Fort Henry

A Confederate fort on the Tennessee river separating Tennessee and Kentucky that was attacked during the Civil War by U.S. forces under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in February 1862. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, knowing that a Union victory was a certainty, arranged for the removal of his men from the fort, to which he later returned and surrendered. The victory opened a major part of the Tennessee River to Union gunboats and shipping.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Henry, Fort (now Wheeling, W. Va.), originally Fort Fincastle, was built in June 1774 by Col. William Crawford from plans drawn by George Rogers Clark. In 1776 it was renamed Fort Henry in honor of Patrick Henry, governor of Virginia. On 10 September 1782, Fort Henry was attacked by Indians and British in one of the final battles of the American Revolution.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, the fort fell into Confederate hands. On 6 February 1862, seventeen thousand Union troops under General Ulysses S. Grant, supported by gunboats under Commodore Andrew Foote, moved by water against Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. Confederate General Lloyd Tilghman safely evacuated most of his small garrison and surrendered after a brief fight.

Bibliography

Cooling, B. Franklin. Forts Henry and Donelson—The Key to the Confederate Heartland. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987.

Selby, John E. The Revolution in Virginia, 1775–1783. Williamsburg, Va.: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1988.