Paducah, McCracken County

In response to the Confederate occupation of Columbus on September 3, 1861, Union Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant moved his army from Cairo, Illinois, and on September 6 occupied Paducah, Kentucky, at the confluence of the tennessee and Ohio rivers and a short distance down the Ohio from Smithland at the confluence of the Cumberland and Ohio rivers. To secure the town Union forces, under the command of Brig. Gen. Charles F. Smith, constructed Fort Anderson (site is either underwater or paved with no visible remanant) west of downtown Paducah. Because of its strategic location, Paducah played a significant role in the western theater of operations during the Civil War, serving as one of the Union's strong points in its efforts to control western Kentucky and as a base from which to strike Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers.

Paducah has regional/state significance, because it had an observable influence on the Battles of Fort Henry and Donelson and thus the Vicksburg campaign. Because of its strategic location, Paducah played a significant role in the western theater of operations during the Civil War, serving as one of the Union strong points in its efforts to control western Kentucky and as a base from which to strike Forts Henry and Donelson. In 1993, the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission designated the Battle of Paducah, March 25, 1864 (which was associated with Forrest's 1864 Raid into West tennessee and Kentucky), as one of the Civil War's 384 principal battlefields.