Cannon at the Smith’s Attack stop on the Fort Donelson battlefield tour

TOUR STOP 5:  SMITH’S ATTACK

The fifth stop on the tour of Fort Donelson National Battlefield is at the site of a February 14, 1862, attack by Union General Charles Smith on the right flank of the outer Confederate defenses in an attempt to take control of Fort Donelson. With the Confederates conducting a massive attack on the Union right (near the town of Dover) as they tried to break through and escape to Nashville, Union General Ulysses S. Grant figured they must have pulled men off their lines from elsewhere, most likely on their right flank near Hickman Creek, and thus ordered Smith to attack. Led by the Second Iowa Infantry, Smith’s men were successful is driving back the Confederates and taking their defensive earthworks in a battle that lasted until dark. Union troops were ready to resume fighting the next day and capture the fort, but the Confederates surrendered.

All there is to see at Stop 6 is a wayside exhibit about the events that took place here, the remnants of the Confederate defensive trenches, and a cannon on the Confederate side of the trenches aiming towards the Union line. The trench walls would have been much higher in 1862. The small hills you see today are the result of 160+ years of erosion. Also, at the time of the battle the trees were cleared for 400 yards. Now trees grow right up to the trenches.