American Civil War Battlefields
The Dover Hotel 
Ft. Donelson National Battlefield KY/TN 

Photo Courtesy of LCWRT Member Paul Fridell

The Dover Hotel, also known as the Surrender House, witnessed the surrender of CSA forces under the command of Brig. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner to then Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on Feb 16, 1862. These negotiations were the occasion of the “No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works” statement that made an obscure Grant famous in the newspapers.  

The Dover Hotel was Buckner’s headquarters during the battle, a Union hospital after the surrender, and a survivor of the 1863 Battle of Dover. It remained in business until 1925. The structure was reconstructed by the Fort Donelson House Historical Association and the National Park Service. According to the Civil War Trust, “The hotel is the only original major battle surrender structure remaining from the Civil War.”

American Civil War Monuments

United Daughters of the Confederacy Monument

Shiloh National Military Park

Photo and text courtesy of LCWRT Member Charlie Moore

This monument was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in memory of all Southern troops who fought in the battle of Shiloh.  In the center of the massive pedestal is a carved bust of Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston, the Confederate commander who was killed during the fighting in the afternoon of the first day. The two figures to the right represent an infantryman and an artilleryman. The front figure on the left stands for a cavalryman and the one with his head bowed represents a Confederate officer.  The central group represents a “Defeated Victory”.  The front figure, representing the Condfederacy, is surrendering the laurel wreath of victory to Death, on the left, and Night, on the right.  Death came to their commander and Night brought reinforcements to the enemy, and the battle was lost.  The monument was first proposed by the Savannah, TN, unit of the UDC in 1907.  After a ten year period of raising money, and various postponements, it was finally erected in May of 1917.   It was designed and sculpted by Frederick C. Hibbard.