Dover Hotel - Dover, Tn - Field Hospitals on Waymarking.com

C. S. A.
Headquarters
of
Brigadier General John B. Floyd
Brigadier General Gideon J. Pillow
Brigadier General Simon B. Buckner

The Dover Hotel was the site where Gen. Ulysses S. Grant demanded "unconditional and immediate surrender" from Gen. Simon B. Buckner after the Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862. The hotel is the only original major battle surrender structure remaining from the Civil War.

Built between 1851 and 1853, the Dover Hotel accommodated riverboat travelers before and after the Civil War. General Buckner and his staff used the hotel as their headquarters during the battle. It also served as a Union hospital after the surrender. After Buckner accepted Grant's surrender terms, the two generals met here to work out the details. Lew Wallace, the first Union general to reach the hotel following the surrender, did not want his men to gloat over the Confederate situation and instructed Capt. Frederick Knefler, one of his officers, to tell the brigade commanders "to move the whole line forward, and take possession of persons and property . . . [but] not a word of taunt—no cheering." An estimated 13,000 Confederate soldiers loaded into transports began their journey to Northern prisoner-of-war camps. Neither the Union nor Confederate governments were prepared to care for the large influx of prisoners. The prisoners from Fort Donelson were incarcerated in hastily converted and ill-prepared sites in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and as far away as Boston, Massachusetts, "and they suffered greatly from the harsh weather." In September 1862 most of the prisoners were exchanged.