Fort Granger

After the Union army occupied Franklin, hundreds of enslaved African Americans fled neighboring plantations and farms to the Federal camps, and some of these self-emancipated former slaves, called contrabands, built and maintained much of Fort Granger. Together with white Union soldiers, African Americans dug the fort’s deep moat, using the solid soil to build up the interior and exterior earthen walls, and they also dug long ditches containing three-foot-long, finely sharpened stakes angled outward to stop attack. A report written on March 11, 1863, recorded that Silas N. Jones, Sergeant Co. “C” 125th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, had been placed in charge of the contrabands there and had more than 250 names on his roll of those able for duty with pick, axe, and shovel. Williamson County slaves also fled to the fortifications in Nashville, and a newspaper published on April 3, 1863, said that a large number of contrabands of both sexes and all ages from Williamson County and the vicinity of Franklin were daily deserting the service of their owners. African Americans’ road to freedom was anything but easy, as many living in camps endured violence, hunger from food shortages, poor sanitation, and widespread disease including smallpox, which caused numerous deaths. By the spring of 1863, the Franklin contraband camp stood a few hundred yards north of the fort. These camps laid the foundation for postwar African American neighborhoods in Franklin, including one along 1st and 2nd Avenues that developed near the former encampments northwest of Fort Granger, where emancipated African Americans found work in mills, cotton gins, and factories.

Franklin, Tennessee · United States