American Civil War Battlefields 
Fort Donelson, Tennessee
Lower Water Battery 

Photo and text courtesy of LCWRT Member Charlie Moore

This is a view of Fort Donelson’s lower water battery facing the Cumberland River as it flows northward to its junction with the Ohio River. This lower battery and the upper battery which lies a few hundred yards to the south were armed with heavy seacoast guns. Fort Donelson and Fort Henry, which lies 12 miles to the west on the Tennessee River, were built to defend the water approaches to Confederate supply bases in Clarksville and Nashville, Tennessee. 

Fort Henry had already fallen to the Union forces of Brig. General Grant and Naval Flag Officer Andrew Foote on February 6th ,1862. Because of its poor location and the flooding Tennessee River, Foote was able to literally float his ships right up to the fort and force it into submission. 

Fort Donelson was a different story. On February 14th, untested Confederate gunners were able to defeat Foote’s Federal ironclads and timber-clad gunboats. Using the same tactics he successfully used at Fort Henry, Foote brought his gunboats very close to the Confederate artillery hoping to shell them in to surrendering. His flotilla became an excellent target for the Confederate guns however, due to flooding, the Confederate guns’ higher elevation and the slow movement of his heavy gunboats. After he was defeated, it was up to General Grant and his army to take the fort by storm which they did on February 16. Foote, a veteran naval officer who was wounded in the exchange later commented that he had been in numerous fights before with ships and forts ‘but never was under so severe fire before.’