Cedar Grove Iron Furnace 

The North and South were vastly aware of the importance and demand of iron and steel to winning the war. 

The Tennessee iron industry proved to be strategically important for the Confederacy; this is seen particularly with its myriad of furnaces that supplied iron to building munitions and armor for ironclad vessels.

Prior to the war, along what was called the Iron District on the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, roughly 8,000 to 10,000 slaves toiled away at numerous iron works.

At the Cedar Grove iron furnace, located in Perry County, Tennessee, nearly 120 workers, Black and white, turned out 1,800 tons of pig metal a year during its peak. Iron production in the 1850s was so robust that entire hardwood forests were cut down to make charcoal to fuel the furnace and its iron shipped across the country for its use.

The Cedar Grove iron furnace was built in 1832 and subsequently rebuilt in 1833, allowing it to function as a unique, double-stack charcoal furnace. Today the furnace stands as the only Civil War-era double-stack charcoal furnace in Tennessee.

The furnace continued to function at the outbreak of the war, aiding the Confederate war effort until the fall of Fort Henry in early February of 1862. The fort’s destruction opened the Tennessee River to Flag-Officer Andrew H. Foote’s muddy water fleet.

In an effort to bring the Confederate iron production in Tennessee to its knees, a Union flotilla, or fleet, of gunboats including the USS Conestoga, Tyler and Lexington, began to gravely to lay waste to furnace sites up and down the Tennessee River.

That same month, Federal gunboats lobbed cannonballs at Cedar Grove, striking the ironmaster’s house, office, company store, workers’ houses, barns, smokehouse and other buildings surrounding the furnace, and killing the ironmaster, William Bradley.

During the shelling, the frightened workforce largely scattered, and operations at the furnace ceased for the rest of the war.

By 1883, little remained of the once bustling business except the dramatic ruins of the limestone double-stacked charcoal furnace. Today, the unique feature is still visible for interested viewers of the truncated pyramid furnace that once helped to power the iron ore industry in Tennessee.

Know before you go: Check out Tennessee River Valley for further detail