UNESCO SLAVE ROUTES SITE NOMINATION FORM

SITE: Metro Park in Nashville, TN SPONSORED BY: Friends of Fort Negley and the Nashville NAACP DATE: September 8, 2017

SITE INFORMATION

Property Name: Past Name(s) of Property (if Street Address: applicable): Fort Negley Metro Park 1100 Fort Negley Blvd

City: State: Zip Code:

Nashville 37203

County: Congressional District: Web Address (if available):

th Davidson Tennessee’s 5 Congressional http://www.nashville.gov/Parks-and- District Recreation/Historic-Sites/Fort- Negley.aspx

Owner of Property: Current Function of Property: Date Created (if applicable):

City of Nashville City Park 1862

Physical Description of Property:

Fort Negley Park consists of 55 acres at the top of St. Cloud Hill, approximately two miles from downtown Nashville. The Park contains the ruins of Fort Negley, a Union Civil War built by runaway slaves, and contraband slaves impressed into labor by the Union’s corps of engineers. These ruins were fortified by laborers of the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression, and in the early 2000s, populated with a boardwalk and historic markers and signage for public use. The fort is surrounded on all sides by densely wooded area. Also on the property are the Fort Negley Visitor’s Center, the Herschel Greer , and parking lots.

What Type of Site Is On the Property? (Check as many as applicable)

__ Site of work & agro-industrial production _x_Site of resistance/maroon Site __Cemetery

_x_Site of cultural expression _x_Site of commemoration _x_Site of brutality

__Imprisonment/concentration _x_Buildings constructed by slaves __Site of ritual

__Other:

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Environmental Setting of Site: Physical Integrity of Site:

Fort Negley Park is in an urban environment in South The fort consists of a combination of the original Nashville, approximately two miles from downtown. fortification and the WPA restoration. The ruins have been stabilized, and various archaeological reports of the site indicate that what remains of the civil-war era

beneath the WPA restoration are largely intact.

Abstract/Summary (In 250 words or less, tell us why this site is being nominated for the UNESCO Slave Routes Project):

The fortification at Fort Negley Park was built by a team of African-Americans consisting of runaway slaves from all over the South, freedmen of color, as well as local enslaved laborers conscripted by the Union’s corps of engineers. Upon its completion, Fort Negley served as a key location in the , where 8 regiments of the Colored Troops fought and died on behalf of the Union to repel the forces of the Confederate . At this time, runaway slaves from all over the South self-emancipated by congregating there into “contraband camps” where they helped the Union war effort in order to secure their freedom. After the Civil War, the newly-freed African Americans set up neighborhoods in the surrounding areas of Edgefield and Chestnut Hill, and the met at this site to intimidate these new communities of color. Upon the 2007 Completion of the Ft. Negley Visitors Center, local African American re-enactors of the 13th Infantry Regiment of the US Colored Troops put on a display of the Battle of Nashville. They were joined by re-enactors portraying President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass. The African American Cultural alliance sponsors yearly re-enactments of this event at Fort Negley, combined with a memorial service to honor the troops’ sacrifice. Fort Negley features heavily in local memory, and as a result, St. Cloud Hill, upon which the fort was built, is often referred to as “hallowed ground,” by the local African-American community.

Relation of the site to other sites along the UNESCO Slave Routes (if applicable):

Not yet applicable. However, Fort Negley was a place to which escaped slaves from all over the South ran, and the place where the US Colored Troops sustained great losses to win the Battle of Nashville, one of the Civil War’s last decisive battles. Those who fought in the Civil War at Fort Negley helped to secure legal freedom for all enslaved persons in the US.

Relation of the site to other local sites of historic significance:

The Union’s Corps of Engineers tasked with building the fort raided local plantations, such as the Belle Meade plantation, for supplies and enslaved persons to impress into labor building the fortress. Fort Negley was one of several forts that played a key role in the Battle of Nashville and therefore connects to those historic Civil War sites of Middle Tennessee: Fort Donelson National Battlefield, the Carter House. Stones River National Battlefield. Rippavilla Mansion. Shiloh National Military Park. Johnsonville State Historic Site. Sam Davis Home, Belmont Mansion, Travelers Rest, , Confederate Circle at Mt. Olivet Cemetery, and the Hermitage plantation. Fort Negley is also one of twenty-three Civil War fortifications around Nashville that were built by the enslaved and formerly enslaved.

Preservation (Describe the strategy of preservation which ensures the site’s maintenance and restoration, if applicable):

Fort Negley is part of Fort Negley Park, an urban green space owned and maintained by the city of Nashville under Metro Parks and Recreation. Metro Parks and Recreation has done due diligence to hire qualified curators and caretakers of this space and have requisitioned some appropriate archaeological and structural evaluations of the fort and surrounding areas. Since 2004, they have stabilized the ruins and made the fort more accessible through strategic tree removal and maintenance, and the building of boardwalks and signage to keep the public from damaging the fortifications. Metro Parks & Recreation also populated the site with historic markers that tell the story of Fort Negley,

2 and those who built the site, and fought and died there. In 2007, they opened a visitor’s center to help tourists with interpretation and historical inquiries related to the site.

