How much has rent gone up in the last year? Nashville is named one of the top 20 cities in the world to visit in the next decade. With the 155th anniversary of the battle of Nashville coming up this weekend we sit down with Krista Castillo, who is the museum coordinator of Fort Negley. We will all learn about this and today’s events on Nashville Daily.
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00:00:00 Hello everybody. This is the natural daily podcast. I'm Stuart Deming and I'm Amanda Deming. How much has rent gone up in the last year? Nashville is named one of the top 20 cities in the world to visit in the next decade with the 150 fifth anniversary of the battle of Nashville coming up this weekend, we sit down with Krista, who is the museum coordinator of Fort Negley. We will learn all about this and today's events and more on the Nashville daily.
00:00:33 All right guys. Aaron is on a leave of absence for maybe a day or two. We all know you. If he wants to tell the story, that's completely up to him. What happened. But we've had Amanda on before. She is my beautiful wife and she is on again. She's co-hosting with me today. So Amanda, what are your thoughts on traffic? I have said it before and I'll say it again. I hate traffic. I prefer for Stuart to drive me everywhere because it gives me so much anxiety and it stresses me out. So that's how I feel about traffic. Yeah, that's, that's very accurate. I drive her to work a lot, so I absolutely hate driving around. I think there is a lot of people who do not know how to drive in the city and that's even more accurate. So guys, be on the lookout for our traffic theme.
00:01:26 The tee shirts, they're coming, they're probably coming after the new year because Christmas is just a headache for everybody trying to spend money. So if you guys get some gift cards, you can spend money on our shop at eBay, www.xplr.life. So some events happening in Nashville. You have Amy Grant and Vince Gill at the Ryman is seven 30 tonight. What's happening at T pack? It looks like Patrick's Barlow's a Christmas Carol. It's happening tonight at 7:30 PM and then also happening at T pack. You have a Latin and his winter wish that's happening at 7:00 PM, which is actually like a twist on the original Aladdin story. Oh, I did not know that. Yeah. So it's like a twist. So it's not going to be like the movie necessarily. Oh, have you seen it? No, I have not. I was just reading about it. Oh okay. Cause I thought it would be like another wish she had later, but it's not, is this winter wish?
00:02:26 So he must be wishing for a blanket cause it's getting cold. Yeah. Maybe a happening at Bridgestone arena. You have Luke Combs that's tonight and tomorrow night at 7:00 PM we have street eats, which is downtown on Diedrich streak and I just found this new food truck. Literally cannot remember what it's called, but it's like a Mac, Mac, Don Nash, Mac and Nash. It's like Mac and cheese. Yeah, it's a Mac and cheese food truck. And they're going to be at street eats today from 11:00 AM to two. It sounds like our next date right there. Yeah. I looked at some of their Mac and cheese. I have a Mac and cheese waffle with hot chicken on top or that sounds like what's that one place that has the waffle with the macaroni and cheese in it? Oh, the waffle cone. The music city chicken company for a second Avenue.
00:03:16 It's kinda like that. But this is actually maybe, but this is a actual Mac and cheese waffle. Oh, Mac and cheese is the waffles, the waffles. Oh, that's okay. That's pretty different. Sounds pretty darn good. Happening in Midtown. You have whiskey jam. This is happening at winners at 8:00 PM. And then you have a country Christmas at Gaylord. Amanda, you work there for a few years. You talk about your experience and what's your favorite memory from a country? Christmas. yeah, so I did work at Gaylord for quite a few years. A country Christmas is a very magical time. I would highly suggest trying to go on like a week night. It gets a really crowded on the weekends during the day. It's less crowded as well, but you don't get to experience those beautiful lights. So definitely just, I would suggest going and looking at the lights, but really making sure that you're in the moment there.
00:04:15 So don't like have your cell phone out taking photos or anything, just be there with like with whoever you're with and make sure that you're really cherishing that moment. And I also, I really love going out to the Magnolia drive with a nativity scene is, and they have all those lights lit up. Yeah. They cover the trees completely. Like in those round lights. It's pretty fun fact they start decorating those in like June. Yeah. It's insane how fast, how fast, how long it takes a decorate a country. Christmas. The, the horticulture team is out there like June, July, hanging those lights and it's just kind of miserable watching someone sweat so much while hanging Christmas lights. But anyways, I would highly suggest going out there and if you're with like a significant other, just kind of standing underneath those lights and capturing that moment together.
00:05:10 I really love that. Yeah, it's a fun experience. Head over to ice featuring a Christmas story the other day I said Japanese ice artists and I was wrong. They're actually Chinese ice artists. Yes. And this is a Christmas story. 2 million pounds of ice. Amanda said, I'm not, we're not really sure, but they, she thinks that they marry cycle the, I cannot be member. I feel like they have a little exhibit inside or at least they did a couple of years ago that kind of explains the process of the ice. I do know that it's like really extensive because they get such clear ice, especially for that nativity at the very end. Spoiler alert, keep that one stored somewhere. But where would you store it? Cause it's like it's five degrees in there. Oh yeah, it's cold and they give you a parka. They do a beautiful blue park. It's a really beautiful with no pockets.
