An album of photos related to Absalom Ross' military service

Fort Negley During the Civil War, Located in Nashville, TN Photo from the Library of Congress

Photo by John H. Ross April 2005 Image located on the site of Fort Negley.

Fort Negley, Nashville Tennessee, 1864

During the fall and winter of 1862, the Union army built Fort Negley to defend Nashville against Confederate army attacks. In February 25, 1862, after the CSA Army of the Tennessee retreated from the recent defeat at Fort Donelson, the Union army occupied Nashville. In March of 1862, President Lincoln appointed a Tennessean, U. S. Senator Andrew Johnson, to serve as military governor. Johnson implored federal officials to fortify the town. The commanding General ordered the post commander, General James S. Negley, to use the post's 6,000 soldiers to construct fortifications for Nashville. General Negley employed Captain James S. Morton, an army engineer, to design and build a large fort to protect the south roads and railroad approaches to Nashville. Because the Confederate armies still roamed parts of Kentucky and Tennessee, Morton received orders to move with all deliberate speed. On November 5, some Confederate cavalry attempted to invade the city's eastern suburbs. The Federal military drove the Confederates off and inflicted 68 enemy casualties. More federal troops arrived to garrison the town and rebuild bridges. The Union Army completed Fort Negley on December 7, 1862.   Fort Negley became the largest Union fort west of Washington, D. C. The topmost structure consisted of twelve-foot timbers, a stockade to hold horses and soldiers' quarters. Rounded wooden rifle turrets rested on top of each corner of the stockade. The artillery rested on carriages and smooth plank-flooring on the parapet (flat, platform-like area) surrounding the outside of the stockade. Three-foot ramparts (nine-foot-thick embankments of earth walled with stone) protected the flat artillery area. Projected redans protected the ramparts on the east and the west sides of the stockade. Scarps (steep slopes) and glacis (a smooth, gentle slope) rested below the east and west ramparts and parapets. Two groups of four blockhouses (bomb shelters topped with railroad iron, railroad timbers, and dirt) protected the bottom of these hills on the left and the right sides of the fort's south section. A salient system projected out to protect the bastioned blockhouses. Above the bastion was a stone scarp to protect the first two blockhouses, a passage connecting the two parallel blockhouses, another stone scarp rising above the passage, and the other two blockhouses rising above the scarp with a protected passage between these blockhouses.   Morton placed the fort's entrance on the north side with a gentle slope overlooking the city two miles beyond. The fort also had a sharp salient, a gateway, a timber guardhouse, and a loop-holed bomb shelter flanking the gate. Fort Negley, a polygonal copy of an old European design consumed 62,500 cubic feet of stone and 18,000 cubic yards of dirt; occupied 600 by 300 feet and 51 acres of St. Cloud Hill; rested some 620 feet above sea level.   The Union army abandoned Fort Negley soon after 1867. In 1975, the fort was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It is presently in the first stages of restoration. Taken from an article written by Bobby L. Lovett Transcribed by John H. Ross, December 1999 (Pvt. Absalom Ross was stationed at Fort Negley during the winter of 1864-65)

View of gun positions.	View of powder magazine.
Fort Negley today. Photos by John H. Ross April 2005

Photo by John H. Ross April 2005

The Battle of Nashville Tennessee 1864

The Slaughter Pen	The Woods	Broken Guns	The Wheat Field
Stones River Battlefield Today 23,515 Casualties in the 3 Day Battle! Photos by John H. Ross April 2005

The Battle of Stones River 1862

Battle Flags of the 70th Indiana Volunteers

Photograph taken of 70th Indiana battle flag remnants just after the capture of Savannah

Left to Right: Colonel Benjamin Harrison; General William Rosecrans; General George Thomas; Indiana Gov. Oliver P. Morton