Promotion (Describe the ways in which the site is currently used to promote and educate the public about the tragedy of and the heritage it has generated):

Fort Negley Park has increasingly used the site to promote and educate the public about the tragedy of slavery and the heritage it has generated. In the early 2000s, they placed a series of interpretive signs along the site in strategic points which discuss several issues related to slavery: the way in which debates about the institution of slavery fueled the Civil War, the building of Fort Negley with poorly-compensated African American labor, the role of the US Colored Troops Regiment in the assault on Peach Orchard Hill in an attempt to dislodge the far right Confederate flank, a sign for Samuel R. Lowery, the free black minister who served as chaplain and teacher for the US Colored Artillery regiments, the Nashville City Cemetery, final resting place of some of the enslaved related to the fort.

Within the Fort Negley Visitors’ Center, there are several interpretive displays that educate the public about the United States Colored Troops, the black refugees and black population drawn to the fort by word of mouth during the course of the war, and the ways in which enslaved persons perceived of the Civil War as a war of liberation. The center also contains a movie theatre in which visitors can watch several films at no cost which discuss these topics and bring them to life. The visitors’ center is also home to a collection of documents and primary sources concerning the history of enslavement and emancipation with regard to Fort Negley and the wider Nashville area and state of Tennessee. These primary and secondary sources are from the Metro Archives in Nashville’s public library, the Tennessee State Archives, the United States National Archives, and old newspapers and photographs from the antebellum era to the present. It also has a collection of artifacts found on the park grounds. These documents and artifacts are available for interested members of the public to utilize, and are often used by students, scholars, and descendants of the enslaved and US Colored Regiments.

In 2016, in conjunction with the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt University, Fort Negley added to its collection of interpretive outdoor markers to increase the information about the African American laborers who built the fort. This marker includes the rare 1884 photograph entitled “Negro Settlement-Fort Negley-1884.” This interpretive marker was unveiled during an event at the visitors’ center at which several scholars of slavery and African Americans in Nashville provided lectures and Q&A for the wider Nashville community.

There is also a marker placed by the Tennessee Historical Commission at the foot of St. Cloud Hill (Marker 3A 132) entitled “Nashville Blacks in the Civil War” which reads “From October-December 1862, on this hill, black laborers helped the Union Army build Fort Negley. In November, blacks helped defend the unfinished fort against confederate attack. During the Battle of Nashville (December 1864), nearly 13,000 black soldiers aided in the defeat of the Confederates. By 1865, blacks had assisted the Union Army in building 23 fortifications around Nashville.”

The site is host to yearly re-enactments of the Battle of Nashville, in which descendants of the enslaved and the US Colored Troops teach the public about this important event. These re-enactments are followed by a memorial service which includes the honoring of the enslaved and free people of color who gave their labor and their lives to the cause.

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Nomination prepared by: Nomination sponsored by:

Angela Sutton, Ph.D. Friends of Fort Negley and Nashville NAACP Postdoctoral Fellow, Digital Humanities Center 1308 Jefferson Street Project Manager, Slave Societies Digital Archive Nashville, Tennessee 37208 Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN

Attach all supporting evidence (works cited, images, index, appendices, etc.) at the end of this form.

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Statement of Historic Relevance

Indicate here the historic background of the site and research available regarding this site. Be sure to include brief discussion of the most prominent sources that illustrate the historic relevance of this site and how it contributes to the work on the history of enslavement. These can include but are not limited to written documents, archaeological research & findings, and community/oral tradition.

