Freedmen's Camp

After the Union victory at Fort Donelson, enslaved people escaping from nearby farms and iron foundries flocked to the area seeking freedom and protection. By March 1863, about 300 refugees lived in a freedmen's camp known as Free State, with houses, a school, and a church scattered in and around Dover and throughout the Union encampment. It was the largest of the freedmen's camps established around Forts Henry, Heiman, and Donelson, and it lasted into the 1880s. The Union army used many residents as laborers to help build Union Fort Donelson on part of the ground now occupied by the national cemetery. Benevolent societies, including the Western Freedmen's Aid Society, provided clothing and teachers and administered religious and medical services. After Fort Donelson became an army recruiting station for African Americans in November 1863, many enlisted in the Union army as United States Colored Troops, and these soldiers and others gave Union forces an advantage in both the eastern and western theaters. Education was a major priority among former slaves, and by 1864 more than 100 students attended the freedmen's school at Fort Donelson, which received praise from teachers and military officials. In 1860, about 25 percent of Tennessee's people were enslaved, and with the fall of Fort Donelson and the advance of Union armies into the state, many fled their owners in search of freedom, leading to a network of contraband camps across middle and west Tennessee.

Dover, Tennessee · United States