Fort Negley

We have an entire walking tour dedicated to telling Fort Negley’s story. We’ll tell you about some of the fort’s history here, but we encourage you to check out the exhibits in the Visitor’s Center and take the full Fort Negley tour on Nashville Sites. The walking path around the fort offers some of the best views of downtown Nashville. At the top, you can hear more about the battle of Peach Orchard Hill.

After the fall of Nashville to the Federals, the occupation forces began fortifying the city against any Confederate attempts to retake the city. To aid in the construction of the defenses, the Federal troops impressed hundreds of former slaves, commonly called “contrabands” to provide physical labor. Fort Negley, strategically located atop St. Cloud’s Hill, served as the centerpiece of the Federal defenses and more than 4,000 enslaved men, women and children completed the construction by August of 1862.

A year later, President Lincoln authorized the raising of Black troops, and thousands of African American men joined the United States Colored Troops—called the USCT. Many of them garrisoned Fort Negley and other Nashville defenses. This area was also home to refugees who escaped slavery and found protection in what were called contraband camps. Federal troops left the city in 1868, but many African Americans stayed in this area and established permanent neighborhoods like Edgehill and Bass Street. To learn more, take our Edgehill walking tour.

Fort Negley fell into a state of disrepair and was even the site of Ku Klux Klan meetings in the early 1900s. As part of FDR’s New Deal program during the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration restored Fort Negley in the 1930s. The fort was entered in to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and was designated a UNESCO Site of Memory in 2019, making it one of only five locations in the United States to be given that honor. The significance of Fort Negley in Civil War and African American history cannot be understated. Fort Negley is now part of the Metro Parks system of Nashville. Next, we will head just down the road to Nashville’s oldest cemetery.

Turn RIGHT onto Fort Negley Boulevard and follow the road around the side of St. Cloud Hill as it becomes Bass Street. Stay to the left onto Oak Street then turn RIGHT to continue on Oak Street as it borders the City Cemetery. You may find street parking here or turn RIGHT onto Fourth Avenue and immediately turn RIGHT to enter the cemetery. Continue until you reach the office building in the center. There you will find a small parking lot.