00:06:08 The Parker doesn't have pockets so make sure you bring gloves. Yeah. Unless you want to just have your arms and your things. Didn't I go one year and I was just wearing like a tee shirt and I was just walking around in the cold. Yeah. Humans are taking your park off parka on my parents were like what are you doing because you can bet your bottom dollar. My, my mom's Parco was like down to her ankles cause she's so small. I think. I think last year I brought your dad gloves in the hat when we went. Yeah. We have some funny stories from ice happening at the zoo. You have zoo lumination. This is happening until February 2nd. There are times or 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM happening in Germantown. You have Glo holiday or glow Nashville is what they're calling it here in Nashville at first Tennessee park.
00:06:52 This is happening from 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM. They are closed some Mondays, so I think they're closed the next two or three Mondays. But it's still a great experience in Germantown and then happening over in West Nashville. You have holiday lights at Cheekwood. This is from five to 10:00 PM. I don't know cause there's, so there's a lot of things with lights going on, which that's just a Christmas thing. Did any, did you like when you were a kid drive around neighborhoods and go see Christmas lights? We did a little bit. There are some neighborhoods that would decorate, but we put up Christmas lights of our own. Not extensively like it was on, but they weren't like, the thing is, is like today everyone's doing all these big elaborate lights, things with new music and Oh yeah, they have app control or controlling the lights. So there that definitely was not a thing when I was a child.
00:07:48 I just, I remember vividly my family would all pile into the car and we would drive around our neighborhood and go look at lights. And someone the other day was talking about how there's no lights anywhere in Nashville, like neighborhood type lights that you can see. And I was like, well first of all we're, we're talking at the JW Marriott. And so I was like, you probably live in an apartment downtown. So no, no one's decorated. I was like, you need to get out and get into a neighborhood. I mean, the neighborhood I grew up and over on Lake Charlotte pike, huge decorations back in the day. So I would suggest driving around the town, like driving around Nashville and finding some of those neighborhood lights. I think Fox 17 has a map where you can find the best neighborhood lights. But speaking of neighborhoods, rent has gone up 3% in the last year, all over the city of Nashville.
00:08:43 How, how much percent is 3%? According to WK RN, a new data shows rent prices in Nashville are up nearly 3% over the past year. It's the seventh fastest growth rate among the nation's largest cities. So I originally think 3% isn't that much. But when you're already paying a lot, 3% starts adding up really quickly. Oh yeah, absolutely. But that's not like 3% is nothing compared to the top five list that WK RN released. So in music Rose, this is the, this is the top five neighborhoods that re increased in rent prices in the last year. So number five is music row price increased over the past year. 13.65%. Oh my goodness. Average rent for a one bedroom in music row is $2,000 2022 and 84 cents. That's a one bedroom. That's a one bedroom. Hmm. Wow, that's expensive. But that's not even the highest rent yet. So what's the next neighborhood that's gone up?
00:09:52 It looks like we have Midtown price has increased over the past year. Oh my goodness. 18.5, 6%. So a one bedroom and Midtown the percentage is higher, but it is up to $1,935 and 33 cents. So a little cheaper than music grow actually for one bedroom. Yeah. And then the next neighborhood is found on the West end park. So this is like Centennial park right behind Centennial park. So like that whole little square, these are just getting worse and worse. Getting worse. Third on the list, price increase over the past year has gone up 19.37%. The average rent for a one bedroom in West end park is 1600, $672. That's reasonable. That's, yeah, that's, that's cheaper than most places. So if you are able to afford a one, like you're living completely by yourself and you're able to afford that, kudos to you or you're just in a lot of debt because the average salary may not be able to afford that Asheville.
00:11:08 But there is definitely a possibility, but this is not bad. So East Nashville's price increase over the past year is 42.74%. The average rent for a one bedroom in East Nashville is a $1,467 and 73 cents. That's honestly not terrible. That's not bad. That's not, that's not bad at all. But what's number one, Amanda? Number one is green Hills. Which no, I was surprised by this. Really? Yeah. Because I, there's a lot of development in green Hills but not compared to Midtown and downtown. Hmm. Well it has increased 51 point 82% so over 50% increase, which is insane. The average rent for a one bedroom in green Hills, $1,967 and 55 cents. So yeah, I guess I don't think of green Hills is like a spot that you, cause it's not downtown. No, but they have that, they have that brand new development in green Hills that's across from the green Hills mall and it's a huge, like it's a monster.