The United States’ Civil War began when the Southern states attempted to secede from the nation largely in opposition to the movement to abolish slavery. In this drawn- war, Nashville, Tennessee, became the focus of a battle that would help determine the Confederate defeat. This battle was won with the help of US Colored Troop regiments at Fort Negley, a fortification built primarily with the labor of local conscripted slaves, as well as runaway slaves from several states joined the Union effort to help end the institution of slavery in the US South. An article by historian Bobby Lovett outlines the history of the fort, which was constructed after the summer of 1862. The union army in Nashville had pursued the Confederate army into Kentucky, leaving 6,000 troops under General James S. Negley to hold Nashville. Engineer Dr. Samuel Morton, impressed the local enslaved population to help build the fortifications. He wrote to his superior "I lost 48 hours trying to get Negroes, teams, tools, cooking utensils and provisions. Only 150 Negroes so far, no tools, teams, etc. I wanted to employ 825 Negroes by the 11th" (as cited in Lovett 1982: 7). A wealth of primary source material that describes the African-American construction of the fort in detail. The Nashville Daily Union and the Nashville Dispatch newspapers printed notices that required rebel slaveholders of the county to supply 1,000 slaves to the Union construction project. When they failed to do so, the Union cavalry surrounded the Colored Baptist Church during services and marched members of the congregation to the Fort Negley’s construction camps. Annals of the describes these Union slave raids, and includes a sketch of the members of the congregation leaping from the church windows to avoid being kidnapped (Lovett 1982:8-9). A former slave, Francis Batson, remembered that the Union army's constant raiding and impressment frightened the young black children so much they ran when they saw the "blue mans" (Union Soldiers) approaching (Federal Writer’s Project, 1936, vol 16). During the fort’s construction, men, women ,and children camped on St. Cloud Hill, some living in tents, but most in the open. Women and young adults pushed wheelbarrows, cooked food for the male laborers, washed clothes, and worked as teamsters for the wagons. Black masons blasted the rock, fashioned stone, laid walls, and dug underground magazines. Skilled free blacks from the local area flocked to Fort Negley to take on jobs the impressed slaves could not do. On November of 1862, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest ordered the city to surrender, and attacked east of Fort Negley. The laborers sent a delegation to the officer and asked to be armed to protect themselves and the fort. The officer denied their request, but permitted them to make a symbolic stand armed with axes, shovels, and spades (Lovett 1982, 9-10). The impressed slaves, runaways, and free blacks completed Fort Negley on December 7, 1862. Captain Morton's report on the completion of the fort mentioned the laborers: "To the credit of the colored population be it said, they worked manfully and cheerfully, with hardly an exception, and yet lay out upon the works at night under armed guard, without blankets and eating only army rations.

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They worked in squads, each gang choosing their own officers..." (Lovett, 1982: 12). A total of 2,500 African-American laborers built the fort, and of those, hundreds died from exposure, accidents, and illness while working on this project. In February of 1863, Nashville's Union Army command issued an order prohibiting the return of fugitive slaves to their former owners. This caused enslaved people from all over the Confederacy to flock to Union strongholds, including Nashville. Fort Negley’s camp of laborers grew into what was known as a “contraband camp,” of runaways who hid from slaveholders and assisted the Union war effort. The influx of former slaves and freedmen into Nashville doubled the black population between 1862 and 1865. A former slave, Joseph Fowley, recalled that the camps had to be guarded to "keep the rebels from carrying them [the former enslaved] back to the white folks" (Fisk University Social Science Institute, 1945, 128-29). The Fort Negley Visitor’s Center has on display several artifacts from this time, including some of the tools archaeologists believe the impressed African-American laborers used to build the fort. There is also a great quantity of information documenting the activities of the US Colored Troops who defended Fort Negley.The Nashville Dispatch reported that Nashville residents were shocked to see black soldiers marching down the street in blue uniforms, white gloves, and new rifles (Nashville Dispatch, November 13, 1864). The Battle of Nashville was one of the decisive battles of the Civil War, and it was one that relied most heavily on the contributions of soldiers and laborers of African descent. (Lovett 1976: 47) The most comprehensive and well-known books, both academic and trade, which investigate various aspects of the US Colored Troops in the Civil War, include the regiments present at the Battle of Nashville (Dobak, 2011). This part of Civil War history is considered cutting edge by Southern, US, military, and popular historians. A wealth of books and articles on this topic appeared in the 2000s (Smith 2002, 3-17). By every historic account, the US Colored Troops in the Battle of Nashville fought valiantly and pursued General Hood’s army all the way to central . Nashville's 17th Colored Troops Regiment won personal recognition for bravery from General Thomas and national recognition in the New York Times (New York Times, December 19, 1864). They sustained the heaviest casualties, and their bodies received the least care when it came time for interment. Zada Law, archaeologist at Middle Tennessee State University calls it “one of the most historic African American and archeological sites in the US” (White, 2017). She believes that there are remains of the African- Americans who worked and died in the contraband camps and in battle buried at Fort Negley Park. The majority of the soldiers in the colored regiments were fugitive slaves, who fought for a host of complicated reasons, among them personal freedom and the opportunity to live in a nation without slavery (Lovett, 1976: 40). The Nashville True Union wrote "...the hills of Nashville will forever attest to how desperately the despised slave will fight when he strikes for freedom." (Nashville True Union, December 17, 1864). One former black soldier remarked, "I fought to free my mammy and her children all through Nashville and Franklin and Columbia, Tennessee, and all down through Alabama and ...I'm fighting to get free (Fisk, 1945: 218)." After the war, the issue of nonpayment of both the colored troops as well as laborers who built the fort generated additional documentation about these individuals. The Tennessee State Library and Archives contain the Records of the Chief of Engineers, who several times wrote to his superiors requesting funds for the builders of Fort Negley (TSLA, MF #1910 Records of the Chief of Engineers, 1862-1869, Rolls 1-4). It also contains the “Employment Rolls and Nonpayment Rolls of Negroes,” in 6 which are letters from the leaders of the Colored Regiments asking that their soldiers, and the widows off soldiers fallen, receive the payment due to them for their services at Fort Negley and the Battle of Nashville (TSLA, MF #1797 Employment Rolls and Nonpayment Rolls of Negroes). Copies of these are available in the Fort Negley Visitors Center so that descendants and researchers may pour through the thousands of names of unpaid laborers and soldiers. In the postwar period Nashville’s black neighborhoods formed around St. Cloud hill and the ruins of Fort Negley. Many laborers who had lived in the contraband camps, and many black soldiers who had nowhere to return formed communities in the areas of Nashville now known as Chestnut Hill and Historic Edgefield. These neighborhoods gave birth to important black-owned institutions: a black- owned drugstore, a black-edited newspaper (The Colored Tennessean), and a branch of the Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company bank. In the 20th century, wealthier residents of Chestnut Hill expanded into the area directly north of downtown Nashville, where they played an important role in building this historic black neighborhood. They established Fisk, one of Nashville's Historically Black Colleges that educated many of the country’s Civil Rights activists (Richardson, 2013: 143, deGregory, 2013: 121). The population of people descended from Fort Negley’s surviving labor and soldier population was front and center of the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Fort Negley’s descendants participated in high-profile actions for equality, such as the Nashville Woolworth’s Counter sit-in of 1960 (Lovett, 1999). The city’s African-American community never lost sight of Fort Negley’s importance. Learotha Williams, professor of History at Tennessee State University spoke for the community when he recently said there is no place “more precious to Nashville’s African American history than Fort Negley Park (Tennessean, September 1, 2017).” In 1975, thanks to the nomination of the Metro Historical Commission, Fort Negley Park was placed on the National Historic Register, designating it as a national site of historic significance. Fort Negley’s history makes it vital not just to the history of the US, but to the history of global enslavement. It is a place where the descendants of the African diaspora experienced varying degrees of enslavement and freedom. The UNESCO Slave Route Project seeks to reflect better understandings of the causes, forms of operation, issues and consequences of slavery in the world while presenting the global transformations and cultural interactions that have resulted from this history. The enslaved and freedmen who built and defended Fort Negley each had very rich and complex experiences at this fort. For some of the enslaved populations, it was a place of continued enslavement- they had been raided from a local plantation and were forced to work for the Union’s engineers on the chance that their status might change after the war. For runaways who sought to escape their enslaved status, it was a place of refuge where they could hide from the Confederate troops and slavecatchers in the fort’s contraband camp during the Civil War. For free people of color, working at Fort Negley allowed them to learn skills and make valuable connections and establish careers that would persist into Reconstruction and beyond. The story of many African-Americans ended at Fort Negley, and the story of many more began there. Most of the African-Americans who contributed to the Union cause at the fort never saw any monetary compensation for their struggles and sacrifices. Yet they fought for something larger than their own freedom or self-determination; they fought for a nation free from enslavement. In doing so, they helped move the United States away from its designation as a slave society, though many characteristics of this era persist in the present day. Fort Negley is a testament to the complicated

