Cumberland River (October 10)

Our route today would take us off the Ohio River.  We would proceed up the Cumberland River to Dover, TN, then back down the Cumberland and through a channel that connected the Cumberland to the Tennessee River. After a short time on the Tennessee we would reconnect with the Ohio.

Blue = down Ohio and up Cumberland Rivers
Purple = down Cumberland, Tennessee and Ohio Rivers
Red circle = channel between Cumberland and Tennessee

Before dawn, we passed through the Barkley Lock upbound, a 54-foot lift.

We spent the morning cruising the river watching wildlife. The shore was often close in on both sides.  Navigation was tricky due to sandbars. We saw bald eagles, pelicans, turkey vultures and a wide variety of other birds including herons.

There were also some interesting trees.

My admiration for the skill of towboat captains went up another notch during the morning.  AMERICA was overtaking a tow. There was not enough room in the channel.  The towboat captain nudged the tow into a riverbank, keeping the right front edge of the tow against the shore while we passed it.  The towboat captain then backed the tow off the shore, worked it back into the channel and continued upriver.  

A while later my admiration took a small tick downward when AMERICA had to give an oncoming tow five blasts so that it would indicate its intentions.

We continued up this beautiful, sparsely populated river until we arrived at Dover and Fort Donelson, the site of a pivotal Civil War battle.

In the 1800's the major rivers were the equivalent of today's superhighways. Upriver of Fort Donelson was Nashville, an important Confederate transportation hub.  If the Union could seize control Fort Donelson, it could cripple Nashville, dealing a serious blow to Confederacy logistics.  

The earthworks fort was mostly overgrown as was the surrounding countryside so envisioning what had taken place required considerable imagination. For the same reason, it did not offer many photo opportunities.  

The initial assault by six gunboats did not work out to well for the Union forces.  From the cannon emplacements, the Confederates effectively pounded the approaching gunboats.  The batteries had previously ranged the cannons using landmarks along the shore.  This enabled them to skip the cannonballs on the water so that they slammed into a gunboat's hull below its armor.

After a stupendous blunder by the politically appointed and militarily inept commanding officer who fled prior to a bloody battle, the fort fell to a land assault.  

Dover Hotel where the fort was surrendered.  Its loss changed
the course of the Civil War in the entire theater.

In the absence of landmarks and structures to support his narrative, our guide did a good job of setting the stage for the battle and describing how it unfolded.  It was an interesting tour.

Returning to AMERICA, as sunset approached, we cruised downriver.

Well after dark, we passed the Kentucky State Penitentiary, nicknamed "Castle on the Cumberland".  (We had passed it upbound, but I missed it).  The bridge crew of AMERICA worked the riverboat to and through Barkley Channel (circled in red on the chart near the beginning of this post). The channel connects the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. 

Both of AMERICA's spotlights searching for channel markers

Barkley Channel

Once in the Tennessee, I could immediately see the Kentucky Dam.  We would pass through its lock to drop down to the level of the Ohio River. It was close to midnight, but I stayed up to watch AMERICA go through the lock.

We entered the channel leading up to the lock. After backing and filling for a while, in a stiff wind the captain worked AMERICA alongside the jetty. The crew put out some docking lines.  

There we sat.  I eventually gave up and went to bed.