00:12:22 And so that's probably what brought rent up. Cause I think that doubled the amount of rentals in green Hills. What would you constitute green Hills? Like would it be kind of more towards Bellmead or more of like that West end? Like where do you draw the line? I would say green Hills and at Bellmead like Harding and highway 102 Lipscomb university. Okay. Four 40 to Harding place. I would say that's all of green Hills and like, like I know some people are gonna be like, well that's forest Hills and Oak Hills. I think that's just a part of green health because all part of green Hills. So that's why I would classify green Hills and I understand that price going up cause they have to, that's, that's your higher end classification of people. It's a nice, like it's a nice area to live in and it kinda comes with like a little bit of a status.
00:13:17 Like when you think of green Hills, when I think of people who live in green Hills, I think money. Yeah. I think everyone thinks money. Yeah. So all right. Nashville has been named top 20 global destination by, is it Conde? Conde Nast traveler, CN traveler. That's what I know them as on Instagram. I know what their actual publication was until I read this. But this is found on the Tennessee and or you could head over to the publication and Nashville was included alongside Armenia. Is that Armenia? Yeah. Copenhagen. Oh Okinawa, Okanawa, Japan, Tangier, Morocco, Metz, France and Southwest Michigan. Y'all, I literally had to pause on that because we're talking about Japan, France, Southwest Michigan. So I read this list and I was, I was super intrigued, so I read the different cities, but Southwest Mister in Michigan is just that's where you have a lot of those sand dunes and like the big Lake.
00:14:22 And so a lot of people are traveling glare. I wish you all could see my face right now because I am not amuse. Sold on Michigan. Yeah, it's, yeah, but whatever. So Nashville and Southwest Michigan are the only places in the United States that made this top 20 list of all of the plates, all the places. I'm still blown away. So South West Michigan and Nashville, they mentioned the opening of the national museum of African American music and the incredible food scene here in Nashville. And that's what set us apart from all these other cities worldwide is the opening of this museum that's opening, hopefully early summer, maybe mid summer 2020 and then our food scene, it mentioned the James Beard award winning chefs. It mentioned the amount of restaurants that have opened and how we've become a foodie city. Did it mention how many restaurants have closed? No, it did.
00:15:15 So, but the Nashville convention and visitor corpse has said the recognition marks the city's eighth consecutive year to be named a top destination by a national or international publication. And so congratulations Nashville to being on a list. We've been on TripAdvisor we've been a travel and leisure. We've been on this one. We've been on numerous lists about number one place to visit in America, or this is more of a top 20 destinations for the next decade. Yeah, I think there's definitely a lot of things that are happening in Nashville. That's making it that destination. I think rightfully so, but I am very pumped about the national museum of African American music. I'm, I'm ready for it to be open so we can get in there and experience. I think it's going to be a really cool museum. This is going to be in fifth and Broadway. We've talked about fifth and Broadway all the way back.
00:16:10 Hold on, on episode nine, that's when we talked about fifth and Broadway. So you guys can go back and listen to that episode. But fifth and Broadway is going to have this open food core and retail and the national museum of African American music. It's just going to be this really cool place, a flagship Apple store supposedly going there. But since we are talking about food at fifth and Broadway, let's talk about where we have eaten locally. I had the opportunity to have sunflower bakery, which is found on a weapon, Lebanon pike in Donaldson. And my inlaws, Amanda's parents graciously brought us this food. So this food is completely vegan. And we had a bistro burger and then just the regular classic burger. And then we had potato soup, their version of Mac and cheese. Makin at there was a plane and then an herbs, herbs.
00:17:04 And then we also had cupcakes. We did. And there was a banana cupcake, a cha or an Abinash chocolate. Oh my gosh. There was a pumpkin, a cupcake, carrot cake. A chocolate like delight. And then the snowball. Snowball. So overall, this is my first time eating sunflower bakery. I was impressed. It is a vegan. Did we mention that? Yeah, it's vegan. It's vegan. Everything is literally everything on their menu is vegan. Yeah. So my mother is vegan and so she's really getting us into the different vegan options in the city, which is a huge like that, that market right now is really booming. So tweet us and tell us what your favorite vegan place or even vegetarian, just kind of a really great restaurant for those dietary restrictions. Yeah. X PLR, underscore Nash and Amato. You guys, those cupcakes were good. They were very good.
00:18:01 They were denser but I wasn't mad about it. I wasn't mad about it cause there was a cupcake and it tasted good and we didn't pay for it and we, yeah, we didn't pay for it. So my parents got them to us. So I mean you can't complain about that. But my father in law is listening. Thank you. Thank you dad. So Amanda, where did you eat that recently? So this may be shocking, but I ate at Plaza mariachi. We store and I were on like this Mexican food kick and I think we just kind of had skipped over Plaza mariachi. And so for literally days he was like, I'm craving Plaza mariachi super close to where we go to church. So after church we hopped over there and see experience a Plaza mariachi. The food is good love. So we usually go, I usually go on a Sunday because it's right after church.
