Cumberland River in the context of "Tennessee in the American Civil War"

The Wabash River /ˈwɔːbæʃ/ WAW-bash (French: Ouabache [wabaʃ]) is a 503-mile-long (810 km) river that drains most of the state of Indiana, and a significant part of Illinois, in the United States. It flows from the headwaters in Ohio, near the Indiana border, then southwest across northern Indiana turning south near the Illinois border, where the southern portion forms the Indiana-Illinois border before flowing into the Ohio River.

It is the largest northern tributary of the Ohio River and third largest overall, behind the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. From the dam near Huntington, Indiana, to its terminus at the Ohio River, the Wabash flows freely for 411 miles (661 km) The Tippecanoe River, White River, Embarras River and Little Wabash River are major tributaries. The river's name comes from a Miami word meaning "water over white stones", as its bottom is white limestone, now obscured by mud.

The Natchez Trace, also known as the Old Natchez Trace, is a historic forest trail within the Southeastern United States which extends roughly 440 miles (710 km) from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi rivers.

Native Americans created and used the trail for centuries. Early European and American explorers, traders, and immigrants used it in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. European Americans founded inns, also known as "stands", along the Trace to serve food and lodging to travelers. Most of these stands closed as travel shifted to steamboats on the Mississippi and other rivers. The heyday of the Trace began in the 1770s and ended in the 1820s; by the 1830s, the route was already in disrepair and its time as a major interregional commercial route had come to an end.

The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and portions of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The terms "Allegheny Plateau" and the "Cumberland Plateau" both refer to the dissected plateau lands lying west of the main Appalachian Mountains. The terms stem from historical usage rather than geological difference, so there is no strict dividing line between the two. Two major rivers share the names of the plateaus, with the Allegheny River rising in the Allegheny Plateau and the Cumberland River rising in the Cumberland Plateau in Harlan County, Kentucky.

Nashville is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, located on the Cumberland River. It is the 21st-most populous city in the United States and fourth-most populous city in the Southeast, with a population of 689,447 at the 2020 census (estimated at 704,963 in 2024). The Nashville metropolitan area, with over 2.15 million people, is the 35th-largest metropolitan area in the country. Nashville is among the fastest-growing cities in the U.S.

Named for Francis Nash, a general of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, the city was founded in 1779 when this territory was still considered part of North Carolina. The city grew quickly due to its strategic location as a port on the Cumberland River and, in the 19th century, a railroad center. Nashville as part of Tennessee seceded during the American Civil War; in 1862 it was the first state capital in the Confederacy to be taken by Union forces. It was occupied through the end of the war. After the war, the city gradually reclaimed its stature. It became a center of trade and developed a manufacturing base.

The Cumberland Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern section of the Appalachian Mountains. They are located in western Virginia, southwestern West Virginia, the eastern edges of Kentucky, and eastern middle Tennessee, including the Crab Orchard Mountains. Their highest peak, with an elevation of 4,223 feet (1,287 m) above mean sea level, is High Knob, which is located near Norton, Virginia.

According to the USGS, the Cumberland Mountain range is 131 miles (211 km) long and 20 miles (32 km) wide, bounded by the Russell Fork on the northeast, the Pound River and Powell River on the southeast, Cove Creek on the southwest, and Tackett Creek, the Cumberland River, Poor Fork Cumberland River, and Elkhorn Creek on the northwest. The crest of the range forms the Kentucky and Virginia boundary from the Tennessee border to the Russell Fork River.

The western theater of the American Civil War encompassed major military operations in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as Louisiana east of the Mississippi River. Operations on the coasts of these states, except for Mobile Bay, are considered part of the lower seaboard theater. Most other operations east of the Appalachian Mountains are part of the eastern theater. Operations west of the Mississippi River took place in the trans-Mississippi theater.

The western theater served as an avenue of military operations by Union armies directly into the agricultural heartland of the South via the major rivers of the region (the Mississippi, the Tennessee, and the Cumberland). The Confederacy was forced to defend an enormous area with limited resources. Most railroads ran from north to south, as opposed to east to west, making it difficult to send Confederate reinforcements and supplies to troops further from the more heavily populated and industrialized areas of the eastern Confederacy.

The Wolf River is a 40.3-mile-long (64.9 km) river in the U.S. states of Tennessee and Kentucky that rises at the base of the Cumberland Plateau in Fentress County, Tennessee and flows westward for several miles before becoming part of Dale Hollow Lake. The river is part of the Cumberland River drainage basin in Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky. Via the Cumberland and Ohio rivers, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed. It is not to be confused with the Wolf River of West Tennessee which flows into the Mississippi at Memphis.

The Wolf River begins at the confluence of Pogue Creek and Delk Creek in a rugged hollow approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of the community of Pall Mall. Two miles below its source, the river absorbs Rotten Fork before entering the communities of Wolf River and Pall Mall, both of which are associated with World War I hero Alvin C. York. York's farm and gristmill were both located along the river at Pall Mall, and he and his family are buried in the large cemetery at Wolf River. York's farm is now part of a state historic park. The area is known as "the valley of the three forks of the Wolf," as noted in the 1941 film "Sergeant York." Below Pall Mall, the river continues westward across the northeastern Highland Rim into Pickett County, passing just east and north of Byrdstown as it flows through rolling farmland and forest. About a mile downstream from the TN 111 bridge, its water becomes slack due to the impoundment of Dale Hollow Lake on the Obey River. The lake's Wolf River embayment winds along the Kentucky-Tennessee border and has its confluence with the Obey River embayment just southeast of the point where Pickett County, Clay County, Tennessee, and Clinton County, Kentucky meet. Before the lake was impounded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1943, the confluence was the site of the community of Lillydale, formerly called Mouth of Wolf. The Lillydale name lives on in a Corps recreation area on the south shore of the lake. The Wolf River embayment also lies in Cumberland County, Kentucky.