0:05 [SPEAKER_00]: In December 1864, Confederate troops were moving toward Nashville with the planned Union troops had occupied the southern city for the last two years, and Lieutenant General John Bell Hood wanted to take it back. 0:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Luckily, the Union Army had prepared for this very moment. 0:22 [SPEAKER_00]: By building a 180,000 square foot fortress near downtown Nashville, called Fort Megley. 0:28 [SPEAKER_00]: The Union garrison armed embraced itself for a full frontal assault, soldiers took their positions along the walls and at their posts, ready to lay down a barrage of heavy artillery on the advancing Confederates, but the assault never came. 0:45 [SPEAKER_00]: The battle-stead several miles south of the Fort Nagle, and Nashville remained unchallenged during the duration of the war. 0:52 [SPEAKER_00]: Today the ruins of Fort Nagle are a Nashville city park, just a miles south of downtown, apart from being a relaxing walking area. 1:01 [SPEAKER_00]: The fort from its elevated defensive position offers a nice view of the city skyline. 1:07 [SPEAKER_00]: While Fort Nagle never factored directly into the civil war military history, it was a crucial asset from a psychological standpoint. 1:15 [SPEAKER_00]: In order to learn more about the significance of this civil war ruin, and it's often overlocked history, I visited with Christa Castillo, the Fort Nagli Park site manager. 1:29 [SPEAKER_01]: From what we know, this was hunting grounds for native tribes, pre-white occupation. 1:38 [SPEAKER_01]: This hill was not habitated prior to the Civil War. 1:44 [SPEAKER_01]: There was a grove of oak trees. 1:46 [SPEAKER_01]: So, it was used by the community for picnicking, because it was close enough to the city that it could be a refuge for like a day, but far enough away so that people could escape disease the filth of the city. 2:03 [SPEAKER_00]: When the Civil War erupted in 1861, Nashville, like the rest of Tennessee, sided with the Confederacy, but the Confederate Army made a costly assumption. 2:13 [SPEAKER_01]: What is really amazing from a military perspective is that as important as Nashville was as a base of supplies, as a hospital center, the Confederacy did 2:30 [SPEAKER_01]: very little to secure the city. 2:33 [SPEAKER_01]: They began a fort called Zalakoffer, which was about five miles from here. 2:38 [SPEAKER_01]: But they really believed that Kentucky's neutrality would protect Tennessee from federal invasion. 2:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, it was the Confederate army that violated that neutrality in early 1862, the late 1861, that really opened Kentucky UP to federal invasion as well. 3:03 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, when Ulysses' ass crances forces did show up, after capturing a few other forts along the Cumberland River, the Confederate Army quickly raised their wife flag. 3:13 [SPEAKER_00]: But in spite of that surrender, the citizens of the city still held deep southern beliefs. 3:18 [SPEAKER_00]: This made Andrew Johnson, the Federal Military Governor of Tennessee, and the man who would eventually secede Glyncheness President, deeply nervous. 3:27 [SPEAKER_01]: So the city of Nashville surrendered to federal forces in late February following the fall of Fort Donaldson and the federal army to control of the city and in those days the best way to protect a large area was to build fortified systems. 3:50 [SPEAKER_01]: So, by the summer, with all of the Confederate hostility among civilians in the city and Confederate troops and guerrilla forces operating outside of the city, military governor Andrew Johnson became very paranoid that the city could be retaken by the Confederacy. 4:12 [SPEAKER_01]: So, they called in 4:14 [SPEAKER_01]: Captain James St. Claire Morton, who was one of the leading engineers of the time, so he devised this very elaborate fortification plan that included five major fortifications, not including the fortified capital building, 21 minor installations, two fortified bridges, and about 20 miles of earthworks. 4:37 [SPEAKER_01]: So the city was completely ringed by these fortifications on the southern 4:44 [SPEAKER_01]: and then the iron clads on the river secured the northern portion of the city. 4:51 [SPEAKER_01]: Any attack from Confederate troops would come from the south. 