00:18:54 I love walking in and there's that mariachi band and it just, you can't be in a bad mood with the mariachi band. That's true. You can't do it. That's very true with a Mexican Popsicle. Like, so what did you have for your entree? And then we'll talk about the Mexican Popsicle. Oh, I I got a chicken Kaisa DIA. Okay. Was it good? Yes. Oh my goodness. It was so good. But I will be honest. The food is incredible. They're great price point. But the case said DIA made me miss Oscars. Oscars, taco shop. Yes. I, there was just something about it where I was just like, man, I could really go for some Oscars right now, which is kind of bad when you're eating another place and you're thinking of another place. The food was incredible though. Perfect size for me. I don't need a huge meal.
00:19:45 But then they also have meals. We were with someone who got some nachos, looked like it could feed like three grown men. Oh yeah. Those nachos were huge. And then you had the Mexican popsicles. So talk about this. Yes. So I got the mango Mexican Popsicle. The thing I love about Mexican popsicles is they're so much a whiter and so you don't feel super crummy after eating it, which you sometimes can feel after you eat ice cream. Cause it's just so much heavier. So just like a good, I got the Mingo, great mango flavor of light fruity. So it was really great. So Plaza mariachi is found in South Nashville on Nolensville pike. I would highly recommend checking it out. You can go over to our YouTube video and also watch a video on Plaza mariachi. We have Kevin Graham also on that video and he's speaking in Spanish.
00:20:40 Just a really cool video, super unique, something we've never done. So head over to our YouTube channel to watch that every single day. We like to give you guys explorers Nashville tip of the day. So my tip or explores tip is head to Centennial park off of Westin experience the park. I know a lot of the park is under construction right now. They're doing this whole redevelopment of the park, but there's still aspects of the park that are opening. The sidewalks are still open. The pond is still open. Gardens still open, the gardens is still open, but right now there's nothing there. So, but in the springtime there will be full blown gardens. They're going to be open but then go inside of the Parthenon. The Parthenon is an attraction that's under $10 per person inside their Parthenon. Inside the Parthenon there is a little gallery showing how the park was built.
00:21:28 And then besides that or forward in front of that, there's an art gallery featuring different local artists. It's fantastic. Under $10 and then head upstairs and see a statue of Athena. The statue of Athena is one of the largest indoor statues in the Western hemisphere. It stands at 42 feet. This is actually something that I would really like to do. I've been to Centennial so many times but I honestly have never been inside of the Parthenon. I have been inside once I was in middle school or high school, so it's been a little while. I know it hasn't been too long, but it has been a while a night. Like I think that as an adult, cause I was definitely not as focused on the Parthenon as I should have been cause I was on a high school field trip. So I was definitely concerned about boys.
00:22:27 But I think I would be able to appreciate it much more now. And honestly like getting to know you, I've started appreciating history a lot more and kind of the beautiful things that we have. So I also didn't really realize that the Parthenon is such a huge deal because I grew up with it. So I was like, Oh yeah, there's our Parthenon. We're the only city in the world that has a full scale exact replica. It's off like a third of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch from Athens, Greece. And ours is actually standing. The one in Athens is destroyed. Did you know that wasn't really in ruins until 1667? How do you know that date? I saw it on the internet, so it's gotta be true. Right when the Parthenon in Athens, Greece fell down. It was earlier than that.
00:23:18 I am sure we will be looking that up later tonight. I'm going to be up until four o'clock in the morning trying to figure out when the Parthenon in Athens, Greece was just in the middle of the night. Stuart's gonna be like, are you awake? I found the Parthenon date. So that is our Explorer's tip of the day. This episode of Nashville daily is brought to you by screen to threads. Screen threads is a Nashville CUREE shop located in historic marathon village. You use code Nashville daily to get percent off your next online order. Their website is screened. The threads.com mentioned this ad in store get 10% off as well. Screen threads.com Amanda and I just got our Christmas sweaters done and a work on the probe sent them on Christmas day and guess who did them screen the threads. They did our custom sweaters for us. So guys, if you're looking for custom apparel, they have those options.
00:24:08 Yeah, and I, we also, we just finished burning our last screen threads, candle. So fortunately my mother had just gotten me another candle, but I think I'm going to have to go and whisper Nashville daily and get 10% off so I can get [inaudible] probably stock up on those things because their holiday candles are about to expire after Christmas. They're no longer sell them after Christmas. Oh wow. Yeah. So I need to get in there and make sure I get it. Yes, I totally agree. So guys, Aaron and I had the opportunity to sit down with Christa Castello. She is the museum coordinator of Fort Negley. So guys, enjoy this interview. This is segment one or of two. So first episodes coming out today. Second part is coming out tomorrow and you guys go learn about the Fort Negley, the battle of Nashville. And this upcoming Sunday is the hundred and 55th anniversary of the battle of Nashville.
