Fort Donelson video wins park service’s Keeper of the Light Award
Release Date: 9/19/2006. Expired: 10/19/2006
An educational video produced by The Renaissance Center for Fort Donelson National Battlefield has been honored by the National Park Service with a Keeper of the Light Award for Interpretive Media.
Fort Donelson: A Place for Heroes won the 2005 award during the NPS Chief Interpreters Conference in June.
The video was created as part of the National Park Service’s Parks As Classrooms (PAC) program that promotes national parks as resources for education. A PAC grant to Fort Donelson National Battlefield helped fund the 22-minute video created by The Renaissance Center’s Multimedia Department.
“We have a strong desire to offer a well-balanced park program and this video augments our programming,” said Park Ranger Deborah Austin. “It’s certainly nice to know that we were part of a process that will keep history alive in our schools.”
Fort Donelson: A Place for Heroes was written by David Van Hooser and co-produced by Van Hooser and Ken Tucker of the center’s Multimedia Department. Tucker and freelance videographer Craig Anderson did the camera work at multiple location shoots and Tucker edited the project.
The video not only deals with the history of the battle at Fort Donelson in Stewart County, but also the “surrounding atmosphere of the battle, how it affected society, women and African-American soldiers,” Van Hooser said.
Hosted by Nashville teen Adrian Catchings, the video is geared toward elementary through high school students and is available through the National Park Service for distribution to schools as well as being shown in the Interpreter Center at Fort Donelson.
In addition to footage from Fort Donelson, the video includes segments taped at Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi, Mud Island in Memphis, Stones River National Battlefield in Murfreesboro, Travelers Rest in Nashville and the Rippavilla Plantation in Spring Hill.
Confederate forces built Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River near Dover as part of the defense of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. Its fall to Union forces under the direction of Gen. Ulysses Grant in 1862 opened the door for the advance on Nashville and the first deep penetration into the Confederacy.
Grant attacked the fort by land and water on Feb. 14, 1862, and accepted the surrender of Fort Donelson two days later. The fort eventually became a recruiting and training center for freed African-Americans who joined the United States Colored Troops (USCT). More than 20,000 blacks served in the Union Army in Tennessee.
The video includes footage shot on the USS Cairo, a Union ironclad that was raised from the Mississippi and is on display in Vicksburg. Grant’s attack on Fort Donelson utilized ironclads on the Cumberland River.
The video also used re-enactors to simulate a battle scene on a replica of a Civil War gunboat that is part of the display at Mud Island.
“We wanted to show the audience this is what it looked like and how it felt in the heat of the battle,” said Van Hooser.
As for the societal impacts of Fort Donelson, scenes were taped at Stones River using African-American re-enactors, a cabin at Rippavilla Plantation to represent a school for freed slaves operated by missionaries, and Travelers Rest for scenes depicting how the women of the south were forced to maintain the homes, work the farms and defend themselves when the men left for the war.
“Real heroes come from hard times and you can’t get much harder than war,” Catchings says in describing the impact of the battle.
The video uses historical photographs, documents and writings, including diary entries written by Spot F. Terrell, a member of the 49th Tennessee Volunteer Regiment. Also addressing the societal impacts are Dr. Bobby L. Lovett, professor of history at Tennessee State University, and Dr. Carole Bucy, assistant professor of history at Volunteer State Community College.
“I’m pleased with it. I think it looks incredible,” Van Hooser said of the video. “I believe it’s something that is interesting to adults, too.”
In fact, Van Hooser is looking into the possibility of expanding the video by adding some of the unused battle re-enactment footage and re-shooting with an adult host for creating a program that could be offered for broadcast on public television.
The Keeper of the Light Award is the highest honor bestowed by the National Park Service’s Division of Education and Interpretation for the Southeast Region based in Atlanta. “This award means so much to the park staff members who struggled to secure funding and thought the idea to develop a film about Fort Donelson for schoolchildren was just a dream,” said Park Superintendent Steven McCoy.
Rangers Austin and Susan Hawkins secured the PAC grant and first approached The Renaissance Center in 2001.
“We wanted a film that was fast-paced, packed with information, but one that left kids with a sense of purpose about Fort Donelson,” said Hawkins.
Fort Donelson: A Place for Heroes is now available for loan to classrooms across the nation. To learn more about Fort Donelson and its educational programs, call (931)232-5706 or visit www.nps.gov/fodo.
For more information on The Renaissance Center’s award-winning Multimedia Department, call (615)740-5506. The Renaissance Center is an arts education, performing arts and multimedia production center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.