Fort Donelson was a fortress built by the Confederacy during the American Civil War to control the Cumberland River leading to the heart of Tennessee, and the heart of the Confederacy.

Fort Donelson was garrisoned by the Confederate troops until 1862. The fort was captured by Union General Ulysses S. Grant and his army during a winter offensive to divide the Confederacy in two by controlling the Mississippi River. (see Battle of Fort Donelson)

The fort was attacked again on August 25, 1863, by a Confederate force demanding its surrender. The attack was unsuccessful and was repulsed.

Bushrod Johnson of the Corps of Engineers approved the build site. Construction was started by a large force of men brought from the nearby Cumberland Iron Works.

Confederate commanders

(main article Battle of Fort Donelson)

Fort Donelson was attacked by General U.S Grant and Flag Officer Andrew Foote, who surrounded the fort and captured it after a short siege.

The Union was ecstatic when the news reached them of Fort Donelson's surrender. Union forces now controlled one of the largest forts in the western theater. The war had been going badly for the Union in Virginia, but the captures of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson were promising victories.

Edwin Cole Bearss ( /ˈbɑrs/; born June 26, 1923), a United States Marine Corps veteran of World War II, is a military historian and author known for his work on the American Civil War and World War II eras and is a popular tour guide of historic battlefields. He served as Chief Historian of the National Park Service from 1981 to 1994.

Bearss was born in Billings, Montana, the elder son of Omar Effinger Bearss and Virginia Louise Morse Bearss. He grew up on the rugged family cattle ranch, the "E bar S", near Sarpy, Montana, through the depths of the Great Depression. His father, a Marine in World War I, read accounts of military campaigns to young Ed and his brother, but Ed's lifelong interest in military history was jump-started by a biography of the dashing Confederate cavalry general J.E.B. Stuart by John Thomason. Ed named many of the ranch animals after famous general and battles; his favorite milk cow was Antietam.

Bearss graduated from Hardin High School in May 1941 and hitchhiked around the United States, visiting his first Civil War battlefields. He enlisted in the Marine Corps on April 28, 1942, and by July was on a troop transport to the Pacific War. He was with the 3d Marine Raider Battalion in the invasion of Guadalcanal and the Russell Islands and 7th Regiment, 1st Marine Division, in New Britain.

James Potter (1729–1789) was a soldier, farmer and politician from Colonial- and Revolutionary-era Pennsylvania. He rose to the rank of brigadier general of Pennsylvania militia during the Revolutionary War, and served as Vice-President of Pennsylvania, 1781-1782.

James Potter was of Scots descent, (born in County Tyrone, Ireland). He came to Colonial America with his father, John Potter, in 1741, and the family settled in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, where his father became high sheriff in 1750. His first wife was Elizabeth Cathcart of Philadelphia, and his second wife was Mary Patterson Chambers, daughter of James Patterson of Mifflin County. His daughter Martha was married to Andrew Gregg.

As a militia lieutenant for Northumberland County, where he made his home, James Potter took part in the Kittanning Expedition during the French and Indian War and reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel by the end of the war. He also served during Pontiac's Rebellion. In 1776, he served as a colonel and as a member of the first Pennsylvania State Constitutional Convention.