Fort Heiman: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Fort Donelson National Battlefield, National Park Service

Wheeler Byrd, Beth; Hasty, David

Fort Heiman is located on a bluff on the west bank of Kentucky Lake in the southeastern corner of Calloway County, Kentucky. Water surrounds three sides of the site, which once served to defend now-submerged Fort Henry during the Civil War. Fort Heiman, constructed under direction of local engineer Lieutenant Dixon, was one of three Confederate forts erected in and around Western Tennessee. Fort Heiman is nationally significant during the period 1861-1864, reflecting construction and occupation of the fort and its crucial role during the Civil War conflicts in the region. Additionally, Fort Heiman, the adjacent Federal fort, and surrounding battle and encampment sites have the potential to yield archeological information about this period. The site retains integrity of location, association, design, materials, feeling, and workmanship. Along with Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River and Fort Henry on the eastern bank of the Tennessee River, the three Confederate defenses were built during 1861 and 62. Due to its position on the western bluff overlooking Fort Henry, Fort Heiman also played a significant role in the Battle of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson (1862) and the Battle of Johnsonville (1864). At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the Confederates constructed a series of forts to protect the strategic industrial and railroad centers of Nashville and Memphis from Federal attack. In December 1861, construction of Fort Heiman began after Fort Henry was found inadequate and threatened by flooding. Fort Heiman also provided a high ground advantage overlooking Fort Henry. It was intended to provide artillery support from the west bank of the Tennessee River. When gunboats approached on February 6, 1862, Fort Heiman was quickly abandoned and Fort Henry fell to the Union army. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant claimed victory at the Battle of Fort Donelson (February 14-16, 1862), forcing the Confederates to leave Southern Kentucky and severing supply lines to Middle Tennessee. An adjacent fort was constructed beside the existing remains during the Union occupation, which continued until March 1863. The site was occupied again in October 1864, when Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest stationed artillery on the bluff and during a raid associated with the Battle of Johnsonville. The remains of the Confederate Fort Heiman survive as a line of earthworks with alterations made by Union troops in 1863. The earthworks are readily visible and vary in height from 1 to 6 feet. The Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation established a turf grass cover in 2010 and removed several large trees from the earthworks. Mapping in 2002 identified several segments of the Confederate fort as well as a possible magazine site, nine pits likely associated with burials, and an unidentified pit with a communication trench. The remains of the Federal defenses at Fort Heiman represent an intact Union fortification similar to others constructed along the Tennessee River. The Federal fort northwest of the original Fort Heiman contains two gun platforms to guard against approaches from the west.The north portion of the Federal fort shows evidence of purposeful destruction by the vacating Union army. Two road traces join to form a well-defined wagon road leading to the river landing. Evidence suggests the Union garrison camped in the ravine southeast of the fort, and three outlying earthworks were identified by archeologists in 2011. After the Civil War, the site was abandoned and remained in private ownership, subdivided for residential development. In 1944, a dam across the Tennessee River created Kentucky Lake, greatly altering the setting and views. The property, located twenty-five miles northwest of the Fort Donelson National Battlefield visitor center, was acquired for the Fort Donelson National Battlefield in 2004.

Fort Heiman: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Fort Donelson National Battlefield, National Park Service

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