Flag Pole

During the Civil War, each morning, the U.S. flag was raised and waved in the wind for all to see. The original flag pole was inside the fort at the very top of the hill. In the early 2000s, this location was discovered, but officials decided it was best to leave the summit undisturbed. In 2007, Nashville’s Parks and Recreation Board installed the flagpole you see today. Before digging, they hired archeologists to study the area where they planned to put the pole and the cement foundation. 

Archeologists found artifacts that spanned from the Civil War era (1860s) to the Great Depression era (1930s). Some of these buried vestiges included bullets and minie balls; brick, window glass, and nail fragments from buildings; pieces of clothing and buttons; and kitchen wares such as glass bottles and ceramic bowls and plates. With the help of these items, we can begin to imagine the people who built their homes and fortifications here. Fortifications came first; the neighborhood grew up around the fort after the Civil War. Each morning these ordinary soldiers and civilians rose, dressed, ate, worked, and played in the shadow of the flag pole atop St. Cloud Hill. Two such men were the ancestors of Dr. Eleanor Fleming, who worked to build the fort in the early 1860s:

FLEMING CLIP 1: I really had no idea until, you know, Fort Negley became an endangered site and until we kind of connected the dots thanks to Twitter that our ancestors worked, in terms of building the fort.

Gary: Fleming also recalled the social media efforts of the Ft. Negley staff in the Fall of 2017 to post the names of African American laborers known to have built, maintained, and guarded the fort during Nashville’s occupation by the Union Army. 

FLEMING CLIP 2: So, one day in I guess September I see Ruffin Bright [on Twitter]. Then I see Egbert Bright, and I'm thinking those names sound familiar to me. So, I took picture screen shots of the tweets and sent them to my Aunt. And she was like “oh yeah, yeah we do have a Ruffin and an Egbert in our family tree” and she showed me you know the kind of line to get to them. And from there, it became this adventure of rediscovering myself, by discovering Ruffin and Egbert.

Follow the blacktop path to the right of the flagpole. When you reach a Nashville Sites QR Code placard located on the fence to your right, pause and face the placard.