The Civil War

That year, the City Council passed an ordinance that ordered free blacks to leave town or go to jail, but the law was not strictly enforced. At the same time, the issues of slavery and states’ rights shifted to the forefront of politics. In 1861, Montgomery County voted 2,632-32 to secede from the Union and join the Confederate States of America. In Clarksville, the vote was 561-1 in favor of withdrawing. The area’s ties to the CSA were strong. The eventual president of the CSA, Jefferson Davis, was born on June 3, 1808, in what is now Todd County, Ky., just over the state line. And Clarksville’s location made it an important city for both the Confederacy and the Union. Confederate Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston set up a defense line nearby that ultimately faltered in February 1862. Johnston realized that if the Cumberland River should fall into Union hands, enemy gunboats would have free reign to move deeper into Confederate territory. Union troops could then easily destroy railway bridges crossing the river, thus disabling Confederate supply lines. Just as Johnston anticipated, the Union sent troops and gunboats to take control of the town. Nearby Confederate embankments – Fort Henry and Fort Donelson – soon fell into Union control. On Feb. 16, 1862, panic ensued over reports of Yankee ironclad boats coming toward Clarksville, according to an article by Randy Rubel. The only defense the city had was Fort Clark on the Cumberland River and Fort Defiance, which sat high on the hill overlooking the river at New Providence. Neither of these quickly constructed earthen works had the manpower or the artillery to defend the Cumberland and Red rivers from the Navy gunboats in command of Commodore A.H. Foote. Feb. 19 saw the approach of the Union ironclads, the Conestoga and the Cairo. They led troop transport ships that disembarked Union troops near Trice Landing. The federal soldiers quickly covered the hill and the outer works of Fort Defiance The only thing reportedly found was a white flag flying, and all the Confederate troops gone. Foote reported to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant that all forts were deserted and the enemy garrison en route toward Nashville. Federal forces now occupied Clarksville, and the state Capitol at Nashville fell soon afterwards. From 1862 until the end of the war in 1865, Clarksville was primarily in Union hands, but at times Confederate troops retook the town. The most well-known of these turnabouts was the Battle of Riggins Hill. With Clarksville again in Confederate control, Union infantry left the town of Dover on Sept. 5, 1862, with 1,050 men and two sections of artillery, according to Rubel’s history. Both armies met just outside of Dover and clashed head-on.

Rebel forces, greatly outnumbered, were pushed back toward what was then the town of New Providence. In a series of delaying tactics, the rebels came to a small ridge on the property of Mr. A.J. Riggins. Many townspeople joined in what was later called the Battle of Riggins Hill. The fight continued on Sept. 6 and 7, and the Confederates were pushed all the way back through New Providence and into Clarksville, which was retaken. A total of casualties are not known. Remnants of Fort Defiance’s earthen work walls can be found today in New Providence now inside the city of Clarksville. As slaves were liberated throughout the course of the war, many gathered in Clarksville, and by 1864 there were about 9,500 former slaves in Montgomery County. Many took up arms with the Union Army, which organized all-black regiments, while hundreds lived in a shanty town along the Cumberland River. In 1864, the town held elections for sheriff, register of deeds and court clerk. Politics continued to be a hot topic during the Reconstruction ear. Residents dealt with issues such as the authorization of police power, mob rule and the destruction of private property.