Lt. Col. David Acuff, U.S. Army (ret.)
“This situation keeps causing an image to pop into my mind. It is Dec. 15, 1864, and you are at one of the Redoubts, alone. Tens of thousands of property developers and city planners are formed up and advancing toward you. You wait for them with your musket. You know that the outcome doesn’t matter. You “will guard everything within the limits of my post and quit my post only when properly relieved.” (General Order #1)”
From Change.org
Keep an Urban Park in Nashville
JUL 20, 2017 — Friends,
We are rattling the cages of the back-room-deal power brokers in Nashville who thought giving away public and historic park land worth $30million for about $1million might go without notice (or that we probably can’t put a price on the history of this inland fort).
Just like the fight to save Radnor Lake and the Ryman – there comes a time when thinking people sit up and say “this makes no sense” — why, as so many other Nashville mayors did, are we not adding to and protecting our city land instead of giving it away to private developers?
So, while the challenge to this award is being worked through in a formal complaint process with the city, our collective efforts are shining a light on the importance of this issue to Nashville and our region.
Please read expert opinions from Ridley Wills II, David Ewing, the Walker Collaborative, The National Civil War Trust and more at the link below.
Tomorrow we will share information on the Legal Defense Fund which has been set up to fight this.
Keep sharing this petition, asking friends to sign, caring.
Together we can make this right.
Update: 17 JULY 2017
A virtual tour of the Carter Cotton Gin site and the Patrick Cleburne Monument from the American Civil War Battle of Franklin. The tour also includes the 
“Loring’s Advance” property on Meadowlawn Drive and Collin’s Farm on the Lewisburg Pike. The Loring’s Advance video features Eric Jacobson on the 6th tour stop (the video may take a moment to load). For a full screen view, click on the icon in the lower left of the screen. Links to the Carter House, Carnton, Fort Granger and Winstead Hill virtual tours.
Note: get the virtual tour full screen experience by clicking the icon in the lower left of the video frame. A zoom option is available also for reading the historical signage. Some markers are embedded in the floating icons.
Suggested Reading:
If Franklin can reclaim battlefield property, so can Nashville. Please sign the petition below to support reclaiming the park property at historic Fort Negley.
© Bob Henderson | Athens-South
#battleoffranklin #cottongin #civilwar #virtualtour #collinsfarm #loringsadvance
14 July 2017 Update: Letter to the Nashville Mayor by the Civil War Trust CWT Comments – Fort Negley
8 July 2017:
Almost 20 years ago, I submitted Fort Negley to the Civil War Preservation Trust as one of this most endangered sites in the United States. It was selected #1. The Purcell administration had an immediate response to resuscitate the moth-balled city park. In December 2004 it reopened after 60 years.
Jim Lighthizer (still President of the Civil War Trust) flew to the press conference in Nashville. He praised the city, and those of us active in the preservation effort. It’s ironic that he chastised the Franklin and Murfreesboro municipalities for not doing more to save their hallowed battlefields. His quote, I remember, was “get into politics, or get out of preservation”.
Ironic, at least in Franklin, people listened. 20 years later, I can count at least 5 tracts of commercial property that have been reclaimed, cleared and turned back into core battlefield grassland.
I remember attending the victory party for Bill Purcell in 1999. We had met at a Greenways fundraiser when he was running for office. After moving back to Nashville from Denver, Colorado I wondered how long it would take Nashville to catch up with the Greenways network that city had developed.
Mayors Bill Purcell and Karl Dean can take credit for many miles of true green space and green ways. This is not the time to reverse this course, and even more abhorrent, is the desecration of this extremely important part of African American history. Hundreds died at Fort Negley in the service to this country!
I thought this city had matured beyond the power of property development influence. Shame on you that do nothing to stop this.
“The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm, but because of those who look at it without doing anything” – Albert Einstein.
Nashville Scene: The Value of Fort Negley is Not Just at the Top of St. Cloud Hill
@savingplaces #thisplacematters #civilwar
February 20, 1864
The Battle of Olustee or Battle of Ocean Pond was fought in Baker County, Florida on February 20, 1864, late during the American Civil War. It was the only major battle fought in Florida during the war. The battlefield is not far off Interstate 10 on US 90.
“Union General Truman Seymour had landed troops at Jacksonville, aiming chiefly to disrupt Confederate food-supply. Meeting little resistance, he proceeded towards the state capital Tallahassee, against orders, assuming that he would face only the small Florida militia. Confederates in Charleston sent reinforcements under General Alfred H. Colquitt and the two armies collided near a lake called Ocean Pond in Olustee. The Union forces were repulsed and retreated back to Jacksonville where they stayed for the remainder of the war.” – Wikipedia
#civilwarflorida