7 and nuanced relationships black Americans have with their nation and history. Despite its importance, Fort Negley’s story remains untold in the nation’s history. Fort Negley is a vital site to the investigation of our shared past, and a UNESCO designation will bring Americans and the world one step to the recognition of this multi-faceted and fraught history.

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Statement of Memorial Relevance

Indicate here the ways in which local relevant communities recognize this site. Be sure to include brief discussion of the most prominent sources that illustrate the memorial relevance of this site, and how it contributes to the work on memory of enslavement. These can include but are not limited to written documents, archaeological research & findings, oral traditions, and the memory of the concerned populations.

The local black community and its supporters honor the historical, cultural, and spiritual significance of Fort Negley Park in many ways. Black scholars and community organizers recognize this location, and the descendants of the Fort Negley community remember their ancestors who worked and died there in a variety of ways. Nashville’s local newspapers and social media are flooded with mentions of the site and its events, which demonstrate the ways in which it is part of the intellectual landscape of the black community.

Historian Bobby Lovett wrote “…Fort Negley and its sister forts were not monuments that a defeated South wanted to preserve. The forts were gradually forgotten and allowed to go into ruin (Lovett, 1982: 19).” But descendants of the people who built and defended the fort did not forget. Each year the African American Cultural Alliance marks the Battle of Nashville anniversary with a reenactment at Fort Negley and a memorial service to the fallen soldiers of color who gave their lives in the defense of this fort. Youtube hosts several videos that contain footage from this reenactment to underscore the importance of the Colored Regiment to the battle’s success.

An article in the Tennessean by Collin Czarnecki entitled "Memorial Day Shines Light on Fort Negley's Lost Story," features local African Americans like Bill Radcliffe and Gary Burke: reenactors of the Battle of Nashville’s Colored Regiments with family ties to the location (Tennessean, May 23, 2015). The living history interactive performances rely heavily on the themes of enslavement, liberty, heritage and equality, telling the story of the Colored Regiments, and bringing the historic abolitionist actors of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass to life alongside those who fought at Negley. These memorial ceremonies offer the community an opportunity to reflect on the sacrifices made by the US Colored Troops for the descendent population.

