Fort Negley Descendants Project: Nashville's Black Legacies of the Civil War

Permanent URI for this collection

https://ir.vanderbilt.edu/handle/1803/9217
As the largest inland stone fortification built during the Civil War, Fort Negley stood as the centerpiece of Union occupied Nashville. 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. Tennessee rejoined the Union in July 1867. Union forces occupied Nashville and Fort Negley until September. At that time, the army dismantled the majority of Nashville’s defenses. Today, however, only ruins of the Fort remain. The Fort Negley Descendants Project captures oral history interviews with descendants of the African-American laborers and soldiers who built and defended the fort in the 1860's.

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Dr. Eleanor Fleming - Fort Negley Descendants Project Oral History
    (2018)
    Born and raised in Williamson County, Dr. Eleanor Fleming grew up with the history of the Civil War alive around her. The salutatorian of her graduating class at Battle Ground Academy, Dr. Fleming remembers the cannons and cannon balls that decorated the campus. It would take 21 years for her to learn of her family’s connection to the war. Thanks to a series of tweets, Dr. Fleming is proud that her family’s past includes Fort Negley. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Meharry Medical College, and East Tennessee University, she is a dental epidemiologist for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While she currently lives in Washington, DC, Franklin, Tennessee will always be her home.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Gary M. Burke - Fort Negley Descendants Project Oral History
    (2018)
    Nashville native Gary Burke recounts his personal history in relation to Fort Negley, and his involvement in the 13th United States Colored Troop Living History Organization. After Mr. Burke dug into his family history, he found that members of his family had fought in every war starting in the Civil War. The Sons of Union Veterans group traced his lineage to Peter Bailey, who fought for the Union at Fort Negley in 1865. Mr. Burke discusses his pride and sense of connection to Fort Negley, as well as the multiple conflicts that his ancestor fought in at Granbury’s Lunette and Peach Orchard Hill in Tennessee. At an event hosted by Fort Negley on December 2, 2017 to honor the 2,771 African-American laborers who built the fort, he reads a poem that he wrote about his feelings about Fort Negley, and discusses the conscripted labor that the Union Army used to build the fort. Mr. Burke explores the Works Progress Administration rebuild of the Fort, and how the perception of the place has changed over time. He details his visit to Peter Bailey’s grave in Lincoln Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois, where Burke placed a Sons of Union Veterans marker by Bailey’s final resting place. He speaks about our duty to protect the legacy and story for those who can no longer tell their own stories.