Fort Defiance Interpretive Center

Fort Defiance Interpretive Center. City of Clarksville, Tennessee. The history of Clarksville unfolded on this site. Recipients of land grants from the American Revolution built settlements along the Cumberland and Red Rivers and with them, came early trade. As the Civil War moved closer, Clarksville, with its 5,000 inhabitants, was considered a prize for the Union forces, because of its large tobacco warehouses, prosperous businesses and educational institutions, its steamboat landings and railroad crossing. The Clarksville iron works and other foundries were capable of producing small arms, cannons and shells. With the fall of Fort Donelson in nearby Dover to the Union in February 1862, Clarksville and the Confederate river defense at Fort Defiance was considered critical to stopping federal forces from reaching Nashville. But as Union ships steamed toward Clarksville, city fathers determined the wiser course would be to surrender. Thus, the fort was taken without a shot, and the city fell under lengthy Union occupation. Union troops aided by local blacks who sought federal protection, reinforced the fort and renamed it Fort Bruce after Col. Sanders Bruce, the Union commander. Efforts to show the significance of this history began in 1982, in preparation for Clarksville's 1984 Bicentenary. Judge and Mrs. Sam E. Boaz who owned the fort property, deeded it to the city. Faculty and students from Austin Peay State University cleared the site, and Mayor Ted Crozier arranged for its maintenance as a city park. In 2002, Mayor John Piper established the Fort Defiance Commission to devise a plan for developing the site. With a $2.2 million federal grant and city funding awarded during Mayor Piper's administration in 2008, an interpretive center and other amenities have resulted., John E. Piper, Mayor , 1999-2002 and 2007-2010.