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Upcoming Clarksville Civil War Events Free and Open to the Public

Clarksville Montgomery County Civil War - CW150 CommissionClarksville, TN – Author Tom McKenney will discuss and be available to sign his book, Jack Hinson’s One Man War at Fort Defiance Civil War Park & Interpretive Center on Tuesday, April 17th from 5:00pm to 8:00pm.

Free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase at the event. Contact Fort Defiance at 931.472.3351 or www.fortdefianceclarksville.com.

Fort Defiance Civil War Park & Interpretive Center to hold book signing by author Tom McKenny on April 17th.
Fort Defiance Civil War Park & Interpretive Center to hold book signing by author Tom McKenny on April 17th.

The Austin Peay Music Department and Dr. Jeffrey Wood will host a concert of Civil War music on Tuesday, April 17th at 7:30pm in the Music/ Mass Communications Concert Hall. The concert will feature music by William Kittredge, George F. Root, Stephen Foster and Louis Moreau Gottschalk with performances by Sarah Jenkins Queen, Karen Crow, Rachel Hansbury, Lisa Conklin-Bishop, Thomas King, Emily Hanna Crane and Jeffrey Wood.  Free and open to the public. Contact APSU Music Department at 931.221.7819 or www.apsu.edu.

Information on these and much more can be found on the CW150 website, www.clarksvillecivilwar.com.  If you have an event that you would like to have sanctioned by the Civil War 150 Commission, please contact the Commission through the website.

About the Clarksville’s Civil War Involvement

Clarksville, a communication and transportation center, was strategically significant because of the Cumberland River and the Memphis, Clarksville and Louisville Railroad. The area’s rich agricultural produce—grain, livestock, tobacco, and corn—and the products of its iron industry reached the nation and world via these transportation assets. Three forts, including Forts Donelson and Defiance on the Cumberland River, protected this pro-Confederate town and many of Clarksville’s residents rushed to join Southern military units.

After the surrender of Fort Donelson in February 1862, however, Union gunboats and troops from Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s army occupied Clarksville. Federal control proved tenuous. The Confederates briefly reclaimed the town in August 1862; it returned temporarily to Union control in September 1862. The Federals occupied Clarksville permanently in December 1862 when Col. Sanders Bruce’s brigade took charge of the town and Fort Defiance, which was renamed Fort Bruce.

Clarksville became a gathering place for white Unionists and escaped slaves who were housed in tobacco warehouses along the river and near Fort Bruce. Eventually more than 3,000 refugees converged on the town, outnumbering local residents.

In 1863, after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the Federals began to recruit free blacks and former slaves for military service. Some 1,800 joined the Federal army and were inducted into the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 101st U.S. Colored Troops in ceremonies on the Clarksville public square.

– Taken from “Clarksville in the Civil War,” Civil War Trails Marker

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