Union Gen. George Crook and his infantry brigade occupied Carthage in March 1863. To protect the garrison, defend the town, and secure the Cumberland River crossing for troops and supplies, he constructed a small fortification here for an artillery battery. Crook described the works in a letter to Gen. James A. Garfield on April 2, 1863: "The battery commands all the ground from the town to right of the Gallatin Pike."
