Department of Environment & Conservation
Robert Martineau, Commissioner

Tennessee Historical Commission

Tennessee’s Civil War Heritage Trail

This handbook offers a guide to sites in Tennessee where the Civil War experience is interpreted or memorialized. The legacy of those momentous years from 1861 to 1865 is most vividly preserved at the places where events and activities of the war actually occurred. Such sites may be on land on which one of Tennessee’s 2,931 engagements was fought or may consist of fortifications, buildings, encampments or other material remains of the war. Other sites include the cemeteries of those who died in combat, monuments that commemorate their sacrifices, and museums that contain the artifacts of war. Most are open to the public, although some are on privately owned property.

Tennessee’s Civil War heritage is in grave danger. These sites, like most physical remnants of our history, are fragile and vulnerable to damage. A large number are unprotected and in danger of being lost forever. We hope that this guide will help visitors to discover Tennessee’s rich Civil War past and to understand better the convictions of the men and women who fought in it. Only with proper care and custodianship can these hallowed places survive to educate and inspire future generations. We cannot honor the memory of the 620,000 lives that the war cost the nation without preserving the sites where this history can still be found.