Lost Fort Negley Gains Prominence with Visitor Center

Tomorrow, on the anniversary of the Battle of Nashville, Metro Parks officials will open a new visitor center at Fort Negley.

The site – for many years – was known only by the most dedicated Civil War buffs, like Forrest Shoaf. Decades ago when he moved to Nashville to practice law, Shoaf brought with him maps of the 1864 battle. He had used them to study combat strategy at West Point.

“I just took my old maps – literally some 1860 maps – and said the fort must have been here. And when I got there, there was a wooded hill behind what is now Greer Stadium. And I said there’s got to be a fort in there somewhere. So I just started breaking brush and then came upon it. It was just very serendipitous, just all the sudden out there literally in the woods were these great stone walls.”

Shoaf says for years that old Union fort was almost like a hidden tree house for Civil War historians. His explanation for its lack of attention is that people didn’t want to commemorate what amounted to a Confederate defeat.

The new visitor center could help lour more of the growing group of travelers known as heritage tourists. Shoaf says he doesn’t mind sharing Fort Negley but hopes it will direct interest to preserving another Civil War site from the battle – Shy’s Hill. A state marker identifies the spot where Confederate forces began their retreat, now in a residential neighborhood off Harding Place.