In 10 images: A walk at Fort Negley, Nashville's 'masterpiece'

Fort Negley is located on St. Cloud Hill, a short distance from downtown Nashville.
(CLICK ON ALL IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

            PANORAMA: View from a lower tier of the fort toward downtown Nashville.
                                   (Click at upper right for full-screen experience.)

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A reporter in 1862 described the forts defending Union-occupied Nashville as the "most complete of the kind in the country." Fort Negley, built on St. Cloud Hill with mostly African-American labor, was especially impressive. "A masterpiece," the Philadelphia Press correspondent called it. The fort was constructed under supervision of Captain James St. Clair Morton, a 33-year-old Philadelphian and West Point graduate.

James St. Clair Morton, who
supervised construction
of  Fort Negley, was killed
at Petersburg, Va., on
June 17, 1864.

"The work covers nearly twelve acres of ground, and communication is carried on by means of subterranean passages from one portion of the fort to another," the reporter wrote. "In the center is a fine stockade, capable of garrisoning a full regiment. The fort mans four thirty-two pounders, steel guns, called the Rodman, and said to be the best pattern in existence; four very heavy guns, which our troops took at Fort Donelson, two of them large enough to throw a sixty-four pound solid shot, and a battery of field pieces, making fourteen in all."

St. Cloud Hill was described as a "commanding eminence, and would successfully stand a severe shock." Rifle pits encircled the hill, and obstructions were placed in the immediate area to delay any Confederate cavalry charge.

Nashville was the third-most heavily defended city in North America behind Washington during the Civil War. Fort Negley, completed by late 1862, was never threatened. (For more on the fort's history, visit the Battle of Nashville Preservation Society site.)

On a deep-blue sky Sunday, I shot these images of the ruins of the fort, owned by the City of Nashville since 1928. The view from Fort Negley of gleaming, and rapidly growing, downtown was spectacular.

SOURCE:

-- Memphis Daily Appeal, Dec. 18, 1862.

Be warned.

                        PANORAMA: A view of the fort's interior and Nashville beyond.

Ruins on the fort's south side. Peach Orchard Hill, a key Battle of Nashville site, is in the middle distance.

To build Fort Negley, African-American labor was essential.

                                     PANORAMA: View of the fort's exterior remains.

Interpretive signage explains the history of the fort.

      PANORAMA: A view of the remains of the stockade, the fort's last area of defense.

A sign of spring near the remains of an outer wall.

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