Dover
Fort Donelson Tennessee

American Civil War
February 3, 1863

Under orders, in late January 1863, Confederate Major General Joseph Wheeler, commanding two brigades of cavalry, had taken position on the Cumberland River at Palmyra to disrupt Union shipping. The Federals, however, apprised of Wheeler's intent, refrained from sending any boats up or downriver.

Unable to disrupt Union shipping and realizing that he and his men could not remain in the area indefinitely, Wheeler decided to attack the garrison at Dover, Tennessee, which informers reported was small and could easily be overwhelmed. The Rebels set out for Dover and between 1:00 and 2:00 pm, on February 3, began an attack. 

The 800-man garrison, under the command of Col. A.C. Harding, was in and about the town of Dover where they had chosen camps that commanded the area and had dug rifle pits and battery emplacements. The Confederates mounted a determined attack using artillery fire with great skill, but were repulsed with heavy losses. By dusk, both sides were mostly without ammunition.

The Confederates surveyed the Union defenses and decided that the enemy was too well-placed to allow capture. Wheeler's force retired. The Federals did send out a pursuit but to no avail. The Confederates had failed to disrupt shipping on the Cumberland River and capture the garrison at Dover.

This Confederate failure left the Union in control in Middle Tennessee and a bitter Brig. General Nathan Bedford Forrest denounced Wheeler, a favorite of General Braxton Bragg, saying he would not again serve under him.

Result(s): Union victory

Location: Stewart County

Campaign: Middle Tennessee Operations (1863)

Date(s): February 3, 1863

Principal Commanders: Col. A.C. Harding [US]; Major General Joseph Wheeler [CS]

Forces Engaged: Detachments of two regiments: 83rd Illinois Infantry and 5th Iowa Cavalry Regiments and some artillery (approx. 800) [US]; cavalry division (approx. 2,500) [CS]

Estimated Casualties: 796 total (US 126; CS 670)

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Forts Henry and Donelson: The Key to the Confederate Heartland
The front in Virginia was relatively narrow (Chesapeake Bay to Blue Ridge Mountains) while in Tennessee the front stretched hundreds of miles from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mountains. To cover this extensive area the Confederates had a much smaller force than in Virginia
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Uniforms of the Civil War: An Illustrated Guide for Historians, Collectors, and Reenactors
Photographs and paintings illustrate this definitive guide to the uniforms worn by both sides
American Civil War Book Titles

Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry-Fort Donelson Campaign
The war probably could have been over in 1862 had Lieutenant Phelps destroyed the bridge at Florence. Not doing so provided a retreat for A. S. Johnston to move his men to Corinth and then to Shiloh
Winter Lightning: A Guide to the Battle of Stones River
Lincoln thanked Rosecrans saying that the nation could not have taken another defeat. Additionally, Lincoln said he would remember this victory as long as he lived
The Partisan Rangers of the Confederate States Army: Memoirs of General Adam R. Johnson
The capture of Newburg, Indiana, with only twelve men and two joints of stovepipe mounted on the running gear of a wagon. This episode won him a nickname of "Stovepipe." He was promoted to Brigadier General in June 1864
Three Years With Quantrill: A True Story Told by His Scout John McCorkle
Quantrill is often maligned as a psychopathic killer and a despot. McCorkle refutes this common claim by the writers of the winner's history, shows that Quantrill was a compassionate and honorable man. He shows a side to the War of Northern Aggression that is rarely told

