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Forts Henry And Donelson--The Key To The Confederate Heartland

The University of Tennessee Press 1987. Dust jacket shiney and bright. Grey boards with black title on spine clean bumping bottom corners and spine. Pages clean with no names, marks, or highlights. Binding tight. Proceeds benefit the Oro Valley Library.

Hardcover: 354 pages

Publisher: University of Tennessee Press; 1st edition (March 1988)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0870495380

ISBN-13: 978-0870495380

Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds

Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #632,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #325 in Books > History > Americas > United States > Civil War > Confederacy #6224 in Books > History > Military > United States

The events of February, 1862 at Forts Henry and Donelson have long been overshadowed by other Civil War events. While most people, then and now, focus on the Eastern Theatre of the war, it was in the west that the war was won and lost. The fall of these forts opened the door to the Deep South and the end of the Confederacy. In my opinion, these events are among the ten most important events of the war, far more important than Gettysburg. Unlike in Virginia where the rivers run east-west forming a barrier to the south, the rivers in Tennessee run north-south providing access to the Deep South. The front in Virginia was relatively narrow (Chesapeake Bay to Blue Ridge Mountains) while in Tennessee the front stretched hundreds of miles from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mountains. To cover this extensive area the Confederates had a much smaller force than in Virginia. Futhermore, while the Confederacy had an advantage in generalhip in Virginia, the Union had the superior generalship in Tennessee. The result was inevitable and began at the river forts. Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, partially under the water, easily fell to Union gun boats on February 6. The river was open all the way to Muscle Shoals in northern Alabama. Ten days later, the Confederates surrendered at Fort Donleson on the Cumberland River. This forced the Confederate evacuation of Nashville, an important industrially city of the South. The combination of losses forced the Confederates to withdraw from central and western Tennessee to Corinth, Mississippi than foresaw the Battle of Shiloh. Benjamin Franklin Cooling has written the best book on this campaign. His experience as historian at Fort Donleson National Battlefield make him well qualified to write on the subject.

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