Gary Burke has been featured in television documentaries and numerous historical programs, most recently on the American Heroes Channel in the Civil War series Blood & Fury, which in season 1 tells the story of the 13th Regiment of the US Colored Troops in the Battle of Nashville (Wilson, 2016). Another film, “The Fall of Nashville,” viewable in the Fort Negley Theatre, is an introduction to the occupation of Nashville and the contribution of the US Colored Troops (Encore, date unknown).

Historian Learotha Williams likened Fort Negley to Ellis Island in terms of its importance to the African American community (Tennessean, September 1, 2017). It holds the same ancestral significance for them, as enslaved and free blacks from all over the US flocked to this location fully prepared to struggle in the hopes of a better life for their children. The Fort Negley community created Nashville’s legacy of liberty, education and self-determination that can be seen in the city’s contributions to Civil Rights today.

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At the opening of the Fort Negley visitor’s center in 2007, State Senator Thelma Harper, the first African-American woman state senator of Tennessee, and first woman to preside over the senate, recognized the site’s importance and came to endorse the center’s opening. Harper has been a senator for over 25 years, and has been a leader in Tennessee’s black community for longer than that (http://www.bonps.org/fort-negley/).

The Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association has also sponsored and hosted events memorializing those who fought and died at Fort Negley. In 2014, Nashville Historian Brian Allison along with living history reenactor Norm Hill led a Three-Star tour following actions of the US Colored Troops at the 1864 Battle of Nashville. They focused on this often-untold story and chose Fort Negley as a prime location because it is where the colored regiments suffered more casualties than any Union troops engaged in the battle. They irrefutably demonstrated that they were equal to veteran white troops.

The current battle over the land in Fort Negley Park has catalyzed the descendent community and other locals who recognize the exceptional nature of this site. At the foot of St. Cloud Hill, upon which Fort Negley was built, sits a defunct stadium that the city of Nashville intends to sell to developers. Friends of Fort Negley and others interested in the site are worried about what the construction could do to the artifacts beneath the stadium, and if the dynamite blasting could threaten the integrity of the Civil War era fortifications and artifacts hidden beneath the ruins of the restored fort (Bergstresser, 1994: 1, McKee 2000: ii, Alexander, 2007: 51). In response, several members of the African- American community have rallied to write letters, blog posts, and petitions to underscore the importance of this land to their history and identities (too numerous to list- see bibliography). These pieces all point to the collective memory of black Nashville’s relationship to Fort Negley Park.

The Fort Negley Park twitter account (@FortNegley) began a project tweeting out the names of all 2,500 laborers who built Fort Negley for the 155th anniversary of the fort, causing local News Channel 4 to take notice (Horan, 2017). Robert Hicks, a longtime resident of Williamson County and New York Times bestselling popular history book author, calls the Fort Negley property "hallowed grounds" that tells the story of African-Americans who died while building the fort. Hicks argues it is time to recognize the "gigantic historical legacy of our nation right here in our midst (Tennessean, September 7, 2017)." Nashville native Doug Jones agrees. In an article in The Tennessee Star, he opposes the development, arguing that Fort Negley is “sacred ground (Tennessee Star, September 8, 2017).” Ed Hooper of the Huffington Post describes the fortification as “one of the most important African American historical sites in Civil War history (Huffington Post, June 14, 2017).”

The Opinion column of Nashville’s local papers also burst with this sentiment. Alice Ganier Rolli wrote on behalf of Fort Negley to the Tennessean in the aftermath of the Charlottesville White Supremacist rally in August of 2017 that resulted in death and rattled the nation. Rolli encouraged the city to “...work with renewed vigor to heal some of our city’s treatment of sacred African American places,” and stated that “Now is the time to call on city leaders to commit the funds to appropriately protect this hallowed ground at Fort Negley where African Americans fought and died to preserve our Union (Tennessean, August 25, 2017).”

Interest groups promoting history and African-American culture have all weighed in on this controversy, citing the historical and memorial relevance of St. Cloud Hill and the surrounding areas. Information on Fort Negley, its history, and relationship to the community can be found on diverse group websites, such as the African American Cultural Alliance, the African American Registry, the Battle of Nashville Preservation Society, the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Society, Nashville

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Pride, and the Cultural Landscape Foundation. In addition to this, a host of prominent professional organizations and community liaisons has published open letters in support of keeping the land of Fort Negley Park intact. Among them the Tennessee Association of Museums, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, the Civil War Trust, the Metro Historic Commission, and the Equal Justice Initiative (www. https://savenashvilleparks.org/expert-opinions/).

The community at Vanderbilt University has also taken a keen interest in Fort Negley Park as the origin of black Nashville. It currently features in two of their course offerings for undergraduates on historic black Nashville and the digital humanities. In addition to this, the Digital Humanities Center hosts a working group called “Digital Initiatives in Community Engagement” which has selected the fort as the year’s community partner. The team of students and scholars are currently investigating ways in which to use digital tools and skillsets to preserve aspects of the fort’s history and memory which otherwise could not be experienced by visitors, such as the oral histories of the descendants and their memorial practices.

