BGuthrie Photos: TN -- Fort Henry (Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area)

TN -- Fort Henry (Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area):

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. FTHEN_140527_02.JPG: Fort Henry Feb. 6, 1862 About 4 mi. N. this one of two forts erected to deny Tennessee River to the Federals. Ft. Heiman faced it from the Kentucky side. It was surrendered following naval bombardment, to Flag Officer A.H. Foote, USN, by Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, CSA, who had about 60 men remaining. From there, U.S. Grant marched his Army of the Ohio to besiege Ft. Donelson.
2. FTHEN_140527_04.JPG: Site of Fort Henry February 6, 1862 This site of the first Union attack on river routes in the West lies below Kentucky Lake. Only the easternmost rifle pits remain above water. Because of the high water in the fort, only Capt. Taylor's Co. B. First Regt. Tenn. Art., stayed to slow the Union gunboat advance. Five Confederate soldiers killed during the battle when their cannons exploded were buried on a ridge top north of here. Both Confederate and Union troops then moved along the trails to Ft. Donelson to the east.
3. FTHEN_140531_007.JPG: Fort Heiman: Intended to help defend the vulnerable Fort Henry, this unfinished work was abandoned at the start of General Grant's February 1862 offensive and never fired a shot. Remnants of the fort can still be seen. The fort is now part of Fort Donelson National Battlefield. Fort Donelson: Site of the North's first major victory of the Civil War, the park preserves the remains of the fort itself, two river batteries, outer rifle pits, and the Dover Hotel where the fort's surrender was arranged.
4. FTHEN_140531_011.JPG: Fort Henry Fort Henry is part of Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area. Located 12 miles west of Fort Donelson on the eastern bank of the Tennessee River, Fort Henry was a give-sided, open-bastioned earthen fort designed to guard ... on ship traffic. The fort was, however, vulnerable to infantry attack and spring flooding, and easily fell to the powerful Union gunboat flotilla during the February 6, 1862, attack. Fort Henry's remains now lie beneath the waters of Kentucky Lake, created when the Tennessee River was dammed in the 1930s. The outer defenses, however, remain above water and are still visible. The Civil War Sites Advisory Commission has designated Fort Henry as one of the Civil War's principal battlefields.
5. FTHEN_140531_071.JPG: Battle of Fort Henry You are standing inside the easternmost riflepits of Fort Henry. These earthworks are all that remain of the hastily constructed earthen fort that now lies beneath the waters of Kentucky Lake. At noon on February 6, 1862, Union Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote's flotilla of four ironclad and three timberclad gunboats steamed upriver (from your right) and began firing into Fort Henry. This, the initial battle in Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's campaign to open the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers to Union forces, was the first time American ironclad vessels were used in combat. With the fort partly inundated by Tennessee River floodwaters, its commander, Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, knew Fort Henry could not be held. Keeping 100 artillerymen, he sent the rest of his forces (about 2,500 men) to Fort Donelson, 12 miles away on the Cumberland River. Tilghman and his gunners gamely returned the gunboats' fire, but were severely outgunned. At 1:45p.m., with only four cannon still operating, Tilghman surrendered to Foote. The Confederates had suffered five killed and 11 wounded; the Union sailors lost 11 killed and 31 wounded. Grant and Brig. Gen. John A. McClernand's troops, much to the navy's delight, arrived on the scene only after the fort had been surrendered. February 6, 1862 noon Where is Fort Henry? The original site of Fort Henry is completely submerged beneath Kentucky Lake. The buoy in the middle of the channel (upriver and slightly to your left) marks its approximate location. Height Disadavantage: With the fort at or below water level, Fort Henry's cannon could not be positioned like those at Fort Donelson to shoot down onto the ironclads' vulnerable decks. Two Enemies: Besides Foote's gunboat flotilla, heavy rains prior to the battle caused the Tennessee River to rise, flooding parts of the interior of Fort Henry.
6. FTHEN_140531_132.JPG: Height Disadavantage: With the fort at or below water level, Fort Henry's cannon could not be positioned like those at Fort Donelson to shoot down onto the ironclads' vulnerable decks.
7. FTHEN_140531_134.JPG: Where is Fort Henry? The original site of Fort Henry is completely submerged beneath Kentucky Lake. The buoy in the middle of the channel (upriver and slightly to your left) marks its approximate location.ng parts of the interior of Fort Henry.
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Wikipedia Description: Battle of Fort Henry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Battle of Fort Henry was fought on February 6, 1862, in western Middle Tennessee, during the American Civil War. It was the first important victory for the Union and Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the Western Theater.

On February 4 and February 5, Grant landed two divisions just north of Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. (Although the name was not yet in use, the troops serving under Grant were the nucleus of the Union's successful Army of the Tennessee.) His plan was to advance upon the fort on February 6 while it was being simultaneously attacked by United States Navy gunboats commanded by Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote. A combination of effective naval gunfire and the poor siting of the fort, almost completely inundated by rising river waters, caused its commander, Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, to surrender to Foote before the Army arrived.

The surrender of Fort Henry opened the Tennessee River to Union traffic past the Alabama border, which was demonstrated by a "timberclad" raid of wooden ships from February 6 through February 12. They destroyed Confederate shipping and railroad bridges upriver. Grant's army proceeded overland 12 miles (19 km) to the Battle of Fort Donelson.

Background

In early 1861 the critical border state of Kentucky had declared neutrality in the American Civil War. This neutrality was first violated on September 3, when Confederate Brig. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, acting on orders from Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk, occupied Columbus. Two days later Union Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, displaying the personal initiative that would characterize his later career, seized Paducah, a major transportation hub of rail and port facilities at the mouth of the Tennessee. Henceforth, neither adversary respected the proclaimed neutrality of the state and the Confederate advantage was lost; the buffer zone that Kentucky provided was no longer available to assist in the defense of Tennesse ...More...
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Generally-Related Pages: Other pages with content (TN -- Fort Donelson Natl Battlefield) somewhat related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2014_TN_CWT_Ft_Donelson_140531: CWT Annual Conference (2014) in Nashville, TN -- Fort Donelson tour w/Greg Biggs (100 photos from 2014)
- 2004_TN_Ft_Donelson_Dover: TN -- Fort Donelson Natl Battlefield -- Dover (8 photos from 2004)
- 1999_TN_Ft_Donelson_Dover: TN -- Fort Donelson Natl Battlefield -- Dover (12 photos from 1999)
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Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [Civil War] [Park (National Park Service)] [Park (Natl Recreation Area)] [Display ALL Park (Natl Recreation Area) photos]
2014 photos: Trips this year: three Civil War Trust conferences (Winchester, VA, Nashville, TN, and Atlanta, GA), Michigan to visit mom in the hospice before she died and then a return trip after she died, and my 9th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including Las Vegas, Reno, Carson City, Sacramento, Oakland, and Los Angeles). Ego strokes: Paul Dickson used one of my photos as the author photo in his book "Aphorisms: Words Wrought by Writers". Equipment this year: I mostly used my Fuji XS-1 camera but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. Number of photos taken this year: just over 470,000.
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