4:54 [SPEAKER_01]: So in mid-August 1862, they began construction on Fort Nagle. 5:01 [SPEAKER_01]: The illustrations that people give of it is that it was unlike anything anyone had ever seen. 5:08 [SPEAKER_01]: So it was basically Morton's creation. 5:11 [SPEAKER_01]: It was not the standard Star Ford or Bastion Fort developed by the French Engineer of Oban in the 17th century. 5:20 [SPEAKER_01]: He combined those two styles of fortification to create fortenagly. 5:26 [SPEAKER_01]: So there would have been three levels of defense. 5:30 [SPEAKER_01]: Two of those constructed of stone. 5:34 [SPEAKER_01]: The first level included the bashings and the redance, which are those star points, each one of those would have contained a cannon, and then the bashings were a series of chambers reinforced with wood and railroad iron and earth, so that allowed troops to move around inside of those bashings and keep watch over the southern approaches to the city. 6:02 [SPEAKER_01]: and then the second level of defense. 6:06 [SPEAKER_01]: The inner main works, those also contained cannon, and then the final level of defense was a 12-foot-high timber stockade, which protected the telegraph, observation platforms, the wigwag station, the water supply. 6:25 [SPEAKER_01]: So if the fort ever was attacked, troops would move, would just move to the interior of the fort defending 6:41 [SPEAKER_00]: Over the course of the war, the Fort would be home to thousands of soldiers and support staff who rotated in and out of the garrison on St. 6:48 [SPEAKER_00]: Cloud Hill. 6:50 [SPEAKER_01]: There would have been about a thousand soldiers living inside of the fort, including the 12th Indiana Light Artillery, which was about 75 to 100 men, and they were here the duration of the war. 7:03 [SPEAKER_01]: They were responsible for the artillery. 7:06 [SPEAKER_01]: And then other troops from primarily from the Midwest would have rotated in and out. 7:14 [SPEAKER_01]: So there were thousands of people on St. 7:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Cloud Hill during the Civil War. 7:21 [SPEAKER_01]: And units may spend six months or so here, they may stay in Nashville and guard other positions. 7:30 [SPEAKER_01]: They may 7:30 [SPEAKER_01]: moved to the front lines and fight in battles. 7:34 [SPEAKER_01]: There was a lot of movement. 7:36 [SPEAKER_01]: The only unit station here for the duration was the 12th Indian light artillery. 7:44 [SPEAKER_01]: Everybody also was very transient. 7:47 [SPEAKER_00]: But as crazy as it may sound, Morton's unique creation was essentially useless. 7:53 [SPEAKER_01]: It's pretty amazing that this fort, by the time it was built, was already obsolete because of advances in artillery technology, stone fortifications just can't withstand that force. 8:08 [SPEAKER_01]: But because the hills saw a limestone, they had no choice, but to use limestone primarily rather than earth. 8:15 [SPEAKER_00]: The fort was good for one thing, intimidation. 8:20 [SPEAKER_01]: So Fortnite was more than anything, a tangible symbol of federal might. 8:32 [SPEAKER_01]: It really was psychological warfare. 8:35 [SPEAKER_01]: A main point of contention for civilians, living in Nashville, is that a number of the cannon were pointed at downtown. 8:46 [SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of that had to do with Andrew Johnson's paranoia that Confederate sympathizing civilians would join forces with the Confederate Army or guerrillas, and they would try to recapture the city. 9:02 [SPEAKER_01]: So Johnson made it very clear that I will take action if I feel threatened. 9:09 [SPEAKER_01]: And in many ways, he felt personally. 9:12 [SPEAKER_01]: threatened. 9:13 [SPEAKER_01]: So that's something on tours that we tell people is imagine living in Nashville and you're living under the shadow of this enormous fort, 266 feet above the river and you can see the cannon pointed at you. 9:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Because Fortnite is only about a mile from downtown Nashville. 9:37 [SPEAKER_01]: So it would have been extremely intimidating. 9:42 [SPEAKER_01]: Today, the flagpole is located at the base of the hill, but during the war, it would have been located on top. 9:49 [SPEAKER_01]: So they had an 80-foot flagpole and the largest American flag they could find, which was another kind of psychological warfare used against the Confederate civilians. 