attacks on the river batteries, took place in the outer defense lines.



Brigadier General
Daniel S. Donelson
the man for home the fort was named, participated in the original 1861 survey that selected the sites for both Forts Henry and Donelson.








SOURCE:  Wayside Exhibit at Fort Donelson National Battlefield, Dover, Tennessee (pictured at the left).

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Fort Donelson: Historical Marker


C. S. A.
FORT DONELSON

The Confederate defenses consisted of this fort, two water batteries, and the line of rifle pits enclosing these and the town of Dover.  The garrison of the fort proper consisted of the

30th Tennessee, Colonel John W. Head
49th Tennessee, Colonel James E. Bailey
50th Tennessee, Colonel Cyrus A. Sugg

This force was organized by General Pillow upon his arrival on February 9, 1862, as a brigade under Colonel Head.

On February 12, Colonel Head’s regiment was ordered to a position in the outer defenses and the immediate command of the fort passed to Colonel Bailey.  The artillery armament of this fort consisted of one 8-inch Howitzer and two 9-pounder guns under Lieutenant P. K. Stankiewicz.

The Main line of resistance consisted of the line of trenches which extend from Hickman Creek over a distance of approximately two miles along the crest of the hills and envelop the town of Dover.  At some points in front of the intrenchments felled trees formed an abatis and presented a difficult obstacle in the path of the attacker.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Buckner's Defense: Fort Donelson National Battlefied


BUCKNER’S DEFENSE

To stop the Confederate break-out attempt on February 15, Grant sent his reorganized troops against the Confederate left.  At the same time, to take advantage of the weakened enemy line, he sent C. F. Smith’s Division against the Confederate right.  Smith’s forces rolled over the Confederate outer defenses and pushed the Southerners back to a position along the ridge in front of you.  There the charge was halted by Buckner’s forces who had arrived just as the Union assault had begun.  Afterwards, Buckner paid tribute to the field artillery for its role in checking the Yankee advance.  The strong new defensive position on the ridge and the coming of night ended the fighting.  The Union forces grudgingly withdrew to the old confederate defense line.  In this desperate fighting several hundred men lost their lives.  Many of them still lie in this area in unmarked graves.

 








SOURCE: Interpretive Marker shown just right of center in the photo above and pictured at the right.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Confederate Monument: Fort Donelson National Battlefield



Confederate soldiers were hastily buried on the battlefield after the surrender.  The exact location of their graves is unknown.  This monument commemorates the Southern soldiers who fought and died at Fort Donelson.  The United Daughters of the Confederacy erected the monument in 1933.

SOURCE: 2010 Fort Donelson National Battlefield park brochure: Tour Stop 1.



CONFEDERATE MONUMENT

Because they had fought against the United States, Confederate dead were not reburied in the National Cemetery.  This monument, erected by the Daughters of the Confederacy is a memorial for those men.  It was dedicated in 1933.

SOURCE: Interpretive marker near the monument (pictured at right).




[Inscribed on the front of the monument:]

THIS SHAFT IS DEDICATED
AS AN ALTAR OF REMEMBRANCE
TO THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS
WHO FOUGHT AT FORT DONELSON
FEBRUARY, 1862

BY THE
DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY
OF TENNESSEE


“THERE IS NO HOLIER SPOT OF GROUND,
THAN WHERE DEFEATED VALOR LIES.”


[Left Side:]

HONOR THEIR VALOR, EMULATE THE
DEVOTION WITH WHICH THEY GAVE
THEMSELVES TO THE SERVICE OF
THEIR COUNTRY, LET IT NEVER BE
SAID THAT THEIR SONS IN THESE
SOUTHERN STATES HAVE FORGOTTEN
THEIR NOBLE EXAMPLE


[Back:]

FEBRUARY 13TH, 1862
FEBRUARY 14TH, 1862
FEBRUARY 15TH, 1862

SOMEWHERE HERE OUR UNKNOWN
DEAD WILL LIE FOREVER, WITH
ARMS UNSTACKED FOREVER, WITH
COLORS THAT CANNOT BE FURLED.


[Right Side:]

“____________ HERE
WAS THE PLACE OF BATTLE.  YOU WHO
HAVE NEVER KNOWN THE SCOUR AND
PIERCE OF BATTLE MAY ONLY
REMEMBER MOMENTS BY NAMES,
PLACES BY MONUMENTS, BUT I WHO
WAS BORN BY THE BATTLE-FIELDS
CANNOT ESCAP A SORROW THAT
DWELLS, A VALOR THAT LINGERS,
A HOPE THAT SPOKE ON LIPS NOW STILL."

Monday, April 8, 2013

Troops And Casualties At Fort Donelson

Interpretive Markers in front of the Visitors Center
Fort Donelson National Battlefield
Federal                       Confederate

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Confederate Troops And Casualties At Fort Donelson

Interpretive Marker in front of the Visitors Center
Fort Donelson National Battlefield


C. S. A.
CONFEDERATE TROOPS AND CASUALTIES
AT FORT DONELSON


Strength
Killed
Wounded
Missing
Aggregate
Buckner’s Division
Brown’s Brigade
Hanson’s Regiment
3425
*51
*314
41
*406
2825
38
247
41
326
600
*13
*67

*80
Johnson’s Division
Heiman’s Brigade
Drake’s Brigade
Davidson’s Brigade
*4309
*96
*311

*407
1600
10
30

40
*1215
*18
*63

*81
1494
68
218

286
Pillow’s Division
Baldwin’s Brigade
McCausland’s Brigade
Wharton’s Brigade
2633
83
382
120
585
58
42
216

258
650
24
86

110
625
17
80
120
217
Non-Divisional Units
Head’s Brigade
Forrest’s Cavalry
Artillery Not Brigaded
*2722
*27
*67

*94
*1600
*17
*47

*64
*842
*8
*16

*24
*280
*2
*4

*6
Total
*13,089
*257
*1069
161
*1492
* Estimated


Saturday, April 6, 2013

Federal Troops And Casualties At Fort Donelson

Interpretive Marker in front of the Visitors Center
Fort Donelson National Battlefield


U. S. A.
FEDERAL TROOPS AND CASUALTIES
AT FORT DONELSON


McClernand’s Division
Oglesby’s Brigade
Wallace’s Brigade
Morrison’s Brigade
Strength
Killed
Wounded
Missing
Aggregate
8000
311
1058
183
1552

184
603
66
853
99
350
98
547
28
105
19
152
Smith’s Division
McArthur’s Brigade
Cook’s Brigade
Lauman’s Brigade
Smith’s Brigade
7000*
145
819
23
987

69
340
20
429
10
109
2
121
55
301
1
357
11
69
--
80
Wallace’s Division
Cruft’s Brigade
Thayer’s Brigade
6500*
44
231
18
293

35
182
16
233
9
39
2
50
Artillery Not Brigaded

--
10
--
10
TOTAL
21,500*
500
2,108
224
2,832
* Estimated