00:25:07 All right, our guest today is Kristen Castillo. She is the museum coordinator at Fort Negley. And so Krista, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. We are excited. We love Fort Negley so we're excited to have you here. Thank you for the invitation. Yes. Okay. So we are at Fort Negley and you know, we're just going to pretend like, you know, we don't know what Fort Negley is. We're, we've, you know, there's this giant lump of, of, of dirt and grass and you know, in this downtown area. And you know, you drive past a skyscraper there. Yeah. You drive down the interstate and you're like, there's just a big giant Hill in downtown and there's probably a lot of people who are not familiar with this area. So what exactly is Fort Negley?
00:25:56 All right. Well I'll take you way back to pre history. Back to when Tennessee was a tropical shallow sea about 500 million years ago. So we had all of these little sea creatures dying, falling to the bottom condensing over time due to pressures. We have, so it created all of this limestone when the national basin eroded away. The really hard stuff like the limestone didn't erode. So we're left with these basically solid limestone knobs. And one of those is st cloud Hill wedge, which is what Fort Negley is today. So Fort Negley park is about 60 acres. We have very little surface soil here because it is really solid limestone. And the, so it's a, it's a, you know, a public green space in a rapidly developing urban area. And then right in the, in the, the center point of the park is the remains of a federal Fort built during the civil war. Okay. Yeah.
00:27:17 Perfect. That's really cool to learn about its history even before the civil war. And people said national never had an [inaudible]
00:27:27 Yeah. Was this private land before the civil war? It was. Okay. It was a, so you're probably familiar with traveler trust. Yep. So judge John Overton began buying up property in Nashville in the early 18 hundreds and st. Cloud Hill was one of those properties that he purchased. We really have no idea where the name st cloud Hill came from. That's one of the big mysteries, but but no one lived here. So it was basically prior to the civil war, a popular picnic area. Okay. so even though it is so close to downtown, it offered people living in the city and escape from all the disease and Phil. So it was a nice little day trip.
00:28:21 Yeah. Yeah. What's the elevation of st? Cloud Hill? It's about 260 feet above the Cumberland river. So it is not Nashville's highest Hill. I was about to say. It's probably pretty close. I mean, you can the, you can see a lot from Fort Negley, but there's also a lot of points that you can seek close to Fort Negley that are, that are pretty high in Nashville. What made Fort Negley the spot that was chosen in a, to build a federal?
00:28:54 Well, it is low key. It was located very close to two railroad lines. The railroad lines are, are just at the base of the Hill separating us from Nashville city cemetery. And then you have all of these Southern Pikes also converging. So you have Franklin pike, Murfreesboro pike, and Olin Ceville pike all within sight range of Fort Negley. And the Southern approaches to the city is what was really important to protect because there were so many federal gun boats on the river and attack from the North was really would, it would have been pretty unlikely. So they were really concerned with watching those Southern approaches.
00:29:42 Yeah. We recently in doing an episode of this podcast, one of our earlier episodes, we learned the design of the city and went through some of the, the plans and how people were designing the city. We'd learned a lot of the Pikes were built from Buffalo trails that, so it's, it's pretty cool to see a lot of Nashville history kind of coming together and everything because it, it, it all connects. It's really cool to see. Okay. So let's talk about maybe Nashville just right before it's, it's time of actually occupation and everything. What was Nashville like right before either the civil war right before its occupation?
00:30:25 That is a, that's a really fascinating question. Nashville was a really unlike other Southern cities. It was very cosmopolitan a large emphasis on education and arts. And, and what made it so desirable to the military were all of those large buildings that went along with that. They can store stuff in the warehouse. Exactly. Source stuff and troops. Another so you ha so you have all of this focus on arts and education, but then at the same time you have this slave system that was also unique to Nashville in the way that you had a combination of enslaved people, free people, and then quasi free people, which means there were slaves that were being rented out and they were essentially living on their own, but their wages were going back to their masters. And because you had this very strange combination of slaves and free people, there was a lot of concern from the founding of Nashville all the way up to the civil war that, you know, some of these enslaved people and quasi free people would start getting ideas from the other free people and they, they might want to start an insurrection.
00:32:02 So really everyone, everyone that was considered by the Nashville elites to be kind of undesirable were, were pushed out beyond the Capitol in the area of the old prison, Tennessee state prison. So, so it was a really interesting and complex society. One that you read stories of visitors who came and there's a definite division between the very wealthy and the very poor and there doesn't seem to be like that in between. Yeah. And I think one of the most, you know, startling images if is you have all these people living around this, this opulent Capitol in the 1850s, this opulent Capitol building, right? What was the population number around this time? So it in 1860, it was about 17,000. Okay. So you have, you have this, this opulence on the, on Capitol Hill and then surrounding Capitol Hill. And all of this is in view of the people that are living in absolute poverty and the people that are, that are living in what quickly became known as hell's half acre are walking to [inaudible].
