Hey core028 thanks for the offer, I'll take you up on that.
In the meantime, I found a wonderful site with loads of information on the Civil War.
www.sonsofthesouth.com
On this site I found the following reference to Randolph, TN. in an edition of Harpers Weekly:
"At Fort Randolph are seven disabled guns and a pile of burning cotton. On the summit of the bluff are extensive field-works, similar to those at Fort Pillow, most of them erected in 1861, and evidently designed for resisting a land attack. In a long subterranean passage were several openings to the surface, at one of which your correspondent found several soldiers grouped, greatly amused at the echo of their voices as they shouted down the aperture."
How intriguing!
In September of 1862 Sherman had every building in the town of Randolph burned to the ground in retaliation for firing on Union gunboats on the Mississippi river.
There is also a large sandbar that may be accessible.
I am going to drive up there this weekend and do a little looking around.
If it looks good I would welcome someone with more experience than me (I have zero, zip, nada, none) to go along.
