Battle of Nashville & Beyond

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Fort Pillow

Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and Fort Pillow: 

 

Revised 22 December 2017

December 21, 2017 – Lt. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest’s statue was removed by the city of Memphis, Tennessee to an undisclosed location. They city bi-passed the state law on removing historical monuments from public land – so they sold it.

What will they do with his General and Mrs. Forrest buried beneath it?

February 2017: 

forrest-statue

It was with some trepidation, that I set off for Memphis to shoot Nathan Bedford Forrest. The former Nathan Bedford Forrest Park has been renamed the Health Sciences Park on Union Street. Arriving at 7 AM, I had the place to myself. Metered parking was available on South Dunlap street (no weekend fee). To my relief, there had been no desecration of the monument.

Recent efforts my the Memphis City Council to remove the statue to another city was rejected by the Tennessee Historical Commission… read more

I proceeded north towards Henning, Tennessee to shoot Fort Pillow State Historic Park. It was about and hour and a half drive.  Bass boats periodically droned up and down Cold Creek below the fort. It’s not easy to find and not very well marked. I am going to submit an update to Google Maps.

Parking at the trail and head on Crutcher Lake Road, it was about a mile hike to the restored earthworks. In the hour and a half I spent there, on a clear warm Saturday morning, I encountered no visitors. 

Suggested reading on the larger historical perspective of this controversial figure of American history: 

“Having once been a racist, Nathan Bedford Forrest became an outspoken advocate of black civil rights in Memphis, culminating in his beautiful yet largely forgotten speech before the black civil rights Pole-Bearers Association in 1875. Encouraging the black people in attendance to take an active part in their country’s government, he told them he was with them ‘heart and hand’ to help their cause in any way he could.”  – Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Redemption

Check this 3D like 360º virtual tour of Fort Pillow and Nathan Bedford Forrest park. Historical markers are embedded in the tour.

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Forrest Park: Madison Ave & S Dunlap Street, Memphis, TN 38103

Fort Pillow: 3122 Park Road Henning, TN 38041

Recommended Reading:

#fortpillow #nathanbedforforrest

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Fort Johnson

Fort Johnson 360° Virtual Tour:

 

Updated: 28 September 2017

Tennessee State Capitol Building: 698 Charlotte Avenue, Nashville Tennessee

The Greek Revival building was designed by William Strickland. It is one of many Nashville’s examples of Greek Revival architecture. The cornerstone of the capitol was laid on July 4, 1845 and the building was completed fourteen years later in 1859.

fort-johnson-image

“Fort Johnson (1863-1865) – A U.S. Civil War Fort established in 1863 in Nashville, Tennessee. The Tennessee State capital building was re-named Fort Johnson after Andrew Johnson, the military governor of Tennessee. The building was abandoned by US troops in 1867 after the end of the war and after Tennessee had returned to the Union. Also known as Capitol Redoubt and Camp Andy Johnson.”

More tours

Recommended Reading:

#fortjohnson #capital #tn #virtualtour

© Bob Henderson | Athens-South

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Fort Moultrie

Fort Moultrie – Charleston, South Carolina:

 

In the months leading up to the Civil War John L. Gardner was in command at Fort Moultrie. With secession growing more imminent, Gardner had made several requests to Secretary of War John B. Floyd for more troops to garrison and defend the undermanned fortress. Each time his requests were ignored, as Floyd (who joined the Confederacy) was planning to hand the forts in Charleston Harbor over to the secessionists.

South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. Around this time a Federal garrison from the 1st US Artillery was sent to Fort Moultrie. Unlike the state militia at the other forts, the Regular Army defenders of Fort Moultrie chose not to surrender to the South Carolina forces. On December 26, 1860, Union Major Robert Anderson moved his garrison from Fort Moultrie to the stronger Fort Sumter. On February 8, 1861, South Carolina joined other seceded Deep Southern states to form the Confederate States of America. In April 1861, Confederate troops shelled Fort Sumter into submission and the American Civil War began.

In April 1863, Federal ironclads and shore batteries began a bombardment of Fort Moultrie and the other forts around Charleston harbor. Over the ensuing twenty months, Union bombardment reduced Fort Sumter to a rubble pile and pounded Fort Moultrie below a sand hill, which protected it against further bombardment. The Rifled cannon proved its superiority to brickwork fortifications but not to the endurance of the Confederate artillerymen who continued to man Fort Moultrie. In February 1865, the Confederate Army finally abandoned the rubble of Fort Moultrie and evacuated the city of Charleston. – wikipedia

Virtual Tour of Fort Moultrie and Garden Point Park:

 

#fortmoultrie

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Pensacola Harbor

Fort Pickens – Pensacola, Florida:

After the War of 1812, the United States decided to fortify all of its major ports. French engineer Simon Bernard was appointed to design Fort Pickens. Construction lasted from 1829 to 1834, with 21.5 million bricks being used to build it. Much of the construction was done by slaves. Its construction was supervised by Colonel William H. Chase of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. During the American Civil War, he sided with the Confederacy and was appointed to command Florida’s troops.

Sketch of Fort Pickens, Florida, by Lt. Langdon, 1861. 

Fort Pickens was the largest of a group of fortifications designed to defend Pensacola Harbor. It supplemented Fort Barrancas, Fort McRee, and the Navy Yard. Located at the western tip of Santa Rosa Island, just offshore from the mainland, Fort Pickens guarded the island and the entrance to the harbor.

By the time of the American Civil War, Fort Pickens had not been occupied since shortly after the Mexican–American War. Despite its dilapidated condition, Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, in charge of United States forces at Fort Barrancas, decided the fort was the most defensible post in the area. He decided to abandon Barrancas when, around midnight of January 8, 1861, his guards repelled a group of local civilians who intended to occupy the fort. Some historians claim that these were the first shots fired in the Civil War.

On January 10, 1861, the day Florida declared its secession from the Union, Slemmer destroyed over 20,000 pounds of gunpowder at Fort McRee. He then spiked the guns at Fort Barrancas, and moved his 51 soldiers and 30 sailors to Fort Pickens. On January 15, 1861 and January 18, 1861, Slemmer refused surrender demands from Colonel William Henry Chase of the Florida militia. Ironically, Chase had designed and constructed the fort as captain in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Slemmer defended the fort against threat of attack until he was reinforced and relieved in April 1861 by Colonel Harvey Brown. Despite repeated Confederate threats, Fort Pickens was one of only three Southern forts to remain in Union hands throughout the war,[2]

Montgomery C. Meigs, an Army engineer, was ordered by President Lincoln and Secretary of War Seward to Fort Pickens. During the war, Meigs would also construct the Washington Aqueduct and the dome on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. – wikipedia

360º Virtual Tour of Fort Pickens

#fortpickens

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General Order #1

Defending Fort Negley Park

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)”