10:06 [SPEAKER_00]: This show of force actually discouraged legitimate attacks. 10:10 [SPEAKER_01]: The Fort was never directly attacked. 10:12 [SPEAKER_01]: The closest anyone came was November 5, 1862, when the Fort was still under construction. 10:18 [SPEAKER_01]: Nathan Bedford Forest came within about a mile and a half of the Fort with about 2,000 cavalrymen. 10:27 [SPEAKER_01]: The Fort's artillery drove them off. 10:31 [SPEAKER_01]: and there was skirmishing a few miles from here, and at that time as forest approach, many of the laborers went to the federal officers and asked for weapons because they were prepared to defend the fort, and when they were told no, they lined the walls that were already built with their tools, and were prepared to defend. 10:56 [SPEAKER_00]: And by laborers, are you talking about, are there where I assume they weren't slaves? 11:02 [SPEAKER_01]: It was a combination of enslaved people, people who were born free, and self-amance-painted. 11:10 [SPEAKER_01]: So people had who had escaped slavery. 11:13 [SPEAKER_00]: Throughout my conversation with Christa, the laborers kept coming back up, and they deserve recognition. 11:20 [SPEAKER_00]: This group of African Americans were a big part of building and maintaining fortnagally. 11:25 [SPEAKER_01]: Because I think many of us think about enslaved people as patiently waiting on the plantations for guys in blue uniforms to show up and say, okay, everybody, you're free. 11:39 [SPEAKER_01]: And that's not what was happening in Nashville at all. 11:43 [SPEAKER_01]: When federal troops took the city enslaved people immediately recognized that this was an opportunity to pursue freedom. 11:54 [SPEAKER_00]: instead of having to make it all the way up to Canada enslaved people found refuge at Union Fords. 12:01 [SPEAKER_01]: So just to share some statistics, prior to the war, reaching freedom meant traveling hundreds or thousands of miles pursued by slave catchers over unfamiliar terrain. 12:15 [SPEAKER_01]: And even if you reached a free state, the future of slave act of 1850 made it the law that communities had to 12:29 [SPEAKER_01]: Participate in capturing and returning slaves to their slave owners at the state or the community's expense. 12:39 [SPEAKER_01]: That was one of the contentions with Northerners that basically they were funding the return of enslaved people to Southern aristocracy planters at their expense. 12:54 [SPEAKER_01]: So about 1,000 people a year escaped slavery prior to 1861. 13:01 [SPEAKER_01]: In 1862, as sports are being constructed across occupied areas in the south, that number jumped to 1,000 successful escapes every month. 13:23 [SPEAKER_01]: and by 1863 with fortifications largely complete that number rose to 1,000 every 48 hours. 13:32 [SPEAKER_01]: So enslaved people were making conscious decisions about their freedom and they were recognizing that federal troops were essentially creating pockets of free soil in the south. 13:47 [SPEAKER_01]: It still wasn't easy to reach these pockets of free soil. 13:52 [SPEAKER_01]: but it was a lot more attainable than traveling all the way to Canada. 14:00 [SPEAKER_01]: And really in the beginning of the war, it depended on the commander if they would return enslaved people to their owners. 14:08 [SPEAKER_01]: But many commanders recognized the value of laborers and there were abolitionists amongst commanders. 14:20 [SPEAKER_01]: The forts in Nashville were built by African-American laborers because it freed up soldiers for guard duty, service on the front lines, et cetera. 14:34 [SPEAKER_00]: So they weren't forced to build it, did the Union pay them to build it? 14:39 [SPEAKER_01]: That is a complicated answer. 14:42 [SPEAKER_01]: So there was always an intention to pay. 14:47 [SPEAKER_01]: But there were a lot of arguments between Captain Morton in Nashville and the war department because he's saying, we need to pay the laborers they're running away, which makes sense they're not being paid. 15:07 [SPEAKER_01]: The word department is saying, well, who should we pay? 15:12 [SPEAKER_01]: Do we pay the slave owner? 15:14 [SPEAKER_01]: Or do we pay the enslaved person? 15:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, if they're a unionist, we should pay the owner if the owners are Confederate, then we should pay the enslaved person. 