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Supporting Evidence

Include here all relevant works cited, images, index, appendices, bibliographies, etc. These can include but are not limited to books, images, maps, archaeological reports, tourism information, correspondence, websites, newspapers, archival material or any other supporting materials.

Images Cited (1-17), Followed by a Selected Bibliography

Image 1: Fort Negley Visitor’s Center Brochure to teach visitors about the US Colored Troops who defended the fort at the Battle of Nashville.

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Image 2: State Senator Thelma Harper flanked by two previous presidenets of the Battle of Nashville Preservation Society, celebrating the opening of Fort Negley Visitors Center in 2007. Courtesy of the Battle of Nashville Preservation Society, www.bonps.org/fort-negley/

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Image 3: Reenactors representing the 13th Regiment of the US Colored Troops participating in the commemoration of the opening of Negley Visitors Center, 2007

Image 4: A US Colored Troops reenactor greets a historical actor dressed as black abolitionist Frederick Douglass at the foot of Fort Negley while an audience member looks on.

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Image 5: Historical Marker placed at St. Cloud Hill by the Tennessee Historical Commission to commemorate the black laborers who helped to build the fort, and the US Colored Troops who defended it from the Confederate army in 1865.

Image 6: The Fort Negley Park twitter account, followed by over 5,000 people with a pinned tweet announcing the commemoration of the 2,500 builders of the fort.

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Image 7: Fort Negley provides a diverse array of educational and fundraising programs which keep it in touch with the local neighborhoods of Negley’s descendants.

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Image 8: Brochure explaining the controversial building plans for Fort Negley Park.

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Image 9: Lithograph of the African-American contraband workers who helped to build Fort Negley. Here they can be seen doing a wide variety of tasks while forced at the hands of white Union soldiers.

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Image 10: Federal Union Troops at Nashville’s Colored Baptist Church, forcibly recruiting African-Americans to build Fort Negley.

Image 11: Marker at Fort Negley educating the public about the building of the fort.

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Image 12: Marker at Fort Negley commemorating Samuel R. Lowery, chaplain off the US Colored Troops at Fort Negley.

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Image 13: A sample of the archival materials scholars of the Civil War used to discover details about the building and defense of Fort Negley. Pictured here are the Tennessee State Library and Archive’s collections belonging to the Chief of Engineers in Nashville.

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Image 14: Marker inside Fort Negley Visitors Center about the US Colored Troops who fought at Negley.

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Image 15: Marker inside the Fort Negley Visitors Center discussing the runaway slaves who fled to Fort Negley to escape their enslavement.

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Image 16: Marker inside the Fort Negley Visitors Center which discusses the ways in which the US Civil War was perceived of as War of Liberation by many of those who had been enslaved in the Confederacy.

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Image 17: The marker sponsored by Vanderbilt University’s Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities to commemorate the builders and defenders of the fort.

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Selected Bibliography

Archaeological Alexander, Lawrencec, Hanan Browning and Carl Kuttruff. Phase II Archaeological Investigation of Fort Negley Proposed Flagpole Installation Site, Davidson County, Tennesse. Unpublished Manuscript prepared for Zada Law and Metropolitan Nashville-Davidison County Parks and Recreation, 2007 Allen, Dan Sumner IV. An Architectural Investigation of Fort Negley. Unpublished manuscript prepared for Dr. Carroll Van West, Middle Tennessee State University, Center for Historic Preservation, Murfreesboro, Tennessee 1994 Bergstresser, Jack R., Shari D. Moore, and Susan L. Nielsen, Fort Negley 130 Years Later: An Archaeological Assessment. Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Contract No. 10991, 1994 Hickerson-Fowlkes, Inc. Architects. Fort Negley Stabilization and Restoration. Unpublished manuscript on file with the Metropolitan Historical Commission, Nashville 1999 Kuttruff, Carl. Excavations on Confederate Entrenchments, Nashville Tennessee. Division of Archaeology, 1989. McKee, Larry, and Dan Sumner Allen IV. Report of 1999 Investigations at Fort Negley: Tennessee Archaeological SITE 40DV189, A Federal Army Civil War Period Military Site in Davidson County, Tennessee, for Metropolitan Board of Parks and Recreation, 2000. Sain, Doug, and Charles R. Clymer, Archaeological Monitoring at Fort Negley, Nashville, Terracon Project No. 18155039, 2015 Smith, Samuel D. Fred M. Prouty, and Benjamin C. Nance, A Survey of Civil War Period Military Sites in Middle Tennessee. Tennessee Department of Conversation, Division of Archaeology, Report of Investigations No. 7, Nashville. 1990

Archival Metro Archives, Planview of City Reservoir. J.A. Jowett, Chief Engineer, Whitset and Adams, Contractors. Vertical File. Tennessee State Library and Archives, MF #1910 Records of the Chief of Engineers, 1862-1869, Rolls 1-4 Ben West Library, Nashville, Bill to Create Fort Negley Park Before Congress 3(132) February 6-13. Vertical File, 1928 National Archives of the United States, N.D.a. Topographical Map of the Battle Field of Nashville, Tenn., 15th and 16th Dec. 1864. Record Group 77: Z76 ½.

