National Cemetery

The entrance sign at the Fort Donelson National Cemetery

NPS

Welcome to Fort Donelson National Cemetery.

 

Poem

Park Staff

These totals include five known and nine unknown soldiers from the United States Colored Troops. The high percentage of unknown soldiers can be attributed to the haste in cleaning up the battlefield and the fact that Civil War soldiers did not carry government-issued identification.

Today the national cemetery contains both Civil War veterans and veterans who have served the United States since that time. Many spouses and dependent children are also buried here.

 

Connie Wilson, NPS Volunteer

The National Cemetery is a special place to pause and reflect upon the American Civil War, subsequent wars, those who fought in them and their families.

 

National Cemetery

NPS

In early 1863, the Union Army had constructed a new fortification on this site, which was also named Fort Donelson.

A community developed around the new Union fort. Former enslaved African Americans built their own homes, churches, and schools. This community prospered until the 1870's.

By 1867, this same site was selected for the establishment of the Fort Donelson National Cemetery and 670 Union soldiers were reinterred here. These soldiers (which included 512 unknowns) had been buried on the battlefield, in local cemeteries, in hospital cemeteries, and in nearby towns.

 

A postwar sketch of Dover and Fort Donelson National Cemetery

NARA

After the fall of Forts Heiman and Henry on February 6, 1862, and Fort Donelson, on February 16, 1862, these forts fell into Union hands and occupation.

During this period of Union occupation, these forts became places of refuge for many freedom seeking slaves.

The Union army eventually abandoned the Confederate fort and built a new fort in an area that includes where today's Fort Donelson National Battlefield sits. Relatively little visual documentation of this "Federal" Fort Donelson exists. As you visit today's Fort Donelson National Cemetery, you can imagine this unique community.

 

Monument in the Fort Donelson National Cemetery

NPS (2015)

For many years, this period 32- pound seacoastal cannon was placed in the National Cemetery as a silent tribute and monument.

Removed in the late 1950s, it was re-emplaced at this location in May of 2014 with the original plaque.

 

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