15:27 [SPEAKER_01]: Then there were debates about who had the authority to pay. 15:31 [SPEAKER_01]: Morton is saying, well, 15:33 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm the engineer department. 15:34 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't have the authority to pay. 15:36 [SPEAKER_01]: That's the quartermaster job. 15:38 [SPEAKER_01]: And the quartermaster is saying, well, that's not my job. 15:42 [SPEAKER_01]: There were also people fleeing slavery, changing their names, changing their identities. 15:49 [SPEAKER_01]: There was also this ridiculous requirement on the 15:57 [SPEAKER_01]: People should be able to prove their identities. 16:00 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, how does a person who's never been granted an identity prove who they are? 16:05 [SPEAKER_01]: So what they would do is issue labor's certificates, and then you would go down on a prescribed day to an office in Nashville, present your certificate, and receive your pay. 16:27 [SPEAKER_01]: At that time, the federal army wasn't very good about paying soldiers. 16:32 [SPEAKER_01]: So there's yet, there are many letters and instances out there where soldiers are complaining I haven't been paid in eight months, so paying enslaved people or informally enslaved people was way down on their prior or new list. 16:51 [SPEAKER_00]: While these black Americans may have gotten their quote freedom in one sense of the word, they weren't necessarily treated fairly. 16:58 [SPEAKER_00]: So when the laborers asked for weapons to help defend the fort and were denied, it wasn't surprising, but over time, and so often happens, becoming familiar with one another, eliminated fear. 17:10 [SPEAKER_01]: People were still very paranoid about giving formerly enslaved people weapons because what if they used them against white people? 17:22 [SPEAKER_01]: That was, and even when they started enlisting US collar troops during the summer of 1863, they were still very reluctant to give them weapons because for, 17:36 [SPEAKER_01]: Decades of Americans have been brought up with this notion of like the slave revolt would erupt any second. 17:45 [SPEAKER_01]: So people were so fearful of that. 17:48 [SPEAKER_01]: So when they enlisted formerly enslaved men, being most often served initially on guarding railroads and things like that, they also just 18:02 [SPEAKER_01]: with weapons because they were seeing very much as sub-human and you know they obviously can't handle a weapon. 18:12 [SPEAKER_01]: What 18:14 [SPEAKER_01]: places like Fort Negley did was really start to change hearts and minds and change society. 18:22 [SPEAKER_01]: So soldiers, white soldiers from the north came here, sharing many of their same beliefs as southerners, and then over time they saw like, 18:35 [SPEAKER_01]: Wow, these people, they're hungry, they're sick, they're injured, they sleep on the cold ground at night and they get up every day and they do their work and they are devoted to the cause of the union. 18:51 [SPEAKER_01]: So the common soldier really started to see the value and would write home to their families 19:03 [SPEAKER_01]: abolition, but it was just, it was one of those things of having to be in close proximity to start seeing how light people really are. 19:13 [SPEAKER_00]: It might be easy for you or me to look back at those union soldiers or even the confederate soldiers and think that they were simply by products of their time and didn't know any better. 19:25 [SPEAKER_00]: Christa used to believe that, but not anymore. 19:28 [SPEAKER_00]: Now she believes that 19:33 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm from the North too and I always say like my biggest mistake when I came here is believing that the war is over and it for many people it's not over it's there's so much resentment and it's like the civil war is not our war it's but any and I used to think like 20:01 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, we need to view their decisions based on their beliefs at the time. 20:07 [SPEAKER_01]: And I thought, you know what? 20:10 [SPEAKER_01]: That's why people continue to make bad decisions and commit these atrocities because we're not viewing our decisions from the perspective of people in the future. 20:23 [SPEAKER_01]: So I've really shifted my thinking like, no, we need to be critical of our ancestors.
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