Nashville's Only Remaining Civil War Fort: The Story of Fort Negley
The city of Nashville was the first Confederate city to fall to the Union Army. This happened after the surrender of Fort Donelson in Dover, Tennessee in February 1862. The Union Army sent armored Navy boats down the Cumberland River to Nashville with the Union Army right on the tails of the river boats. The Confederate Army surrendered the city of Nashville on February 25, 1862. It’s said when the Union soldiers came into Nashville it was a ghost town.
Nashville was occupied by the Union Army for the remaining of the war and into reconstruction. During the Civil War, Nashville was a very strategic city to hold due to the amount of turnpikes and the infrastructure of the railroad. Nashville become a hub in the Western Threatre for transportation of soldiers, ammo, and food.
From the Battle of Nashville Trust:
“After its capture in 1862, Nashville was developed by Union forces into the most fortified city in North America. A series of forts ringed the city, the largest and southernmost being Fort Negley, named for U.S. Gen. James Scott Negley, provost marshal and commander of Federal forces in Nashville.
Fort Negley was a complex fort, many of its features based on European forts. Its construction in 1862 took three months, the labor force consisting primarily of African American workers, including 13,000 Union soldiers. The fort is 600 feet long, 300 feet wide, and covers four acres. It used 62,500 cubic feet of stone and 18,000 cubic feet of earth. The cost of construction was $130,000.”
From Nashville.gov
“From August through December 1862, more than 2700 conscript laborers, predominately contrabands (runaway slaves) and free Blacks, constructed Fort Negley, atop St. Cloud Hill, as part of a massive fortification system. Fort Negley’s location, size, and guns discouraged Confederate attacks throughout the war. During the Battle of Nashville, December 15 and 16, 1864, Fort Negley’s artillery aided in driving off General Hood’s forces.
Following failed efforts to preserve Fort Negley as a national military park, St. Cloud Hill once again became a popular picnic area. The City of Nashville purchased the property in 1928. In 1936, 800 men working for the Works Progress Administration reconstructed Fort Negley at a cost of $84,000. The Fort reopened to the public in 1938. In the 1960s, Metro Parks removed the deteriorated stockade and closed the Fort to the public.”
The currently is a masterplan for Fort Negley which includes adding the park to the Nashville Greenway, and making it more of a staple of Nashville.
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