Tennessee
A victory for history
February 6, 1862
By February 1862, Fort Henry, a Confederate earthen fort on the Tennessee River with outdated guns, was partially inundated and the river threatened to flood the rest. On February 4-5, Brig. Gen. U.S. Grant landed his divisions in two different locations, one on the east bank of the Tennessee River to prevent the garrison's escape and the other to occupy the high ground on the Kentucky side which would insure the fort's fall; Flag-Officer Andrew H. Foote's seven gunboats began bombarding the fort. Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, commander of the fort's garrison, realized that it was only a matter of time before Fort Henry fell. While leaving artillery in the fort to hold off the Union fleet, he escorted the rest of his force out of the area and sent them safely off on the route to Fort Donelson, 10 miles away. Tilghman then returned to the fort and, soon afterwards, surrendered to the fleet, which had engaged the fort and closed within 400 yards. Fort Henry's fall opened the Tennessee River to Union gunboats and shipping as far as Muscle Shoals, Alabama. After the fall of Fort Donelson, ten days later, the two major water transportation routes in the Confederate west, bounded by the Appalachians and the Mississippi River, became Union highways for movement of troops and material.
More than 120 years have passed since they were buried, but at last five Confederate soldiers who died at Fort Henry during the American Civil War have plaques to mark their graves. Because of the efforts of Carmon E. Greenup, a retired Southside Tennessee school teacher/principal, employees of the Fort Donelson National Military Park placed bronze markers on the five graves located in the woods near Fort Henry in TVA's "Land Between the Lakes."
Mr. Greenup's story begins in 1925, back before the TVA was invented and when the Land Between the Lakes was still farmland. C. E. Greenup grew up inside Fort Henry. His family's farm was encircled by the rifle pits of the Civil War fort, their tobacco protected by its breastworks. In 1925, C. E. Greenup was a young teacher at the local one-room school, Blue Spring. One day, a schoolmate told him of five graves he had discovered in the woods. Sure enough, there were five sunken places about 2 feet deep and 3 or 4 feet long some 300 yards from the fort. In 1925 there were older people alive who still remembered the Civil War and Greenup began asking around.
Yes, five boys had been killed at Fort Henry by their own guns, he was told. Greenup was interested, but at the age of 22 he had other things on his mind, and life intruded until 1981 when he took up the mystery again after 56 years. "I thought all that time that something could be done, but I wasn't sure what," said Greenup. In 1981, there were no survivors of the Civil War left, so Greenup turned to the National Archives and books.
A story emerged.
In February 1862 Union gun-boats moved up the Tennessee River from Paducah, KY., as part of the federal effort to divide the Confederacy in two. Fort Henry's commanders knew they could not stop the invaders and sent the bulk of the troops on to Fort Donelson. But some 50 men stayed behind to try and delay the gunboats' progress. Among them were five over-eager young soldiers. They loaded their cannons, a 42-pounder and a 32-pounder, with too much black powder as they fired on the Yankees. The guns blew up and the men were killed.
Their comrades, fearful that the enemy would despoil the graves, buried the soldiers back in the woods, leaving the site unmarked. Unmarked until 1982 that is. The graves clearly belong to John Douglass, James Kalachan, Michael Lee, Edward McCabe and an unknown soldier. They were members of Capt. Jesse Taylor's Company B, 1st Tennessee Artillery.
Their fate is recounted by Taylor in "Tennessee War" by Stanley Horn, a book which is available at the Clarksville, Montgomery County Public Library. "Those boys were just young fellows who got killed there 120 years ago and the whole country forgot them. It's not right," said Greenup.
Various governmental agencies apparently agreed with Mr. Greenup as representatives from the Tennessee Historical Commission, the TVA and the Veterans Administration all took an interest.
In the end, the markers were obtained free from the U.S. Monument Commission by Roy Burton, a local VA administrator. Then, at the behest of the Stewart County Historical Society, employees of the Fort Donelson Military Park put the markers in place.
Mr. C.E. Greenup (who past away in 1987) was not able to see the final stage of his historic project. Shortly after the graves markers were placed (in the early 80's), Fort Donelson's Military Park grew low on funds and was unable to mark the location of the five graves, with a trail and signs. The marked graves were in the middle of the woods with the location known to a very few people.
In 1996 my father (Larry Greenup SR) decided this project must be completed to preserve history and to honor the 5 soliders killed. Working with representatives at TVA. He gained the permission needed by TVA (TVA currently owns the land of the former fort) and the Tennessee Historical Commision for the placement of a bronze marker and a road-way leading to the site. Thanks to efforts made by the TVA, Don Merritt and most certainly My Grandfather, Carmon Greenup for originally starting this and my father, Larry Greenup Sr. for finishing up where he left off, a road-way leading up to the site and a bronze marker recounting the events that transpired is now in place.
GREAT WORK DAD!
Click here to see the restored grave site at Fort Henry!
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Links to other pages
Maps of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson
Picture of Tennessee battles during the Civil War
This page was updated on 10/05/00