Fort Negley in Nashville was the largest inland fort constructed during the American Civil War, built atop St. Cloud Hill by Union forces between August and December 1862. Over 2,700 laborers, predominantly enslaved and free African Americans, constructed the fortification. The fort played a significant military role during the Battle of Nashville in December 1864. Following restoration by the Works Progress Administration in 1936, the site reopened as a public park in 2004 and earned UNESCO Site of Memory designation in 2019—one of only five in the United States.
