Cemetery Works

Boulder, Colorado, USA established 2001

Cemetery Works Index	History of Clarksville Confederate Hospital Cemetery	Clarksville Confederate Hospital Cemetery Burial Index; Ala / Ark / Ky / Miss	Clarksville Confederate Hospital Cemetery Burial Index; Tennessee	Clarksville Confederate Hospital Cemetery Burial Index; Tex / Va / Unk

History of Clarksville Confederate Hospital Cemetery

Clarksville Confederate Hospital Cemetery, Clarksville, Montgomery County, Tennessee, USA More than 305 Confederate soldiers who died in Confederate hospital in Clarksville, Montgomery County, Tennessee, were buried in the garden behind the Clarksville Female Academy. Two African-American women, sisters, who contracted disease and died while caring for the ill and wounded the soldiers at hospital were also buried there. The initial graves were marked with wooden headboard but in time these deteriorated and specific knowledge of burial locations was lost. In 1897, a landslide exposed some of the soldiers' remains. One hundred and twenty seven [127] unidentified remains were found, disinterred, and re-interred in the Clarksville City Cemetery [present-day Clarksville Riverview Cemetery]. The remains of the other 180+ Confederate soldiers were not disturbed. In Spring 2000, despite protest from local citizens, the City of Clarksville started construction of a new road bridge which resulted in the Confederate soldiers' burial site behind the historic Clarksville Female Academy being covered with tons of soil and concrete structural elements. The City later agreed to name the bridge the Confederate Soldier Memorial Bridge. On Saturday, 26 May 2001, markers with two bronze plaques, listing 307 names, was dedicated in Riverview Cemetery to document and memorialize the dead from Clarksville Confederate hospital. The dedication service was held by the Clarksville, Montgomery County, chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the Frank P. Gracey Camp 225. On Sunday, 15 December 2002, a memorial monument was dedicated to honor the memory of the more than 180 Confederate soldiers and the two nurses who are buried beneath the Confederate Soldiers Memorial Bridge on Cumberland Drive. The monument is located near their burial site, about 200 yards south of the rear of the 19th century location of the Clarksville Female Academy. An image of the memorial and its text are below. It is unknown if a specific soldier's body is among the 127 Confederate soldiers disinterred and re-interred in Riverview Cemetery or the 180+ Confederate soldiers lying undisturbed in the Clarksville Confederate Cemetery beneath the Confederate Soldiers Memorial Bridge.

List Of Names The names and unit information of the 305 soldier who were buried in the garden behind the Clarksville Female Academy are based on lists recorded by Miss Blanche Louise Lewis, a student at the academy and an "angel of mercy", ~20 years of age in the winter of 1861-1862 and John F. Couts, a local undertaker. In 1997, with clues from David Stacker and the assistance of many individuals, Randy Rubel, President of the Montgomery County Historical Society, found the information recoreded by these two individuals. Miss Blanche Louise Lewis' information was found in issues of the Confederate Veteran magazine [Ref_01] and six February 1897 editions of the Clarksville newspaper, The Daily Leaf Chronicle. John F. Couts' list was found published in the 26 Jan 1866 edition of the Clarksville Weekly Chronicle. Miss Blanche Louise Lewis' original records were acquired in 2005 by the Montgomery County Historical Society. Mary and Susan Bibb, the African-American sister who dying of diseases they contacted while serving as nurses to the ill and wounded, are known from local historic records. The names on the memorial plaques in Riverview Cemetery is based on these two lists. The names were gathered and checked in Washington, D. C., with the help of Raymond Watkins, a Falls Church, Virginia, genealogist and American Civil War researcher. These name are listed on the three webpages linked below.     Clarksville Confederate Hospital Cemetery Burial Index: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Mississippi Tennessee Texas, Virginia, and States Unknown These lists contain more that the 307 names on the plaques at Riverview Cemetery, Clarksville, Tennessee. The additional names have been provided to the Clarksville-Montgomery County chapter of the SCV by family and Civil War researchers. The service information is based on the aforementioned lists, information collected by Montgomery County [Tennessee] Historical Society, and use of online American Civil War soldier database; Ref_02 and Ref_03. I sought to match each name against one or both of these online databases. The nomenclature, highest rank, alternate names / initial(s) of the US National Park Service Civil War Soldier and Sailor System database was used on the webpages. NOTE: The notation 'no db match' indicates that the reported name could not be matched to a name in the reported regiment in either online database.

