150th Anniversary Issue

Welcome to year two of the Civil War Sesquicentennial. The Fort Donelson battlefield at Dover, Tennessee, and related sites at Forts Henry and Heiman, have changed considerably for the better since Blue & Gray’s feature on the battle and campaign 20 years ago.

In 1992 much had already been lost. Fort Henry was lost in the late 1930s and early 40s when the Tennessee Valley Authority built a dam on the Tennessee River creating Kentucky Lake. Some of the outer works of Fort Henry on high ground remain and are included on this issue’s General’s Tour. In the 1960s, the U. S. Corps of Engineers dammed the Cumberland River, along which sits Fort Donelson (safe on high ground), creating Lake Barkley and inundating the wartime landscape. Together they form the popular recreational area Land Between the Lakes.

Since 1992, though, the protected areas of the battlefield have grown by the acquisition of almost 500 acres. The new protected ground includes 175 acres at Fort Heiman in Kentucky. Fort Heiman, across the Tennessee River from Fort Henry’s preserved outer works, is now a unit of Fort Donelson National Battlefield. The acquisition of Heiman was made by the state of Kentucky through purchase and transfer to the National Park Service.

In the Fort Donelson battle area, the Civil War Trust holdings are also significant. Historian and premier battlefield guide Ed Bearss mapped the Fort Donelson battle in 1959. He considered the Dudley’s Hill and Forge Road areas (the Confederate breakout attempt), to be among the nation’s most important Civil War sites not protected.

When former park superintendent Richard Hanks moved to Dover in the late 1990s and was looking for a place to build a house, he realized the property a realtor showed him was part of the battlefield. Phone calls were made, and today much of the ground over which the Confederate breakout attempt was made is not a housing development, but is owned by the Civil War Trust. The Trust has also purchased Lew Wallace’s blocking position on the Wynns Ferry Road and other parcels. May the next 20 years bring more good news for Henry, Heiman and Donelson.

Editor