Why this park
Just north of New Johnsonville, on the east shore of Kentucky Lake, Johnsonville State Historic Park covers 2,655 acres.
What makes the place worth drawing is the ridge above the old landing. Below it in 1864 stood a Union supply depot, where steamboats met the railroad to Nashville. On it stand two earthen forts, the Lower and Upper Redoubts of Fort Johnson; Black troops and laborers built the first, and the troops helped hold it under fire. The town that grew up around the depot lies under the lake. In winter, when the water runs several feet lower, The Tennessee Magazine says, old rail beds and the pilings that carried the tracks show again.
The story
In January 1863 the Union army, which held Nashville, began pushing the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad west to the Tennessee River at Lucas Landing.
Black workers did most of the building. The site's National Register nomination says the army pressed free Black men, and people who had fled slavery to occupied Nashville, into labor battalions. Regiments of U.S. Colored Troops were also raised in Nashville, and two of them, the 12th and 13th, finished the line in the spring of 1864 and built the depot's warehouses, barracks and forts. The nomination cites an estimate that 5,000 to 7,300 Black workers labored on the line.
It reached the river by May 10, 1864, and the landing was named for Andrew Johnson, the military governor, who came out to dedicate the line.
At about 2 p.m. on November 4, 1864, Confederate cavalry opened fire from guns hidden on the far bank. The Union force of about 2,000 included some 500 men from three Colored Troops regiments, the 12th, 13th and 100th, and a Black artillery battery. Fearing a crossing, Union commanders burned their own eighteen barges, eleven transports and three gunboats, and the fire spread to the wharves and warehouses. The Confederate commander valued the loss at $6.7 million; Union figures came to about $2.2 million.
The Black troops had never been under fire, but the nomination says they did well: their battery forced a Confederate battery to move several times, and sharpshooters of the 13th fired from the riverbank. Reuben D. Mussey, colonel of the 100th, reporting from Nashville, wrote that the fight "has gained credit for the colored troops." Union troops then built the larger Upper Redoubt on the heights. The raid did not change the war's course: in December the three Black regiments fought in the Union victory at Nashville, and men of the 13th later returned to hold the fort to the war's end.
Johnsonville stayed a river and rail town, with a Freedmen's Bureau agency and school, and in 1890 thirty men who had served in the 12th and 13th lived there. The park's page counts six African American cemeteries here, holding at least four Colored Troops veterans. In one, the African Methodist Cemetery, about 160 graves have been found, only 28 of them named, The Tennessee Magazine reported in 2022.
From 1938 to 1942, the Tennessee Encyclopedia says, the Tennessee Valley Authority bought 36,160 acres of the county's best farmland for Kentucky Lake, displacing whole towns. When Kentucky Dam was finished in 1944, the water covered Johnsonville, and some of its people moved south to build New Johnsonville. The state acquired land here in 1969 and opened it in 1971 as a state historic area; the redoubts and rifle pits joined the National Register in 2001.
When to go, and what to wear
In fall, the park marks the battle each year in early November with a living history event. At Camden, seven miles west across the lake, November averages a high near 61°F and a low near 38°F, and September is the driest month.
In winter, when mudflats show, the park says, sandpipers turn up on them and ducks and gulls gather on the open lake, with the odd bald eagle. January averages a high near 49°F and a low near 28°F, so dress in layers: a long-sleeve tee, a sweatshirt, a windproof jacket and a hat. Bring binoculars.
Spring brings redbud and dogwood, and crappie in the creek mouths from late March through May. April averages a high near 72°F and a low near 48°F; May is the wettest month, so pack a rain shell. July averages a high near 90°F and a low near 70°F; in the heat, the state health department advises light, loose clothing, sunscreen and plenty of water. Use tick repellent from April through September, when the CDC says ticks are most active.
The Gunpowder Trail, past rifle pits and the fort, climbs and drops steeply, with grades up to 32 percent, so wear shoes that grip.
Know before you go
- Start at the visitor center and museum, 90 Nell Beard Road, for a trail map. This is mainly a day-use park, with no RV or horse-trailer services. Gift shop hours are seasonal; call the park office, 931-535-2789.
- Four trails make a stacked loop of about 3.75 miles; the longest, the Buttercup, runs just over two miles along the river past old homesites.
- Swimming in the river is at your own risk, and anglers 13 and older need a Tennessee fishing license.
- Hours, fees and closures change, so check Johnsonville State Historic Park's page before you go.
Sources: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places nomination, "Johnsonville Historic District," prepared by the Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University (2000); Tennessee Encyclopedia, "Battle of Johnsonville" (Paul Ashdown) and "Humphreys County" (Trina L. Binkley), Tennessee Historical Society; Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Johnsonville State Park Strategic Management Plan (draft update, 2026); Trish Milburn, "Gone But Not Forgotten," The Tennessee Magazine (January 2022); American Battlefield Trust, "Johnsonville"; The Battle of Nashville Trust, "Peach Orchard Hill"; Tennessee Department of Health, news release of June 30, 2026; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Preventing Tick Bites"; NOAA, U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, Camden station; Wikipedia; Johnsonville State Historic Park, tnstateparks.com.
