Fort Negley, a key Nashville Civil War site, was set for destruction by developers. Vanderbilt scholar Angela Sutton worked with community leaders to save it, and in the process helped create a database to preserve the stories of descendants of the Fort鈥檚 legacy.
In the spring, gruesome battle forced Confederates to surrender and abandon their posts in Nashville, and the city became the first capital to be taken by the Union Army. They needed to secure their position and protect the stronghold, so leaders planned to build the largest inland stone fortification built during the war 鈥� Fort Negley.
Building a structure as massive and secure as Fort Negley required an equally robust workforce 鈥� one larger than the military could provide. Limestone needed to be excavated from nearby quarries and from within St. Cloud Hill, where the fort would sit. Stone, lumber, and heavy artillery would be worked into a solid, protective fortress. The builders would have to make the earth move, and fast, with the few tools a war and disease-stricken army could find.
Some of those who would become builders escaped plantations under the cover of night, running toward Union soldiers鈥� campfires. Others were 鈥渓oaned out鈥� to the army by their enslavers. A few freedmen volunteered their skills for a price, but most who worked on the fort received no compensation.
These men, working in the heat of the Autumn months, lying on the hillside at night in the heavy dews without shelter, and fed with poor food, soon sickened. In four months, about 800 of them died; the remainder were kept at work from six to fifteen months without pay.
Many of the surviving male laborers went on to volunteer or forcibly join the segregated Union Army. After the war was won and emancipation took hold, freed African Americans established neighborhoods in Nashville, including the Bass Street Neighborhood located at the foot of St. Cloud Hill.
In 2017, when Vanderbilt researcher and professor Angela Sutton heard that developers planned to purchase parts of Fort Negley park and build condos in its place, she knew she had to take a stand. She attended a community meeting to express her displeasure with the plan. At the meeting, she connected with members of the community in Nashville who had long worked to preserve the fort鈥檚 history.
Sutton worked alongside other Vanderbilt researchers to document the vital contributions of the Fort Negley builders and defenders to history. With this work, they assisted community members in their efforts to stop the sale and save the fort. In 2019, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) officially recognized the fort as a 鈥淪ite of Memory鈥� as part of its Slave Route Project.
For the descendant population, Fort Negley is sacred.
The preservation work didn鈥檛 stop there. Dr. Sutton, her Vanderbilt colleague Jim Schindling, and their community collaborators created the 蜜桃直播 Fort Negley Descendants Project and the Builders and Defenders Database, a culmination of their collective research.
This searchable database is a collection of primary sources from the Civil War, which descendants and historians can use to learn more about those who built and defended Fort Negley.
See how Fort Negley descendants traced their roots via documents and other primary sources on the Builders and defenders database.
Interested in searching the database and learning more about Fort Negley鈥檚 history? Watch this video to learn how to navigate the Builders and Defenders database, narrated by one of the founders.
Many Fort Negley laborers perished on the building site or later in battle. After the war, several Black soldiers in Tennessee were imprisoned for fighting for the Union. The KKK terrorized Nashville neighborhoods established by African American laborers and their descendants. Nevertheless, the community continually showed bravery and tenacity, coming together to fight for those who came before them and those who would come after.
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