NEGLEY CATEGORY
USCT CATEGORY?
November 2. 2018
FLAG CEREMONY HONORS THOSE WHO BUILT FORT NEGLEY
December 7, 2018 marks the 156th anniversary of the construction of Fort Negley.
In honor of the occasion, on November 2, 2018, Ms. Tina Cahalan Jones from the Slaves To Soldiers Project spoke along with TSU Professor Dr. Learotha Williams Jr. in an event 
commemorating the 2,771 African American laborers who constructed the fortifications around Nashville during the Civil War.
As part of the ceremony, 2,771 American flags were planted on the Fort grounds to commemorate each of the individual names listed in the “Employment Rolls and Nonpayment Rolls of Negroes Employed in the Defenses of Nashville, Tennessee, 1862-1863.”
Many former African American slaves sought refuge with the Federal Army during the occupation of Nashville, but were conscripted to build Fort Negley in 1862, and then, once the forts were completed, they enlisted in the US Colored Troops. Ms. Jones’s speech focused on the men of the 12th US Colored Infantry who were largely recruited out of the ranks of these laborers.
