Fort Pickering was built in Memphis Tennessee, by the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.

He traveled to Fort Pickering by boat, intending to proceed down the Mississippi River to New Orleans and then Washington, D.C., by ship.

Lewis arrived at Fort Pickering on September 15, and commanding officer Captain Gilbert C. Russell immediately realized that the governor was ill and mentally unstable.

However, rumors of war with Britain, and, possibly, the thought of his journals from the Corps of Discovery falling into British hands, changed his travel plans.

It was outfitted with 55 guns and included structures needed to serve the large number of troops living in Memphis and those passing through.

Trenches were excavated and archaeologists were able to identify two cisterns, brick foundation piers, and particularly, evidence of the defensive parapet and ditch.