Confederate Monument at Fort Donelson National Battlefield

TOUR STOP 1:  CONFEDERATE MONUMENT

The first stop on a tour of Fort Donelson National Battlefield is at a monument dedicated to Confederate soldiers who died during the fighting at Fort Donelson, most of whom are still buried somewhere on the battlefield. It was erected in 1933 by members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy on what was at the time believed to be the general location of a Confederate mass grave. No such grave has ever been found.

During the Civil War, unless claimed by family members or local citizens, soldiers who died in battle were buried at hospitals, on the battlefield, and just about anywhere else they were found dead. However, battlefield burials were problematic, both for grieving family members and for sanitary reasons. Early on, the United States government established a national cemetery system, and Union soldiers who were buried on the battlefield—if they could be found—were reinterred in these places.

Because Union soldiers occupied the Fort Donelson area and the town of Dover after defeating the Confederates in early February 1862, most of their dead were properly buried in known locations. When Fort Donelson National Cemetery opened for business in 1867, nearly two years after the war ended, and Union soldiers who could still be found were reinterred there.

The task of burying the dead fell upon the victor, and as you can imagine, Union soldiers weren’t about to spend much time on individual funerals for the enemy. As a result, Confederate dead not spoken for by family or friends ended up being hastily buried where they were found or in mass graves. Record keeping was an afterthought, and by the time the war ended, the locations of the graves were lost, condemning these men to an eternity on the battlefield.

Sculpture and inscription on the Confederate Monument at Fort Donelson National Battlefield

In addition to the monument, there is a cannon on display. The small hill in front of it is what remains of an earthen wall, part of the trench system built by the Confederates on the outskirts of Fort Donelson to protect it from a land attack. The cannon marks the Confederate position inside the wall and aims towards the Union line.