Encyclopedia

State Senator John N. Ford was born on May 3, 1942, in Memphis, the son of Vera Davis Ford and Newton Jackson Ford. Ford received a B.A. from Tennessee State in 1964 and an M.A. from Memphis State in 1978.…

Nathan Bedford Forrest, the "wizard of the saddle," was one of the finest Confederate cavalry commanders and one of the foremost military figures produced by the state of Tennessee. He was particularly famous for his determination to be "first with…

After La Salle's failed attempt to colonize the lower Mississippi Valley in 1684, the French launched a new effort in the early eighteenth century. Under the leadership of Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, the French subdued the Natchez…

Located in present-day Jackson County, Fort Blount was established in 1794 at the point where the Avery Trace, which connected the Eastern and Mero Districts, crossed the Cumberland River. Named for territorial governor William Blount, this post replaced an earlier…

Although the official address of the U.S. Army's Fort Campbell reads, "Fort Campbell, Kentucky," two-thirds of the installation by area is in Tennessee. Fort Campbell came into existence in 1941 as the United States prepared for war. In need of…

Tennessee Confederates constructed the earthen fort in the summer of 1861 to defend the river approach to Middle Tennessee and Nashville; the fort was named for Daniel S. Donelson, Tennessee's adjutant-general. Principally a commanding water battery with adjacent armed camp…

Named for Confederate Senator Gustavus Henry of nearby Clarksville, this poorly positioned earthen field fortification was laid out on low ground by Tennessee state engineers and constructed in the summer of 1861 to defend the Tennessee River and the critical…

Fort James White, or James White Fort, was established in 1786 and became the nucleus of modern-day Knoxville. General James White (1747-1821) traveled to the wilderness of East Tennessee from Iredell County, North Carolina, in 1785, settling with his wife…

Located in present-day Monroe County, Fort Loudoun was named in honor of John Campbell, the Earl of Loudoun, commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America at the time of the fort's construction in 1756-57. Interest in building a fort…

The first permanent Anglo settlement of Nashville dates to 1770 when two parties of settlers led by John Donelson and James Robertson, respectively, established a fort enclosing two acres along the banks of the Cumberland River. The present Fort Nashborough…

Fort Negley was a Federal Civil War fortification built largely by African American labor in 1862 and garrisoned in part by African American soldiers during the battle of Nashville in December 1864. Located in Nashville, Fort Negley represented the first…

This Revolutionary War-era fort was located on the north side of the South Fork of the Holston River near the upper end of Long Island at present-day Kingsport. Its predecessor was a fort constructed in the winter of 1760-61 by…

This Civil War earthwork and battleground occupies a Mississippi River bluff in Lauderdale County. Late in the spring of 1861 Confederate troops from Arkansas built a battery at the site to control a bend in the river. Major General Gideon…

René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was born in 1643, the son of a wealthy family in Rouen, France. At the age of twenty-three, he went to Canada and established an Indian trading post near Montreal. Indian tales aroused…