Fort Donelson National Battlefield

For four days in mid-winter 1862, Northern and Southern armies clashed over the Confederate held Fort Donelson  on Feb. 16, the "Unconditional Surrender" to General Ulysses S. Grant marked the first step in the Union's plan to split the Confederacy.  The loss of the fort and control of the Cumberland River was devastating to the South.  With Union control of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, the Confederate defense line extending from the Mississippi to the Allegheny Mountains was broken.  A gateway for the invasion of the South was now open to the Union.

River Batteries
Transportation and supply routes depended heavily on these waterways.  The batteries defended these routes to major supply bases
in Clarksville and Nashville.

The Dover Hotel
Built between 1851 and 1853, to accommodate riverboat travelers before and after the Civil War. It was here that General Simon B. Buckner  surrendered Fort Donelson, along with 13,000 men, to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on Feb. 16, 1862.

National Cemetery
670 Union soldiers are buried here!  Today this National Cemetery contains both Civil War veterans and veterans who have served the United States since that time.