00:33:29 That's that, that's a Hill that's down from the Tennessee state Capitol, correct? Yep.
00:33:34 [Inaudible] Yeah. And you have them, you know, you have people walking to work in the mansions and the hotels and the restaurants and they're walking right past the slave dealers and the slave jail because everything was congregated around that Capitol Hill. So it was a extremely interesting time. And shockingly hell's half acre existed well until the 1970s.
00:34:05 Yeah, it's the photos. I've seen the historic photos. They are insane looking. Yeah, that's, yeah, it's extremely sad. So how did Nashville become a Confederate city then?
00:34:16 So Nash or Tennessee is initially voted against the session but following the, the surrender Fort Sumpter and Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops the state had a re vote in June, 1861 and the state voted to secede. Nashville was a bit divided. There were, there were unionists, union of slave owners, secessionists obviously secessionists slave owners. Once the state voted to succeed, a lot of, a lot of the unionists left to Nashville. But there was still, there was still a lot of division. So it was obviously Nashville became the capital of of succeeded state. Yeah. there was a lot of you know, there was a lot of tension. It was a very, very much decided city divided city. It literally was in Nashville like another places, brother, brother, neighbor against neighbor, you know, people who had been best friends forever were suddenly against each other.
00:35:45 You know, anyone displaying any kind of of patriotism toward the United States was, was immediately suspect. Unfortunately or fortunately, it depends on how you look at the outcome of the civil war. As, as important as Nashville was. The Confederacy did virtually nothing to secure the city or the S or really the state. Interesting. So they built forts Henry and Donaldson to the Northwest of Nashville. They really relied on Kentucky's neutrality to protect the South. The Confederate started establishing the supply base here right around the time of that succession vote. When the, when the fall of Fort Donaldson occurred, there were about 7,000 Confederate troops in Nashville. Oh, wow. And the fall of Fort Donaldson came as a complete shock to citizens and national. They went to bed the night before, believing that it was in the bag. The Confederacy had one. They got up the next morning, they went to church. Church services are interrupted. They're told Fort Donaldson has fallen. A federal army is marching this way. The gunboats are coming and panic broke out.
00:37:24 Yeah. How many soldiers at the federal army have at Fort Donaldson was over 25,000. I think
00:37:32 That's a good question. I don't have to look that up,
00:37:35 But no, that's okay. So how, when they use the Confederates had the city of occupied, and most of those troops or soldiers were stationed near Capitol Hill, correct. At the time of when the Confederates were occupying Nashville. So when the union or the federal army came into Nashville, what did that look like?
00:37:54 So it took, it took almost two weeks for them to arrive from right from that announcement. And so in the meantime, you have Confederate soldiers who had been at Fort Donaldson trickling in and you know, they're hungry, they're tired battle worn, and they're telling, they're telling the public all of these things, like they're coming, they're gonna burn down the city, they're gonna bomb the city. And the Confederate army decides to live to fight another day and they start preparing to move out. So they are taking, you know, the S the stores, the rations, they're trying, they're confiscating every train car, every civilian cart, everything they can find to take their supplies further South. And the public rightly so, starts panicking. It, it appears that they're taking all of the food out of the city. So they're not saying around a fight?
00:39:04 No, no, no. There were only about 7,000 here. So I knew they would not stand. They did. And at the same time, the, the state legislature moves out, the governor leaves, they take the they take the archives with them. They decide that they're going to reconvene in Memphis. So the state government essentially abandons the civilians in Nashville. So you're left with the, with the city government to make a decision on what to do. And they have people at this time have all of this knowledge about the, the Wars and the revolutions in Europe and they certainly don't want to, you know, turn out to be a Moscow where their city is completely burned to the ground. So they decide very early on that they are going to surrender when troops arrive. Wow. Gosh, that's that's interesting to see like an entire Capitol just pretty much abandoned.
00:40:11 Yes. And the descriptions are pretty amazing. Just people fleeing as fast as they can. You know, men riding on top of train cars, women and children inside train cars. Many of the big supporters of the Confederacy the big plantation owners, the men fled South, leaving their wives and their children behind to take care of the, take care of everything at home and secure their property. All right, so, you know, now the federal army is in Nashville. What's the, what's the date of this during the civil war? This is February 25th and 26th. Okay. Gotcha. In 1862, 1862 and so obviously now the federal army has to, you know, find some way to defend Nashville. Yes. And I'm guessing this is how Fort Negley came into existence. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So the federal army comes in, they completely locked down the city. So newspapers are shut down, mail is not getting in or out.
