33. Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, North Carolina

               Welcome back to our blog.  In our latest post we are heading to the southern Appalachians of western North Carolina, to visit the home of two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sandburg.

Entrance Sign

BACKGROUND:

               When Carl Sandburg moved with his wife and two daughters to North Carolina in 1945, he was already a renowned writer, having had a varied career as a poet, journalist, historian and even folksinger, and his mammoth biography of Abraham Lincoln had already netted him the Pulitzer Prize.  He and his wife Lilian, nicknamed “Paula,” would live together at their North Carolina estate, dubbed Connemara, for the next twenty-two years, continuing to pursue their own endeavors.  Carl would go on to win a second Pulitzer Prize for his poetry in 1951 as well as a Grammy Award in 1959.  Lilian Sandburg meanwhile became a champion dairy goat breeder, winning awards across the country.  After Carl passed away in 1967, Lilian lobbied Congress to preserve her husband’s legacy as one of the nation’s greatest literary figures by establishing their home as a unit of the National Park Service.  The effort succeeded the following year and Lilian sold the house to the Federal government prior to passing away in 1977.

The Sandburg Home

THE HISTORIC SITE:

               The Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site is located in the village of Flat Rock in western North Carolina.  The site consists of the Connemara estate, maintaining the historic structures owned by the Sandburgs during the time they lived there.  The centerpiece of the site is the home itself, originally built in the 1830s.  Having been given straight from the Sandburg family to the National Park Service, the home is in almost exactly the same state is was in 1967 and filled with original items and artifacts from the Sandburg family.  Behind the house are the numerous farm buildings used by Lilian Sandburg for her dairy goat business.  The National Park Service maintains a small herd of dairy goats at the site, all of which are descended from Mrs. Sandburg’s original goats.  The estate has fairly large grounds which are crisscrossed by trails.

Visitors mingle with the dairy goats at the site's goat barn.

TRAVEL TIPS:

               Carl Sandburg National Historic Site is located roughly a half-hour drive south from Asheville, North Carolina.  The site is open to the public from 9am to 5pm, with regularly scheduled tours of the home for a small admission fee.  At the time of this writing, the Carl Sandburg Home, while still open for tours, was undergoing renovation and restoration processes, and all furnishings and historic items within the house had been moved into storage, which will explain the lack of interior photos for this entry.  Renovations are due to be completed by the autumn with operations returning to normal.  The site also has a self-guided cell phone tour of the grounds and visitors can stop to interact with the dairy goats at the goat barn behind the main house.  The visitor center is located in the basement of the Sandburg home, with the entrance under the front porch staircase.  The grounds, but not the house, are handicapped accessible.  Passport stamps can be found in the visitor center.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:

The view from the front porch of the main house looking towards the Appalachian Mountains.

The home as seen from the front lake near the main entrance.

32. Fort Donelson National Battlefield, Tennessee

               Hello!  Welcome back to our blog.  In this post we will be visiting a battlefield in western Tennessee which launched Ulysses S. Grant to national prominence and gave him his nickname of “Unconditional Surrender” Grant at Fort Donelson National Battlefield.

Entrance Sign

BACKGROUND:

               In early 1862 the Civil War had settled into a stalemate.  The Confederate victory at First Bull Run had completely stalled all military action in the east as the Union built up and trained its forces for the climactic drive on Richmond, but in the west Union commanders were looking to crack the south’s defensive shell.  A series of small actions had managed to save the “Border States” of Kentucky and Missouri for the Union, but the Confederates had heavily fortified the riverways leading into the deep south, upon which the Union hoped to use as highways for invasion.  In particular were Forts Henry and Donelson, covering the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers respectively, in western Tennessee on a peninsula between the two rivers now known as “The Land Between the Lakes.”

               In early February, Union gunboats moved up the Tennessee River and attacked Fort Henry.  After a brief bombardment, the poorly situated fort was abandoned with most of the garrison retreating to nearby Fort Donelson.  The Union army, commanded by Mexican War veteran Ulysses S. Grant, disembarked at Fort Henry and marched overland to Fort Donelson, while the navy contingent backtracked up the Tennessee and then down the Cumberland River.  While Grant’s troops besieged the fort from the landward side the Union gunboats attempted a repeat of their attack on Fort Henry, but Fort Donelson’s commanding position on high ground overlooking the river helped the Confederates throw back the assault.  Despite this, the Confederates were completely surrounded with no hope of escape.  A breakout attempt was repelled while Union troops managed to break through the fort’s outer defenses.  A contingent of Confederate troops managed to sneak out under the cover of darkness but the majority were forced to capitulate.  When the Confederate commander sent a letter to Grant asking for terms, Grant replied he would accept nothing less than “unconditional and immediate surrender.”  The victory led to Grant being promoted to Major General, while newspapers turned the phrase “Unconditional Surrender” into a play on Grant’s initials and thrust him into the national spotlight.

The Dover Hotel, where Grant accepted the unconditional surrender of the Confederate garrison.

THE BATTLEFIELD:

               The site of Fort Donelson and the nearby Union cemetery were designated as a National Military Park in 1926, later re-designated as a National Battlefield in 1985.  Fort Henry, despite its historical significance, was inundated by the Tennessee River following the construction of a Tennessee Valley Authority Dam and now lies underwater.  Fort Donelson, located on higher ground, escaped this fate.

               The National Battlefield preserves the majority of the Confederate earthworks that made up Fort Donelson, primarily the western earthworks and the central redoubt, as well as a restored section of the artillery batteries that overlook the Cumberland River.  The eastern earthworks have mostly been destroyed by the expansion of the town of Dover, though the Civil War Trust has bought up additional property to help preserve the eastern edge of the battlefield.  The Battlefield also preserves the Dover Hotel, the site where Grant accepted the surrender of the Confederate Garrison, as well as Fort Heiman, a battery situated opposite Fort Henry on the Cumberland River in Kentucky, however this site has not been developed.

The restored Confederate artillery batteries overlooking the Cumberland River.

TRAVEL TIPS:

Fort Donelson National Battlefield is located next to the small town of Dover in western Tennessee, roughly a forty-five-minute drive from Clarksville, Tennessee.  The Battlefield grounds are open from dawn until dusk, however the visitor center and the Dover Hotel are open from 8am to 4:30pm.  At the time of this writing the official visitor center is undergoing renovations and visitor services have been relocated across US Route 79 to the Stewart County Chamber of Commerce.  The park brochure includes a driving tour of the fort.  Passport stamps can be found at the visitor center.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:

A monument to the Confederate defenders inside the fort's grounds.

The interior of Fort Donelson.  The fort's earthworks are obscured by the treeline.  The log hut in the foreground is a replica of the type of accommodations constructed by the Confederate defenders to weather winter conditions.  The slopes of the ravine would have once been covered with similar huts. 

A cannon positioned along the western trenches of Fort Donelson's outer perimeter where Union troops broke through during an attack prior to the garrison's surrender.

The center of Fort Donelson National Cemetery.