Qualla: Battle of Johnsonville https://qualla.com/battle-of-johnsonville en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/3/m/battle-of-johnsonville-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Johnsonville https://qualla.com/battle-of-johnsonville Battle of Johnsonville: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-johnsonville/ Photo credit 105th Observation Squadron, Public domain. Nathan Bedford Forrest was a cavalry general. He had no business commanding a navy. But in late October 1864, after his artillery captured the Union gunboat Undine and the steamer Venus on the Tennessee River, Forrest found himself with a two-ship flotilla and an audacious plan: use the boats to help attack the massive Federal supply base at Johnsonville, Tennessee. The flotilla lasted exactly four days before Undine's own crew set her ablaze, her magazine exploding in a column of smoke and fire. Forrest's naval career was over. His raid, however, was just getting started -- and by nightfall on November 4, 1864, a mile of Union wharf along the Tennessee River would be a solid sheet of flame.

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Image: 105th Observation Squadron | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/3/m/battle-of-johnsonville-wp/dn3m-battle-of-johnsonville-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Johnsonville: The Lifeline on the Tennessee https://qualla.com/battle-of-johnsonville/ Photo credit 105th Observation Squadron, Public domain. By the fall of 1864, the Tennessee River was the Union's critical supply artery into the heart of the western theater. Supplies flowed upriver to the depot at Johnsonville, where they were offloaded onto rail cars and shipped to Nashville, feeding Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas's Arm...

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Image: 105th Observation Squadron | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/3/m/battle-of-johnsonville-wp/dn3m-battle-of-johnsonville-the-lifeline-on-the-tennessee.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Johnsonville: A Cavalryman's Navy https://qualla.com/battle-of-johnsonville/ Photo credit 105th Observation Squadron, Public domain. Forrest began his raid on October 16, 1864, though his men were so exhausted from a previous campaign that he gave them orders to scatter, find fresh horses, and rejoin later. By October 28, he had reached Fort Heiman on the Tennessee River north of Johnsonville and emplaced arti...

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Image: 105th Observation Squadron | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/3/m/battle-of-johnsonville-wp/dn3m-battle-of-johnsonville-a-cavalrymans-navy.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Johnsonville: A Mile of Flame https://qualla.com/battle-of-johnsonville/ Photo credit 105th Observation Squadron, Public domain. On the evening of November 3, Morton positioned his guns on the west bank of the Tennessee, directly across from the Johnsonville supply base. The next morning, what remained of the Confederate flotilla was destroyed -- Capt. Frank Gracey, a former steamboat captain turned cavalr...

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Image: 105th Observation Squadron | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/3/m/battle-of-johnsonville-wp/dn3m-battle-of-johnsonville-a-mile-of-flame.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Johnsonville: The Cost and the Consequence https://qualla.com/battle-of-johnsonville/ Photo credit 105th Observation Squadron, Public domain. Forrest's damage report was staggering: four gunboats, fourteen transports, twenty barges, twenty-six pieces of artillery, one hundred fifty prisoners, and property valued at $6.7 million -- a figure one Union officer disputed, putting it closer to $2.2 million. Either way, Forre...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/3/m/battle-of-johnsonville-wp/dn3m-battle-of-johnsonville-the-cost-and-the-consequence.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Johnsonville: Beneath the Water https://qualla.com/battle-of-johnsonville/ Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. Today, much of the Johnsonville battlefield lies beneath the southern reaches of Kentucky Lake, a vast reservoir created in 1944 when the Tennessee Valley Authority dammed the Tennessee River for flood control. The wharf where twenty-eight boats burned, the ridgeline where Morton...

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Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/3/m/battle-of-johnsonville-wp/dn3m-battle-of-johnsonville-beneath-the-water.mp3 0:06 6 full