00:41:27 People are not allowed to leave. It's, it's this effort to try to root out who is loyal to the federal government and who is not because Abraham Lincoln fully believed that the unionists in Nashville were being oppressed. They were in the majority, but they were being oppressed by the secessionist and all they needed was someone to come in and encourage them to stand up. And what they found was that there was definitely more secessionist Ferber than they imagined. So Andrew Johnson is appointed military governor of Tennessee because he was a Senator from Tennessee, the only Senator from a seceding state that it did not resign his position. He was a slave owner, but he was also a unionist. So he was very much like an olive branch, you know, we're going to send you one of your own. Unfortunately, outside of East Tennessee, Johnson was not well liked.
00:42:40 So Johnson was very much had a hand with the fortifying of Nashville. So throughout the, the late winter, spring and summer there was a lot of Confederate irregular activity in the countryside. So people that, that weren't necessarily associated with the Confederate army, but operating right in the, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then also you had, you had people like Nathan Bedford Forrest constantly threatening to recapture the city. But you have war heating up farther South. You need soldiers on in the field. So at the time, the best way to do, to protect a large amount of territory was to build fortifications. Okay. Okay. So by May, 1862 James st Clair Morton was promoted to chief engineer of the army of the Ohio leader army of the Cumberland. He came to Nashville. Personally chose the sites that would be used for the fortifications.
00:43:59 The work began in August. The, the labor force was comprised primarily by free African-Americans, enslaved people, and self emancipated people. Okay. Gotcha. So when, throughout that spring and summer what, what the federal army did was essentially create pockets of free soil in the South making escape, a lot more attainable for enslaved populations built to fortifications. You could become a Freeman. Right. Okay. Right. So, so you have, you have soldiers congregating on these Hills that have been chosen for the fortifications, right. Which is Welk, very welcoming to enslave people. So you kind of have you have people coming in and rebuilding their life, trying to rebuild new lives and freedom at the same time that the army is planning to build these fortifications. Yeah. so that's where the labor force comes from. Okay. And you know, in slate, enslaved people are often portrayed, at least that's been my experience in school, that enslaved people were portrayed as just passive bystanders who were handed freedom earned by others to talk about anything else.
00:45:42 Exactly. Right. But what you find at Fort Negley, the rest of the fortifications in Nashville any other occupied cities, is that enslaved people made calculated decisions? Yeah, they were, you know, they were getting information. They, they understood that if they left the plantation, they were walking into complete uncertainty. They had never seen northerners before. They didn't know if they were sympathetic to their plight. Even though the distances were drastically reduced, they still had to be on the lookout for slave catchers. Masters tracking them. They knew once they left the plantation, it was likely they would never see their family again. They knew that they were walking into a situation where there was overwhelming disease, lack of supplies lack of housing. So they really made those those difficult choices. And what's really amazing Dr. Thomas [inaudible], who's a professor at Cumberland community college, did his dissertation and found that the majority of slaves who successfully escaped were women and children.
00:47:19 Cause women understood that the law at the time said your condition of slavery was based on your mother's condition of slavery. So they understood if they could get themselves freedom, they could get their, their children and all future children's, all future children to freedom. Yeah. It makes me think of a Harriet Tubman. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, they really understood and made some extremely difficult decisions. And I think one of the, one of the, you know, really frustrating things that I hear much more often than I'd like is, well, you know, they were better off in slavery and that's just, I mean, that's incomprehensible. I mean, yeah. Right. They didn't take those risks for no reason. Exactly. Exactly. And I, you know, and I asked sometimes when I ask people, you know, let's say that like, are you saying you would volunteer? Is that right?
00:48:23 You know, so I mean, we don't, we don't understand what it's like to not be free. We were born free. Right. We really can't judge others while we're on this topic. I remember, you know, I think a lot of people had read in the news a little while ago, a few years ago, year or two ago, that there were things that were found on this property, you know, during the, was it the demolition of Greer stadium? Do you want to talk about that? Yes. so in 2016, 2017 the city of Nashville attempted to open up the portion of Fort Negley park previously occupied by Greer stadium for private development. Okay. so of course a number of historians preservation is concerned. Citizens began questioning that because even when it was decided in the 1970s to build Greer stadium you know, it was, it was, seems to have been pretty common knowledge that there was that that had been civil war burial ground.
00:49:49 Oh, wow. Prior. so the city hired an archeologist, Tennessee Valley Valley archeology archeological research. They conducted a survey and what they found was a high likelihood of human remains. So fortunately when the athletic park was built by the works progress administration in the 1930s and forties, they brought in several feet of filtered, which protected those archeological deposits. Oh, interesting. And then through ground penetrating radar, the archeologists also found a NAMMily Lee's that could be interpreted as graves. Okay. Gotcha. So phase two of the, of the survey is set to begin next month and hopefully we will get more data on that property and what kind of remains are over there. Okay. How long are they estimating phase two to take?
