Union and Confederate forces clashed near here again on February 3, 1863, almost one year after the Battle of Fort Donelson. Confederate Gen. Joseph Wheeler attacked Dover’s 800-man Federal garrison after he failed to disrupt Union shipping on the Cumberland River. Lt. Col. Arthur A. Smith was posted in the cemetery with Companies I and F, 83rd Illinois Infantry (Co. C in reserve), and one gun fromBattery C (“Flood’s Battery”) to defend the Union right flank. At 3 P.M., Confederate Gen. John A. Wharton’s brigade advanced here in coordination with Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry charge on the Union left.
