Existing comment:
The Bastions:
The system of turnpikes and railroads leading into Nashville from the south and southeast led Captain James Morton to assume an assault against Fort Negley would come along the Murfreesboro-Franklin Pike corridor. Thus, a bastion front was constructed as the first tier of defense along the fort's southeastern face.
Constructed of dry-stack limestone and rough hewed timbers, the walls and roofs were covered with earth to dampen the shock from a direct artillery strike. The stacked limestone visible today was built in the late 1930s by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). |