"Fort Donelson's Legacy portrays the tapestry of war and society in the upper southern heartland of Tennessee and Kentucky after the key Union victories at Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862. Those victories, notes Benjamin Franklin Cooling, could have delivered the decisive blow to the Confederacy in the West and ended the war in that theater. Instead, what followed was terrible devastation and bloodshed that embroiled soldier and civilian alike. Cooling compellingly describes a struggle that was marked not only by the movement of armies and the strategies of generals but also by the rise of guerrilla bands and civil resistance. It was, in part, a war fought for geography - for rivers and railroads and for strategic cities such as Nashville, Louisville, and Chattanooga. But it was also a war for the hearts and minds of the populace ... In exploring the complex terrain of 'total war' that steadily engulfed Tennessee and Kentucky, Cooling draws on a huge array of sources, including official military records and countless diaries and memoirs. He makes considerable use of the words of participants to capture the attitudes and concerns of those on both sides."--Dust jacket.

Includes maps of: Strategic Situation in Late February 1862; Proto-Ruhr of Upper Confederate Heartland; Strategic Situation on the Eve of Shiloh, 1862; Strategic Situation in West Tennessee, July 1862; Vicksburg Campaign in Mid-September 1862; Forces before Invasion of Kentucky and Middle Tennessee, September 1862; Failure in Kentucky and Return to Middle Tennessee, October and December 1862; Vicksburg Campaign from Mid-December to Early January 1862-1863; Battle of Dover, February 3, 1863; Union Fort Donelson; Tullahoma Campaign at the End of June 1863; ADvance on Chattanooga, August 1863; Advance on Chickamauga, September 9 and 10, 1863; Siege of Chattanooga, October 1863.

Aftermath of disaster, February 1862 - - Asserting national authority, spring 1862 - - Confederate resurgence, summer 1862 - - Heartland havoc, late summer 1862 - - North to Kentucky, autumn 1862 - - Decision in middle Tennessee, late fall 1862 - - Rebels return to Fort Donelson, February 1863 - - Heartland impasse, late winter 1863 - - Heartland dynamics, spring 1863 - - To Tullahoma and beyond, summer 1863 - - Victories Blue and Gray, autumn 1863 - - Last hurrah at Chattanooga, November 1863.