As a historian of the 19th century United States, with a focus primarily on the Civil War era in the Upper and Border South, I’ve found the sesquicentennial to be an exciting time to help reorient the focus of the Civil War on to the “great middle” between the industrial North and the plantation South. Most of the war was fought in that heartland, including especially Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. My book Rebels on the Border explores the transformation of grassroots politics among blacks and whites in central Kentucky and central Missouri during and after the war. It will be released May 1. In the meantime, I’ve had the opportunity to examine other aspects of the war in the Upper South – and the Western Theater in particular – through the New York Times’ Disunion series. In today’s entry, I look at the pivotal battle of Fort Donelson along the Cumberland River in Tennessee. Ulysses Grant made his reputation there. Nashville was left wide open for Union capture. An invasion route to the Deep South opened up. And 12,000 Confederate troops, not available at the major Battle of Shiloh two months later, were captured on the banks of the Cumberland and sent to Union prisoner of war camps.
If you’re interested, I’ve already looked at divided loyalties in Kentucky, East Tennessee’s persistent Unionism, the nature of partisanship in the Civil War, a major railroad sabotage campaign in East Tennessee, and the important Battle of Mill Springs, which produced the Union army’s most underrated commander: George H. Thomas.