00:51:04 Maybe a month. Six weeks. Is any of this ground penetrating? That I'm not sure about. Okay. I know they will be digging test pits. Gotcha. At this point, they did dig some test pits as part of that 2017 survey as well, but did not recover any human remains. Gotcha out. What we do know is that because of the number of deaths in Nashville during the civil war, the city cemetery could not hold everybody, hold everyone. So additional cemeteries had to be consecrated. And we know that. Some of those are within Fort Negley parks border borders. So there's a, there were an estimated 40,000 people buried in Nashville during the civil war and we only know we only have records on about 15,000 of those, which were largely federal soldiers and some Confederate soldiers. So civilians, we really don't, we don't know a whole lot about where they are. Okay. Yeah. So going back to the forts, you know, we talked about you know, a lot of it's, it's labor force and everything. The design of the Fort is actually something that is pretty cool and it's pretty special about Fort Negley. Do you want to talk about the, the design of, of Fort Negley and how it took its shape? Yeah. So what's really incredible and for, for us living in 2019, it's kind of hard to wrap our minds around how slowly technology developed even 150 years ago. Absolutely. So
00:53:00 It was 17th century fortification design that was being taught at West point. Okay. In the years proceeding the civil war. So James st Clair Morton, chief engineer for the army of the Cumberland was a West point graduate and learned these really medieval techniques, techniques. Yes. So but James st Claire Borton was, was a brilliant engineer and he and others recognized that artillery technology was developing and that masonry fortifications would not be able to withstand that kind of firepower. So he started leaning more towards, well, really not leaning. I mean, he was a a devoted advocate of earth and fortifications, but when he got to st cloud Hill, because of the very little soil, he had no choice but to revert back to the, to the masonry fortification. Interesting. so Fort Negley has been called a star for it, but really it is Morton's own design. That's why you can look at star Fords all around the world and you're not going to find one that looks like Fort Negley. Right. It's because he combined a star Fort with a bastion Fort. Okay. So the bastions are those two protrusions at the front? Yes. The white towers.
00:54:51 No. So they would be
00:54:56 These right here. Okay. And so those were inner locking chambers that allowed soldiers to keep an eye on those Southern approaches. So no one's will pike Murfreesboro. Okay. Yeah. And not be and be protected from enemy fire. Gotcha. The soldiers referred to those to those fashions as tunnels, but they are not subterranean. They're on the surface. So that's one of the that's one of the misconceptions that have been handed down. That there are tunnels on the property. There may be, but we've been all over this property. Never found a tunnel. We would, if we had found a tunnel, we would be really excited about that. So the, so those star points are called a [inaudible], which one of those would have held a cannon and the cannon had the ability to be pivoted 180 degrees to, to allow for overlapping fields of fire. Okay. was this like a six foot cannon? Cause I know like the different size canons mattered. Okay. So
00:56:09 The re unfortunately the reports and the inspections that are done are, are not exactly clear. So there's one inspection that says there are 11 guns. Okay. Well, the definition of the heavy gun is a gun that you put in a fortification. Okay. So what that gun is, is questionable. You know, and, and at Fort Negley, his artillery changed over time. So there were, you know, field guns and mortars. The two largest guns would've been 30 pound paragons. Okay. And those would have come at least by early to mid 1864 they were contained within the case mates, which were basically bombed proofs made out of earth, wood and railroad iron. Those cannons, which were also present at the state Capitol and other forts around Nashville. Okay. The tube was 11 feet long and weighed about 4,200 pounds.
00:57:26 Wow. And that could fire a 30 pound projectile about three and a half miles, not necessarily with accuracy. So they were accurate. About two miles. There was a 100 pound Paragon or river. And unfortunately I, I don't know the, the weight of what that tube would have been. Gotcha. but we're talking about some pretty pretty massive cameras. Yeah. Yeah. So how did the design did it seem to really hold its weight as far as battle when it was battle tested? Did it seem to do well? Yeah, and I think, I think what it, what it did so well was it was extremely intimidating. It was not something like, because it was complex. Well, it was unlike any thing any one had ever seen. No one had seen anything like this. So on Kirkpatrick Hill where the city reservoir is today, there was a, a small wooden block house on Curry's Hill where Rose Park is on edge Hill Avenue was Fort Morton. Fort Morton was a very low profile. Earth and Fort. Yes. It blended into the landscape. That's cool. And then, you know, within close proximity you have this absolutely massive Fort of wood railroad, iron, stone, earth, three levels of defense, bristling with Canon. You know, it's, it's visible from downtown. It's visible from the Capitol
00:59:22 Building. There was an 80 foot flagpole in the center and they flew the, the biggest American flag they could get their hands on. So for miles around, there was, there was no question about who held control of Nashville. Guys, thank you for joining us on the podcast today. Make sure to go follow us on Instagram at X PLR dot. Nash, tweet at us at X PLR, underscore Nash. Go watch some of our YouTube videos about the history of Nashville X PLR. Dot. Nash and guys by some merge. We have awesome Nashville theme March at our website, www dot X PLR.