APSU Professors’ Dream for Civil War Fort Comes True Three Decades Later
March 31, 2011
Clarksville, TN – In 1982, two young Austin Peay State University history professors – Dr. Howard Winn and Dr. Richard Gildrie – ventured up to the top of a forgotten hill overlooking the Cumberland River. What they found was a wild tangle of bushes and sapling trees, 10 to 12 feet tall, that blocked out the sun and made it nearly impossible to hike through without machetes and axes.
Judge Sam Boaz, who owned the land, had asked the two men to come take a look and see if it was historically important. Rumor had it an old Civil War fort was hidden somewhere in those weeds. The professors hacked their way into that dense mess until they found the old earthen walls and communication trenches of what was known in the early 1860s as Fort Defiance.
Austin Peay State University professors Richard Gildrie (retired), Phil Kemmerly, Howard Winn (retired) and David Snyder stand next to a monument with their names engraved on it at the city’s new Fort Defiance Interpretive Center. (Photo By Charles Booth/APSU Public Relations and Marketing)
