Fort Donelson National Battlefield: Geologic resources inventory report
Thornberry-Ehrlich TL. 2020. Fort Donelson National Battlefield: Geologic resources inventory report. Natural Resource Report. NPS/NRSS/GRD/NRR—2020/2197. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/nrr-2279954
This report synthesizes discussions from a scoping meeting held in 2009 and a follow-up conference call in 2018 (see Appendix A). Chapters of this report discuss the geologic setting, distinctive geologic features and processes within Fort Donelson National Battlefield, highlight geologic issues facing resource managers, describe the geologic history leading to the present-day landscape, and provide information about the previously completed GRI map data. A poster illustrates these data. The American Civil War began in 1861 with secessionist forces firing upon Fort Sumter. Upon the outbreak of war, Confederate strategists were forced to reinforce the northern border between Tennessee and Kentucky. They hastily constructed Forts Donelson, Heiman, and Henry along two major rivers—the Tennessee and Cumberland—to defend against enemy invasion (fig. 1). Union forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant attacked these positions in February 1862. Fort Heiman was still under construction on the western bank of the Tennessee River. Fort Henry was flooded and muddy. Both positions were abandoned, and Confederate troops regrouped at Fort Donelson, whose position atop high bluffs offered a commanding view of the Cumberland River and more defensive infrastructure. The battle stretched over four days with both sides using local topography to gain the advantage. In the end, the Union forces prevailed and demanded unconditional surrender. This was the beginning of the end for the Confederate control of the Mississippi River corridor and ultimately the Confederacy itself. The park’s geology lays the groundwork for the historic battles that played out on its surface. The geology at Fort Donelson National Battlefield stretches back more than 300 million years. During the Mississippian Period (323.2 to 358.9 million years ago), the North American craton was at equatorial latitudes and largely underwater. Sediment from highlands to the east collected in the large Appalachian and Illinois basins. In the deeper water regions, mudstone, chert, dolomite, and limestone accumulated to become the Fort Payne Formation, Warsaw Limestone, and St. Louis Limestone (GRI GIS map units Mfp, Mw, and Msl). Continental collision driven by plate tectonics in the late Paleozoic pieced together a supercontinent and uplifted the Appalachian Mountains and the interior of North America. This began a prolonged period of weathering and erosion that largely continues today at Fort Donelson National Battlefield. In the Cretaceous period (more than 66 million years ago) and into the Cenozoic Era, precursors to today’s rivers were incising channels and depositing reworked sediments on top of the weathered Mississippian rocks as the Tuscaloosa Gravel, McNairy Formation, Clayton Formation, high-level alluvial deposits, and continental deposits (Kt, Km, TKcm, QTal, and QTc). Modern Earth surface processes continue to sculpt the landscape. Following Pleistocene glaciation events, winds unimpeded by vegetation whipped loess (Ql) deposits across vast swaths of land. The youngest mapped unit is alluvium (Qal) transported, reworked, and deposited by local rivers. This report is supported by the GRI-compiled map of the geology of Fort Donelson National Battlefield. The data show predominantly deeply weathered bedrock units (primarily limestone) mantled with loess, sand, gravel, and clay. The Kentucky Geological Survey and Tennessee Division of Geology prepared the source maps that cover all units of the park including Fort Donelson and Fort Heiman. Fort Henry was inundated upon the impoundment of the Tennessee River to create Kentucky Lake and is not within park boundaries. Geologic features and processes discussed in this report, some with associated resource management issues, include...
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Thornberry-Ehrlich, Trista
- Date of Issue
- 2020-11
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- DOI
- 10.36967/nrr-2279954
- Units
- CUPN , FODO , GRD , GRI , NRSS , SERO
- Keywords
- Abandoned Mineral Lands and Disturbed Lands, and Risks, Bedrock Exposures, Faults, Flooding, Fluvial Processes and Features, FODO, Fort Donelson National Battlefield, Geologic Features, Geologic History, Geologic Map, Geologic Processes, Geologic Resource Management, Geologic Resource Management Issues, Geologic Resources Division, Geologic Resources Inventory, GRD, GRI, Hazards, Historic Resources, Karst Features, National Park Service, NPS, Paleontological Resources, Resource Management, Slope Movements, Tennessee, Upland Weathering, Windblown Loess
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Geomorphology | Windblown Features and Processes , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Geomorphology | Hillslope Features and Processes , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Geomorphology | Stream/River Channel Characteristics , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Subsurface Geologic Processes | Seismic Activity , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Soil Quality | Soil Function and Dynamics , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Paleontology | Paleontology