TN to IA / Fort Donelson National Battlefield
Driving from the Natchez Trace Parkway in TN to Davenport, IA | Driving the Natchez Trace Parkway | Visiting Fort Donelson National Battlefield | Camping at Pyramid Lake State Recreation Area in IL | March 2026
We started this morning off bright and early by getting back on the Natchez Trace and continuing our drive North. Everything to the North was new to us, and though we didn’t have the time to do it justice, we were still excited to enjoy the quiet and scenic road. We made our first stop not far from the Meriwether Lewis Campground at Fall Hollow Falls. We took the short trail to the lookout for the falls, and Curtis found a letterbox. The view from the base of the falls would have been better, but we didn’t feel like navigating around fallen trees, so we got back on the road and continued our drive. We enjoyed our drive so much that somehow we completely missed our turn and didn’t realize it until it was several miles behind us. After a quick look at the map, we figured out a new route and kept going.
We said goodbye to the Natchez Trace at TN-96 and started making our way West and North, driving through small towns and entering several new counties. The most notable was the town of Erin, which welcomed us with a sign claiming to be ‘a wee bit of Ireland in Tennessee’. It turns out there is a strong Irish heritage here, and they host an annual St. Patrick’s Day festival every year — which we had just missed by one day! We’re guessing that’s why they had so many Irish flags and other decor lining the streets, but who knows, maybe it’s like that year round. Unfortunately we can’t say that it reminded us much of the real Ireland, and we definitely prefer the real one as well.
Our main focus for today was visiting Fort Donelson National Battlefield, just West of Dover on the Cumberland River. We started our visit at the visitor center, where we watched a short film and learned about the events that took place here. After walking through the small museum, we drove to the river to have a picnic and experience a little more of the park. It was turning into a scorcher of an afternoon, but we found a cool place to sit in the shade to eat and enjoy the peaceful setting.
This battlefield marks an early engagement of the Civil War, and the rising star of General Grant’s fame. The Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers come very close together before entering the Ohio River, and the Confederacy had built two Forts to prevent the Union from entering the Southern Heartland. Naturally, Lincoln and the Union wanted access to those rivers.
Fort Henry on the Tennessee River was the first to fall in a combined Navy/Army attack – though the Navy did all the work. Fort Henry, at a very low elevation and practically flooded by the river quickly fell to the Union. With the Tennessee River opened, Grant turned to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland. Relying on the tactics used at Fort Henry, a second joint attack was planned. Grant and the army surrounded the fort, while Admiral Foote steamed his ironclads upriver. But Donelson was on higher ground than Fort Henry, and the artillery engagement went to the Confederacy. The Navy had to return downriver and Grant was left to take the Fort alone.
Despite the victory on the water, the Confederate Commander knew that Fort Donelson was indefensible in the long run and looked for a way to break his command out so they could fight another day. On February 15, 1862, the Confederate left, under General Pillow made a breakout attempt that, while initially successful, lacked the commitment to become a complete escape. When General Grant returned to the battlefield, he took command and forced the Confederacy back to the Fort.
The feelings among the Confederate leadership was mixed. Some believed that escape was still possible. Others believed that escape was futile. Others still escaped while they could. Command was passed back and forth until General Buckner who soon asked General Grant for his conditions for surrender. Unconditional and Immediate Surrender was Grant’s response.
Fort Donelson was the first major Union victory of the war. Over 12,000 Confederate troops were surrendered, and the heart of Tennessee was opened up. Nashville would be abandoned within a month. General ‘Unconditional Surrender’ Grant became famous, and would remain (in)famous two months later at Shiloh.
Today, the Berkley and Kentucky Dams have made the Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area, and Fort Henry is completely underwater. But the earthworks of Donelson remain mostly above water.
After we were done here, we realized we still had 4 hours of driving to get to our intended camping spot for tonight, and since it was approaching mid-afternoon it was time to power through and get it over with. I mean, it could have been less if we had taken the direct route, but where’s the fun in that? Our route took us across Kentucky Lake (South of the Land Between the Lakes, where we camped once in 2024), into our last county on the Southern Kentucky border, through Paducah where we drove by Kentucky’s Whispering Giant (where we met the carver of the statues, Peter Wolf Toth, back in 2016), and finally into Illinois where we entered into 2 of our remaining 4 counties.
We finally made it to our campground at Pyramid State Recreation Area near Pinckneyville, IL, and were relieved to find there were plenty of campsites open. We settled in, and went for a walk around the camping area to stretch our legs. It was still quite warm when we arrived, but as we enjoyed our dinner outside, the wind started to pick up, blowing heavy gusts through the area that quickly cooled the temps down. I checked the radar and saw that there were thunderstorms predicted East and South of us, but right where we were was supposed to be just fine.
And it was just fine…until we woke up the following morning to a low of 30 degrees! But thankfully all we had to do today was drive around 5 hours to Curtis’ next assignment in the Quad Cities. We managed to get our second to last county in Illinois (our last one will be Lake County, just North of Chicago!) and we drove through more familiar areas, like the Carlyle Reservoir where we camped in July 2021. We finally made it to Davenport, where we checked in to our home for the next 3+ weeks, and were immediately reminded of all the things we like about this particular assignment. We were glad to be here, glad to be out of the South, and especially thankful to have had this long weekend to enjoy in the van as a brief respite from the work season!