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National Archives of the United States, N.D.b. Battlefields in Front of Nashville Where the United States Forces Commanded by Major General Geo H. Thomas Defeated and Routed the Rebel Army under General Hood December 15th and 16th 1864. Record Group 77: T 86-5. Newspaper Beasley, Kay. “Fort Negley, Nashville’s Hidden Treasure.” Nashville Banner, March 8, 1988 Burke, Gary. "Opposition Grows Against Nashville Mayor 's Plans to Redevelop Fort Negley Park," The Tennessee Star, July 8, 2017 Czarnecki, Collin. "Memorial Day Shines Light on Fort Negley's Lost Story," Tennessean, May 23, 2015 Elder, Renee. “Expert dates Fort Negley Stone: Traces 50% to Civil War period,” Nashville Tennessean, 10 April, 1992 Garrison, Joey. “Celebrated author, Civil War Preservationist has new cause: Stopping Cloud Hill Development,” Tennessean, September 7, 2017 Garrson, Joey "Dogged by criticism, Cloud Hill beefs up team for Greer Stadium Project." Tennessean, August 28, 2017 Henderson, Bob. “Fort Negley Desecration Nashville Moves Backwards on Civil War Preservation,” Battle of Nashville Blog, July 8, 2017 Hooper, Ed. "Nashvillians Fight to National Landmark," Huffington Post, June 14, 2017 Horan, Kyle. “Original Fort Negley Builders Honored in Tweets,” News Channel 5 Network, August 25, 2017 Johnson, Dixon. “Silent-Gunned Fort,” Nashville Tennessean Magazine, May 5, 1946 Owens, Annmarie Deer, “Learn About Fort Negley’s Role in the Civil Rights Struggle,” Vanderbilt News, October 19, 2016 Phillips, Betsy. "Do the Cloud Hill Developers Even Know Whose Graves They Should be Looking For?" Nashville Scene, July 27, 2017 Phillips, Betsy "The Value of Fort Negley is Not Just at the Top of St. Cloud Hill," Nashville Scene, July 7, 2017 Phillips, Betsy "How Do We Balance a City and History?" Nashville Scene, May 18, 2017 Rau, Nate. "Greer Stadium redevelopment faces mounting pushback in Metro Council, Tennessean, July 26, 2017 Rolli, Alice G. "Fort Negley: Saving a Place to Exhale," Tennessean, August 25, 2017 Snyder, Eric. "Developer hires help for controversial Greer Stadium project," Nashville Business Journal, August 29, 2017 Teague, Cass. “Black History Month: African American Soldiers from Williamson County,” Pride Publishing Group, February 24, 2017

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Williams, Learotha. “Fort Negley, long hidden, is a map to Nashville black history,” Tennessean, September 1, 2017 White, Peter "Fort Negley About to Get Shaved," The Tennessee Tribune, June 15, 2017 Wilson, Wendy. "Opposition Grows Against Nashville Mayor Megan Barry's Plans to Redevelop Fort Negley Park," The Tennessee Star, July 8, 2017 Wilson, Wendy. "Developer Files Ethics Complaint against Metro Nashville Officials Regarding Fort Negley Development Plans," The Tennessee Star, August 31, 2017 “Workmen Unearth Original Fort Negley Walls,” Nashville Banner, May 12, 1935 “600 Will Work on Fort Negley,” Nashville Tennessean, April 9, 1935 “1,150 Men to Rebuilt Fort Negley Breastworks,” Nashville Tennessean, June 14, 1935 “The Campaign in Tennessee,” New York Times, February 25, 1862

Books Berlin, Ira, Joseph P. Reidy, Julie Saville, Thavolia Glymph and Leslie S. Rowland, eds. Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867: The Wartime Genesis of Free Labor: The Lower South, Vol. 3.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Hoobler, James A. Under the Gun: Images of Occupied Nashville and Chattanooga. Rutledge Hill Press, Nashville, 1986 Hood, J.B. Advance and Retreat: Personal Experiences in the United States and Confederate Armies. G.T. Beuregard, New Orleans, 1880 Horn, Stanley F. Civil War Centennial Commission, Chronology of Battles, Skirmishes, and Events of the Civil War Occurring in Tennessee. Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, 1962 deGregory, Crystal A., ed. Emancipation and the Fight for Freedom: Tennesee African Americans, 1860-1900. Nashville: Tennessee Historical Society, 2013.

Dobak, William A. Freedom by the Sword: The US Colored Troops, 1862–1867. Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 2011.

Durham, Walter T. Reluctant Partners: Nashville and the Union, July 1, 1863 to June 30, 1865. Nashville: Tennessee Historical Society.

