Battle of Nashville & Beyond

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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:

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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

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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)”

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Fort Negley Desecration

Nashville moves backwards on Civil War Preservation 

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

 

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Save Fort Negley

Save the Fort Negley Grounds 

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Since the departure of the Nashville Sounds baseball team, the grounds around Fort Negley are being considered for development. Nashville has lost most all of it’s core battlefield. This is a rare chance to reclaim a 20 acre parcel of an epic battlefield of the American Civil War. As the city grows, it’s a great opportunity to add more green space to the city’s urban core.

For more information, download the save-fort-negley.

 

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