CLARKSVILLE

city, seat (1796) of Montgomery county, northern Tennessee, U.S. It lies near the Kentucky state line, at the confluence of the Cumberland and Red rivers, 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Nashville. Settled in 1784, it was named for General George Rogers Clark, the American Revolutionary War soldier and frontiersman. It developed in the 19th century as a river depot for tobacco, grain, and lumber. Its modern, diversified farm economy (which includes the raising of beef and dairy cattle) is supplemented by manufacturing (footwear, clothing, heating and cooling equipment, and machine parts). The processing and marketing of dark-fired tobacco and of meat are important activities. Clarksville is the seat of Austin Peay State University (1927). Part of Fort Campbell, a military reservation headquartered in Kentucky, lies west of the city. Dunbar Cave, with a subterranean stream and varicoloured rock formations, is immediately northeast. Near the town of Dover, 28 miles (45 km) west, is Fort Donelson National Military Park, the site on which forces under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant won the first major Union victory (February 1862) of the American Civil War. Inc. town, 1785; city, 1820. Pop. (1992 est.) city, 77,765; Clarksville-Hopkinsville MSA, 173,761.