Bloody Bill Anderson: The Short, Savage Life of a Civil War Guerrilla
For a brief but dramatic period, Bloody Bill played the leading role in the most violent arena of the entire war-and did so with a vicious abandon that spread fear throughout the land
Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West, 1861-1865
The establishment of a police state in Missouri and the subsequent backlash and ensuing war of sabotage by local guerrillas. Missouri and Kansas had shared much animosity in the years leading up to the Civil War
Autobiography of Samuel S. Hildebrand
Figures such as Quantrill and Anderson are better known today, Sam Hildebrand was an equally notorious Missouri bushwhacker in the southeast region of Missouri. Operating with a small group of followers, Hildebrand and his rifle "Kill-Devil" were a terror to local Unionist civilians
American Civil War Fortifications
Coastal Brick and Stone Forts
The design, construction and operational history of fortifications, such as Fort Sumter, Fort Morgan and Fort Pulaski. Stone and brick forts stretched from New England to the Florida Keys, and as far as the Mississippi River. A handful of key sites remained in Union hands throughout the war, the remainder had to be won back through bombardment or assault

War in Kentucky: From Shiloh to Perryville
by James Lee McDonough
 By mid 1862, Union gains in the Mississippi Valley and in Tennessee and Kentucky had brought the Confederacy to a point of strategic crisis. This valuable addition to the growing literature on the Civil War in the West tells how the Union then failed to press home its advantage while the Confederacy failed to force Kentucky into the Confederacy. The climax of these events was the little-known Battle of Perryville, in which a greatly inferior Southern force under Braxton Bragg managed a draw against Don Carlos Buell's Union army but also effectively terminated the Confederate invasion of Kentucky. McDonough has researched thoroughly and written clearly, making this book informative and accessible to a wide range of Civil War students.
Cozzens follows up his magisterial account of the Battle of Chickamauga, This Terrible Sound (1992), with an equally authoritative study of the Chattanooga campaign that followed it. Braxton Bragg (who sometimes seems unfit to have been at large on the public streets, let alone commanding armies) failed to either destroy or starve out the Union Army of the Cumberland. In due course, superior Northern resources and strategy--not tactics; few generals on either side come out looking like good tacticians--progressively loosened the Confederate cordon around the city. Finally, the Union drove off Bragg's army entirely in the famous Battle of Missionary Ridge, which was a much more complex affair than previous, heroic accounts make it. Like its predecessor on Chickamauga, this is such a good book on Chattanooga that it's hard to believe any Civil War collection will need another book on the subject for at least a generation.
The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga
Civil War History Documentary DVD Movie Titles

Civil War Combat: America's Bloodiest Battles
The violent mayhem of the hornet's nest at Shiloh, the valiant charge on the sunken road at Antietam, the carnage in the wheat field at Gettysburg, and the brutal fighting at Cold Harbor
Civil War Journal - The Conflict Begins
These four programs from the History Channel series Civil War Journal cover critical aspects of the early days of the war.
Long Road Back to Kentucky:
The 1862 Confederate Invasion
T he often-overlooked Western campaign of the war with a specific emphasis on Kentucky's involvement in the American Civil War. DVD
Gettysburg / Gods and Generals
The tide of the war changes during three fierce days of combat at Gettysburg [Disc 1] the gripping saga of the tactics command errors and sacrifices behind the bloodiest battle ever fought on U.S. soil. Gods and Generals [Disc 2] reveals the spirited allegiances and fierce combat of earlier Civil War struggles

History Channel Presents The Civil War
From Harper's Ferry, Fort Sumter, and First Bull Run to Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg. The most legendary Civil War battles in brilliant detail. A selection of the soldiers and legendary leaders.
The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns
Here is the saga of celebrated generals and ordinary soldiers, a heroic and transcendent president and a country that had to divide itself in two in order to become one
The Blue and the Gray
The Complete Miniseries
The Civil War proved a backdrop for this 1982 miniseries. Complete and uncut three disc set. Two families divided by the War Between the States. A Southerner caught when he becomes a war correspondent for the Northern newspaper. He finds himself  where history's in the making from the Battle of Bull Run to Abraham Lincoln's assassination
Blue Vs. Gray - Killing Fields
Relive the most vicious fighting of the Civil War, in which General Ulysses S. Grant forcibly reversed the tide of the conflict by paying with the blood of thousands. It was a desperate time for the Union

Women in the War
Civil War Cooking
Civil War Submarines
Kids Zone Causes of the War

 

Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress.



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