Durham, Walter T. Nashville: the Occupied City, The First Seventeen Months, February 16, 1862 to June 30, 1863. Nashville: Tennessee Historical Society, 1985.

Eggleston, Larry G. Women in the Civil War: Extraordinary Stories of Soldiers, Spies, Nurses, Doctors, Crusaders, and Others.Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company, Inc. Publishers, 2003.

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Federal Writers' Project: Slave Narrative Project, Vol. 15, Tennessee, Batson-Young. 1936. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mesn150/. (Accessed August 24, 2017.)

Field, Ron and Peter Dennis, illustrator. Fortifications: Land and Field Fortifications. Oxford: Osprey, 2005.

Fisk University Social Science Institute, The Unwritten History of Slavery: Autobiography of Negro Ex- Slaves (Nashville: Fisk University, 1945)

Fitch, John, of Alton (III.), Annals of the Army of the Cumberland... (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1864)

Hale, Will Thomas and Dixon L. Merritt. A History of Tennessee and Tennesseans, Vol. 3. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1913, 668.

Hoobler, James A. Cities Under the Gun: Images of Occupied Nashville and Chattanooga. Nashville: Rutledge Hill Press, 1986.

Horn, Stanley F. The Decisive Battle of Nashville. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1957.

Lindsley, John Berrien, M.D. D.D., ed. The Military Annals of Tennessee: Confederate, First Series: Embracing a Review of Military Operations, with Regimental Histories and Memorial Rolls, Compiled from Original and Official Sources. Spartanburg, S.C.: Reprint Co., 1974 [1886].

Logsdon, David R., ed. Eyewitnesses at the Battle of Nashville. Nashville: Kettle Mills Press, 2004.

Lovett, Bobby L. The African-American History of Nashville, Tennessee 1780-1930. University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville: 1999.

McDonough, James Lee. Nashville: The Western Confederacy’s Final Gamble.Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2004.

McPherson, James M. The Negro’s Civil War. Pantheon Books, NY: 1965

Lindsley, Maggie. Maggie Lindsley’s Journal, Nashville, Tennessee, 1864, Washington, D.C., 1865. Southbury, Conn.: M.D. Mackenzie, 1977.

Maslowski, Peter. Treason Must be Made Odious: Military Occupation and Wartime Reconstruction in Nashville. Millwood, NY: KTO Press, 1978.

Massey, Mary Elizabeth. Refugee Life in the Confederacy. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964.

Massey, Ross. Nashville Battlefield Guide. Nashville: Tenth Amendment Publishing, 2007. Miller, Francis Trevelyan (ed), The Photographic History of the Civil War, 10 vols. (New York, 1957), vol. 3, 2

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Scott, Lieut. Col. Robert N. (editor), The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Vols. 16, 20, 30, 32, 39, 40, 45, 49. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. 1886-1892

Smith, John David, ed.Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.

Smith, John David, Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops. Southern Illinois University Press, 2013

Sword, Wiley. The Confederacy’s Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville. Lawrence: University Press of , 1993.

Zimmerman, Mark. Guide to Civil War Nashville. Nashville: Lithographics, Inc., 2004.

Academic Articles Lovett, Bobby L. Nashville’s Fort Negley: A Symbol of Black’s Involvement with the Union Army. Tennessee Historical Quarterly (Spring 1982: 3-22) Lovett, Bobby L. “Blacks in the Battle of Nashville, December 15—16, 1864.” Tennessee State Univ. Facility Journal (1976), 39—46. Lovett, Bobby L. “The West Tennessee Colored Troops in Civil War Combat.” West Tennessee Historical Society Papers 34 (1980), 53—70. Lovett, Bobby L. “The Negro’s Civil War in Tennessee, 1861-1865,” Journal of Negro History, Vol 61, No. 1 (Jan 1976) 36-50.

Websites http://www.nashville.gov/Parks-and-Recreation/Historic-Sites/Fort-Negley/History.aspx Fort Negley’s History, Metro Parks http://www.bonps.org/fort-negley/ Battle of Nashville Preservation Society. Accessed August 12, 2017. http://www.aacanashville.org/ African American Cultural Alliance. Accessed August 18, 2017 http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/fort-negley-tn-has-unique-black-history, African American Registry, Accessed August 15, 2017 www.tcwpa.org, Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association. Accessed September 1, 2017

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Encore Interpretive Design, The Fall of Nashville, DVD, Directed by Encore. Nashville, TN. Date unknown. Drushal, Melody. Defending Nashville: The Story of Fort Negley, DVD, Directed by Erin Carson for Belmontvision. 2009 Wilson, Robert. Season 1, Episode 5: The Battle of Nashville. Blood and Fury: America’s Civil War. TV Series, Directed by David Brady and Kate Harrison. 2016-2017

Other Media Fraley, Mark. "Interview with Zada Law: Nashville Civil War Heritage, Fort Negley," Mark Fraley Podcast, available online: http://www.markfraley.com/podcast/interview-zada-law-nashville-civil-war- heritage-fort-negley/, accessed September 4, 2017

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