Written by Christie Crawford
Clarksville, TN – It was once a Native American gathering spot, a place for ceremonies and a tribal burial mound, high on a hill overlooking where the Red and Warioto (now known as Cumberland) rivers met. If you stroll along the Riverview Cemetery grounds, off Spring Street, there are no signs of any tribal gatherings, only a warbler or two resting on a marble tomb.
It evolved into the place once called ”City Cemetery” or, in modern times, Riverview Cemetery because of its overlook of the Cumberland River. But it still remains the oldest known burial ground in Montgomery County, and there have been sightings of hauntings as you would imagine from such an old place of entombments.
Riverview Cemetery, at one time, was the final resting spot for many early Clarksville pioneers, prominent citizens, and settlers in the area. Opened in 1800, it was located strategically on a hill to avoid possible Native American attacks. The land was donated by Valentine Sevier, Revolutionary War hero and brother to John Sevier, Tennessee’s first governor. Sevier’s tombstone is a modest affair marked with a wooden stake and a recently placed Sons of the Revolution marker.
Not too far away lies Robert Nelson, Revolutionary War hero, lawyer, surveyor, and county clerk for Stewart County. Up the hill lies in honor Christopher “Kit” Smith (former resident of the Smith-Trahern Mansion) who made his fortune in tobacco, first in Clarksville and then in New Orleans. Smith contracted yellow fever in Louisiana and consequently died. While his body was in transit on the Mississippi River back to Clarksville by steamboat, it exploded and his remains were never found.
There are many attractive marble tombstones including that of Evie Brown, whose tableau is depicted as a woman draped in cloth and grief, Susan B. Willman, whose tomb is underneath a majestic magnolia, and Engelbert Gaisser, who owned an ironworks facility in Clarksville and was responsible for most of the ornamental ironwork manufactured in the area. His grave features an iron cross, an ornamental gate, and a fence to the family burial site.
The narrow lanes built strictly as horse paths make way to the most significant part of the cemetery, which is the site of the 303 dead Confederates interred on March 24th, 1867. This was not the original burial spot for these individuals. A makeshift hospital was converted from the Female Academy on Madison Street. The newly built L & N railroad brought sick soldiers to the hospital from training camps as far away as Texas and Arkansas, many of them passing away from measles before going into battle.
On February 16th, 1862 an influx of soldiers were brought from the battlefield of nearby Fort Donelson. Dr Joshua Cobb, himself buried at Riverview, was in charge of the hospital and burial procedures. Coffins were in short supply during the war, so many of these persons were buried in shrouds with wooden stakes as name markers, which did not survive over time.
Cobb remained hospital head during the Union occupation. Patients at the hospital were taken as prisoners of war and paroled if medically possible to do so. After the war, in 1866, the school reopened, but there always remained the issue of the soldiers’ remains still in place on the property.
A somber ceremony took place on March 24th, 1867 which removed the remains to Riverview Cemetery on a slope in the area, Section 5. The expenses were covered by Gymnasium Society members who held several fundraisers to acquire the money. Children from the Confederate Orphan’s Home decorated the graves.
The brass plaque that now remains honors the names of those dead, including two dedicated black nurses and sisters that were the primary caregivers at the hospital; Mary and Susan Bibb. There is a somberness when approaching that slope with its drooping branches of Eastern black walnut trees, almost seeming to cover those below. There is a small obelisk constructed by the Confederate Veterans Forbes Bivouac chapter to commemorate the spot along with a small statue and cannon. Although there have been no sightings of any of these deposed 300, there have been nightly reports of a man shouting, supposedly the voice of Dr. Cobb as he was frantically attending to the dead.
If this has piqued your interest in knowing about the individuals who made Clarksville what it is, then visiting Riverview Cemetery is a must. Sign up for one of the tours held each fall by the Customs House Museum to visit the cemetery, or read Riverview Cemetery: A History by Carolyn Stier Ferrell, or the Montgomery County Historical Society’s book on the cemetery. Better yet, just walk the narrow paths to observe these unforgettable people of Clarksville.
Riverview Cemetery
635 North Spring Street, Clarksville
Open every day 8:00am -sunset
