Montgomery County, Tennessee

Cumberland River Basin

Clarksville, Tennessee

Situated northwest of Nashville, Montgomery County straddles the great Cumberland River, which runs through its central region. Clarksville, the county seat, lies at the the confluence of the Red and Cumberland Rivers. Palmyra also sits astride the river, a few miles to the west, along the south bank as the Cumberland flows west.

In 1861, Clarksville was a prosperous Southern river town. The turnpikes and rivers provided transportation for tobacco, products made at the numerous iron furnaces and the lumber, grain and woolen mills along the Red River. Pork products from slaughterhouses found a ready market in New Orleans. Agriculture flourished in the lush valleys and fertile soil of Middle Tennessee^*1.

In all of Tennessee, fewer than 100 families owned more than a few slaves. Yet the number of men who volunteered for service, after Ft. Sumter, exceeded the entire white population subject to military duty. Strong kindred feelings with the Gulf States and devotion to the rights of states to secede, excited pro-war sentiment.

Lincoln's call for Volunteers to put down the rebellion sparked defiance and irevocably rallied Montgomery County in the cause of a State's right to leave the Union, if it so desired.

^*1 See Ordeal by Fire: A History of the Fourteenth Tennessee (Wallace Cross)

Montgomery County, Tennessee Genealogy