Fort Wright ( Tennessee ) Fort Wright was constructed in 1861 and located on the second Chickasaw Bluff at Randolph , Tipton County , Tennessee . Fort Wright was a Civil War fortification and the first military training facility of the Confederate Army in Tennessee . History . On January 20 , 1861 the Memphis " Appeal " published a pro - secessionist proposal to build a fort at Randolph to defend Memphis from invaders . In a communiqué sent to LeRoy P . Walker , the first Confederate States Secretary of War , Brigadier General Gideon J . Pillow endorsed Randolph on April 26 , 1861 as " the most eligible situation for a battery to protect Memphis " . Within a few days , in late April of that same year , Tennessee Governor Isham G . Harris ordered Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Joseph Wright to establish a camp at Randolph and complete the fortification . About 5 , 000 troops from Tennessee , Arkansas and the Confederate Army were stationed at the location to accomplish the task . It took four months to fortify the bluff at Randolph with earthen defenses and artillery batteries in order to protect the fort from land and naval attacks . By June 1861 , the construction of the fortification was not yet completely finished . However , 50 cannons were reported to be ready at Fort Wright by that time , " mostly thirty - two pounders ; the rest larger , 42s and 64s . Thirty - two of them are mounted " . The Memphis " Bulletin " published a status report of Fort Wright after a visit at the fortification on June 22 , 1861 . By that time , the " earthen breastworks have been sodded with grass " and were reported " twenty to thirty feet in thickness " ( 6 – 10 m ) . Only one " narrow defile on the landward side " was reported by the " Bulletin " which was " defended by heavy guns " and " crossed by an earthen wall thirty to forty feet in thickness " ( 10 – 12 m ) . A " crescent shaped wall " to the east of the fortification provided a defense from land attacks . Fort Randolph , a second Confederate stronghold in the area , was constructed only months after Fort Wright , in Fall 1861 . Nathan Bedford Forrest ( 1821 – 77 ) and Alexander P . Stewart ( 1821 – 1908 ) trained at Fort Wright . Stewart was promoted to the rank of Major in the " Tennessee Militia " by Governor Harris and was assigned " command of the heavy artillery and water batteries ( . . . ) at Fort Wright " shortly after his own training there was completed . Stewart " organized and trained 20 batteries of Tennessee artillery " at Fort Wright at Randolph . Both Forrest and Stewart would later become important figures in the rank of Lieutenant General in the Confederate Army during the Civil War . Other future leaders in the Army of Tennessee and Forrest ' s cavalry received training at Fort Wright . Fort Wright was Tennessee ' s first military training camp in which soldiers could gain experience in the construction of fortifications and the setup of artillery batteries to counter naval attacks . They could undertake defense drills and acquire general military skills and discipline . Soldiers who were trained at Fort Wright fought in battles on different battlefields later in the war , the Battle of Shiloh , the Battle of Belmont , the Battle of Murfreesboro , the Battle of Chickamauga , the Battle of Franklin and the Battle of Bentonville . The Confederate stronghold at Fort Wright was the forwardmost defensive position on the Mississippi River until July 1861 , it was abandoned by the Confederate infantry by 1862 but sporadically occupied by other southern forces during the Civil War . In 2008 , only a powder magazine is left of Fort Wright .