Miss Blanche Louise Lewis, 1841 - 1902 Miss Blanche Louise Lewis, the second child and oldest daughter of Margretta [nee Barnes] and George Thomas Lewis was known as an 'angel of mercy' at Clarksville Confederate hospital. She and many other women living in Clarksville gathered supplies and cared for the sick from the CSA winter camps of 1861-1862 and wounded soldiers transported to Clarksville from the Battle of Fort Donelson, 11 - 16 Feb 1862. Her death on 13 Sept 1902 in McMinnville, Tennessee, is reported in the October 1902 edition of the Confederate Veteran magazine. The article reports:                     During the great war of the sixties the sick and wounded from Fort Donelson were taken to Clarksville in great numbers, and the Female Academy, the College, and every suitable building in the town were turned into hospitals. In these Miss Lewis was a constant attendant upon the wounded and dying for many months, and moved to her father's residence some of the more serious cases, that they might have more constant attention. She made friends among the soldiers, lasting their lives through, and numbers who outlive her will bless her memory for the immortal deeds of kindness she wrought for them when they were sick, wounded, and helpless. She was a ministering angel to them, and kept up her work of faithful ministration during her entire life. Perhaps no other woman in the South deserves more gratitude than Miss Lewis for her constant zeal and sacrifice of personal comfort to serve disabled Confederate soldiers. She not only ministered to them, but penned dying messages to loved ones, and she was faithful in those sacred memories to the end of her life. She had the zealous cooperation and encouragement of her mother in this sacred work, of whom record is made in the July VETERAN, 1900. Note: There was a Confederate hospital in Clarksville, Tennessee, as early as Oct 1861. One hundred and five [105] of the 304 deaths reported by Blanche Lewis occurred before 11 Feb 1862 when the Battle of Fort Donelson began. The fact that Blanche Lewis recorded / reported these deaths implies that the Clarksville Female Academy was serving as a Confederate hospital in the winter of 1861-1862. See Miss Blanche Louise Lewis's image below.

Aftermath of the battle of Fort Donelson in Clarksville, Tennessee An article published in the 18 May 2001 edition of the Progressive of Montgomery County, weekly newspaper, by Wallace Cross, Professor Of History And Philosophy, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee, details the aftermath of the battle of Fort Donelson in Clarksville and the later relocation of 127 burial remains. The article title 'Casualties of Ft. Donelson Battle Honored At Last' is found on a separate webpage accessed by the preceding hyperlink.

Confederate Soldiers Memorial The text from the Confederate Soldiers Memorial monument, located near the burial site of 180+ unidentified Confederate soldiers and the two nurses, behind the location of the 19th century Clarksville Female Academy, is below.                     During the War for Southern Independence, 1861 to 1865, this sacred ground was used as a burial site for Confederate soldiers. The Clarksville Female Academy was used as a Confederate hospital located 200 yards due north. By the end of 1861 over 200 men had died there. After the battle of Ft. Donelson in February of 1862, hundreds of the sick and wounded were transported to Clarksville by steamboats. Their decks were literally flowing with blood as if they had been used for slaughterhouses. Under the direction of Surgeon in Chief, Dr. Joshua Cobb, the hospital corps received and cared for the men as they arrived. The doctors were L. B. Hickman, Lowery, Jefferson, William Adams, Goodman, Gullett, J. E. Dangerfeild, Bass, W. T. McReynolds, W. D. Lyle, James Singleton, J. M. Jackson, Grooms, W. T. McReynolds, Alex McCown and J. A. Forbes. The nursing staff included Miss Blanche Lewis, her mother Mrs. Margretta Lewis, Miss Flora Kyle, Miss Eliza Adams, Mrs. Tompkins and Mrs.Ware. Two other devoted nurses, Mary Bibb and her sister Susan Bibb were laid to rest here after they died of disease. All these nurses were known by the soldiers as 'ministering angels'. In this corner of the academy garden, a total of 307 were laid to rest. In 1897, a landslide exposed some of the soldiers' remains. Under the supervision of Commander Clay Stacker and the Confederate Veterans of Forbes Bivouac, the bodies of 127 soldiers were found, reinterred, and honored with a monument at Riverview Cemetery. Many years later the remaining graves were covered when the first bridge was built here. In 2001, the Frank P. Gracey Camp 225, Sons of Confederate Veterans placed two bronze memorial tablets at Riverview Cemetery. These tablets list the names of all the soldiers that died at the hospital, including their company, regiment, and home states. Later that same year this bridge was named in honor of the 180 Confederate soldiers interred here. Erected by Frank P. Gracey Camp 225, Sons of Confederate Veterans, 2002. See image below.

Miss Blanch Louise Lewis, 1841 - 1902	Confederate Soldiers Memorial, near burial site behind historic Clarksville Female Academy

Sources

Ref_01:	Confederate Veteran Magazine: 1893-1912 A magazine published monthly from 1863 through 1912 in interest of Confederate veterans and kindred topics. Available through H-Bar Enterprises, Inc., Silver Spring, MD, 20904, 1.800.432.7702
Ref_02:	Historical Data Systems, Inc., Duxbury, MA 02331.
Ref_03:	NPS CWSSS Soldiers Records website.
Ref_04:	Manifold email exchanges with Randy Rubel; President of the Montgomery County Historical Society; President of Company A, 50th Tennessee Reenactment Organization; past Historian and Commander of SCV Camp #225, Clarksville; past President of the Montgomery County Civil War Preservation Society; volunteer researcher of the Confederate soldiers buried in Greenwood Cemetery and Riverview Cemetery, Clarksville, Montgomery County, Tennessee..

Cemetery Works Index	History of Clarksville Confederate Hospital Cemetery	Clarksville Confederate Hospital Cemetery Burial Index; Ala / Ark / Ky / Miss	Clarksville Confederate Hospital Cemetery Burial Index; Tennessee	Clarksville Confederate Hospital Cemetery Burial Index; Tex / Va / Unk