View of Ft. Negley, Ft. Casino, and Ft. Morton from College Hill during the Civil War. Second picture is same view in 2012 from near 2nd Ave. South.
Nashville was the second most important city behind Washington D.C during the Civil War. Besides Washington D.C it was also the most fortified and one of the most photographed cities in the U.S. It was a major transportation center with railroads and roads entering the city from every direction. Nashville was a major supply and medical center that supported Union armies moving South into Chattanooga and Atlanta.
Western Military Institute on the Campus of the University of Nashville during the Civil War. Sam Davis attended this school before the war. The second picture was taken in 2012 and was the former Children's Museum. It is now owned by the city.
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| The Downtown Presbyterian Church |
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| The interior of the church |
The present Downtown Presbyterian Church on Church Street in Nashville was built in 1848 after a fire destroyed the second church that had been built on this site. The first church was built in 1816 but it burned down in 1832. General Andrew Jackson was presented with a ceremonial sword after his victory at New Orleans on the front steps of the first church and was also a member. James K. Polk was inaugurated Governor of Tennessee in the second sanctuary. The present church was built by William Strickland in Egyptian Revival Architecture. Strickland also designed the Tennessee State Capital and is buried in the wall there. After the Union Army captured Nashville in 1862 along with becoming a supply center it became the leading medical center in the western theater. The Downtown Presbyterian, which was called First Presbyterian then, became Hospital #8 and it had 206 beds. Nashville hospitals were filled to capacity after such battles as Stones River, Franklin, and Nashville.
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| William Strickland |
This is a Confederate Camp, early in the Civil War, of Nashville soldiers in camp at what is now present day Hadley Park in North Nashville. John Hadley was a slave owner and his plantation became the first park for black people in the United States on July 4th 1912. His land also became what is now Tennessee State University. He was interested in helping his freed slaves adjust to freedom. He also invited Frederick Douglas to speak to his former slaves in 1873.
The Union Army held it's first review in March 1862 after the fall of Nashville on the public square. This view is on the 4th and Deaderick side of the square looking northwest in both pictures.
The first picture is the building that today houses the Ernest Tubb Record Shop on Broad Street during the Civil War. The second and third are more modern day pictures.
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| Nashville's railroad gulch during the Civil War |
The reason Nashville became the most important city outside of Washington DC during the Civil War was it's strategic location. It was virtually in the middle of the state. Major highways, like today, entered Nashville from every direction. The Cumberland River was a tributary of the mighty Ohio River and was a major waterway for delivering supplies, armaments, and men. Middle Tennessee, outside of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia was the most fertile region of the South and a major breadbasket. Last but not least there was a railroad system that connected every area of the South. The Louisville and Nashville shipped men, supplies, and armaments from the North and the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad shipped men and supplies along the Nashville and Chattanooga corridor as the Union Army moved South hoping to capture the gateway to the deep South at Chattanooga. The many wounded were shipped North to Nashville hospitals. Both pictures are looking northeast from the area of Church Street near the present day Tennessean newspaper building.
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The Davidson County Courthouse during the Civil War |
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| The modern Davidson County Courthouse |
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| Right after the fall of Ft. Donelson in February 1862 the Confederate Army burned the suspension bridge and L&N railroad bridge. The Union Army rebuilt the railroad bridge making it into a fortified swing bridge in order to allow river traffic. |
When Nashville fell to Union Forces in February 1862 Andrew Johnson was appointed Military Governor of Tennessee in March. He moved into a house across the street on Charlotte Avenue which had been the home of Lizinka Campbell Brown, a die hard rebel who would become the wife of Confederate General Richard S. Ewell. Johnson would eventually arrest and imprison many of Nashville's most prominent citizens such as pastors, newspaper editors, politicians, and businessmen. Just before the Union Army marched into Nashville there was a huge panic reminiscent of the famous panic scene in the movie "Gone With The Wind" when the Confederate Army was evacuating Atlanta. As the Confederate Army passed through Nashville headed South they evacuated as much ordinance, food and supplies as they could and destroyed the rest. One of the last things they did was destroy the suspension and railroad bridge. The flames lit up the city as if it were daylight. General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his cavalry was the rear guard. He had to use fire hoses to control the mobs of people trying to loot the city. This may have been the first time in history that fire hoses were used for riot control. As early as February 23, Union Cavalry began showing up across the river in Edgefield and the City was formally surrendered on February 25 by Mayor Cheatham to General Don Carlos Buell. When Johnson became Governor he not only fortified the city but fortified the Capital. It became known as Fort Johnson. He would panic himself on those occasions when few Union troops were on hand to fight Confederate partisans and cavalry units. Such as Forrest and Wheeler when they threatened the city. The greatest threat to the city was in December 1864 when General John Bell Hood's Army attempted to capture the city but was destroyed in the decisive battle of Nashville.
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| North Nashville from the Capital in the Civil War |
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| Modern view with my granddaughter Lydea McDaniel |
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| St. Cloud hill where Fort Negley was built |
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| Fort Negley |
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| My mother at Fort Negley with her boyfriend Allen Smith |
On February 25, 1862 Nashville was surrendered to Union Forces after the fall of Ft. Donelson. Union Captain James St. Clair Morton built a string of forts to the South and West of Nashville. The Cumberland River provides a natural defense to the east and north. Nashville became the most fortified city on the North American continent outside of Washington DC during the Civil War. Local slaves and slaves from surrounding areas flocked to Nashville thinking they would be protected by the Union Army. Nearly 3,000 of them were recruited to build the largest of the forts which would be named after General James S. Negley.
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