The Archaeological Investigations of the
Battle of Johnsonville

Covered by the waters of the Tennessee River, then subsequently by the murky waters of Kentucky Lake, lie the forgotten remnants of Civil War vessels that represent one of the largest U.S. Naval defeats on our inland waters. Sunk during the little-known Battle of Johnsonville, the search for the wrecks has recently been the focus of local citizen groups, archaeologists, and the State of Tennessee. For the past five years, maritime archaeologists with Panamerican Consultants of Memphis, Tennessee, under the auspices of the Tennessee Historical Commission and Tennessee Wars Commission, have conducted intensive remote sensing surveys and diver investigations on portions of the historic Tennessee River channel in Kentucky Lake off the submerged town of Johnsonville, Tennessee. Performed in concert with Raise the Gunboats, Inc. of Camden, Tennessee, the investigations have been conducted in order to locate and study the remnants of the Union vessels lost at Johnsonville, Tennessee during a daring raid by Confederate forces under General Nathan Bedford Forrest on November 4, 1864.

A surprise raid by forces commanded by Nathan Bedford Forrest resulted in largest inland naval defeat of Union forces during the Civil War

Situated in West-Central Tennessee in Humphreys County, the Battle of Johnsonville project area is located adjacent to and downriver, or north of the now-submerged historic town of Johnsonville. Prior to construction of a dam across the Tennessee River at Gilbertsville, Kentucky in 1944 and the subsequent creation of Kentucky Lake, Johnsonville lay on the east bank of the Tennessee River. Flowing south to north, and relatively straight at Johnsonville, the river was approximately 400 yards wide at the town.