Dover Under Fire

On February 3, 1863, a 32-pounder smoothbore cannon near this site helped Col. Abner Harding's Union infantry repel Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler's Confederate cavalry attack on Dover. Wheeler, accompanied by the cavalry brigades of Brig. Gens. Nathan Bedford Forrest and John C. Wharton, had been ordered to disrupt Union shipping on the Cumberland River. After Federals learned of Wheeler's mission and suspended shipping, Wheeler attacked Harding's 800-man garrison at Dover. His attempts to dislodge the Federals from their riflepits were repulsed with heavy losses. By nightfall, with ammunition running low and Union reinforcements and gunboats approaching, Wheeler ordered his forces to withdraw. Forrest, who had protested the attack and suffered heavy casualties, bitterly denounced Wheeler and swore he would never again serve under him. The attack prompted Union forces to build Union Fort Donelson where the national cemetery stands today. During the 1863 attack, all but four of Dover's buildings were destroyed. The town had also been heavily damaged on August 25, 1862, when Col. Tom Woodward's Confederate partisans attacked; that attack failed as well, but the Union commander ordered many buildings burned to prevent the enemy from taking cover behind or in them.

Dover, Tennessee · United States