Tour Stop #3

Reproduction log hut

NPS

Fort Donelson was a training site for many volunteers, and in this location, the 50th Tennessee Infantry would muster in recruits and train volunteers as soldiers.

Soldiers and slaves built up to 400 log huts for winter quarters in this area. They were built in the summer of 1861. By Christmas time, the soldiers spoke of spending their holiday at the fort, receiving many delicious foods from the townspeople.

For the garrisoned soldiers working on the fort, time passed pleasantly enough. "We lived luxuriously in comfortable tents and log huts," stated one soldier. In addition to the government rations of flour, fresh and cured meats, sugar, and coffee, boats brought boxes from home.

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Interior View Log Hut, circa 1970s.

NPS

Off-duty Confederate soldiers from the local area hunted and fished in the same locations they frequented not six months before as civilians.

After the surrender, the U.S. military burned the huts to stop the spread of disease, possibly measles. The Union forces built their own smaller fortification, closer to the city of Dover.