Oh, this was such a great day! I have to admit that I didn’t think that visiting the Franklin battlefield would take all day but I learned that each tour was in-depth, accompanied by a very knowledgeable tour guide. We spent over 2 hours with the guide at the Carter House (our first stop). She took us through the house and led us through the day of the battle through the eyes of the Carter family. This house was at the very center of the battle once the Confederates broke through the Federal lines. The house still shows bullet holes from the battle….the back yard was the scene of some of the fiercest hand-to-hand combat. Over 2000 soldiers met face to face in a very small area and literally had no place to go. The fighting was intense. Within a 4-5 hour space of time, over 4,000 men died and another 6,000 were wounded. Our guide made the time seem so real, we could almost hear the boom of the cannon plus the cries of the men as they tried to fight their way through the opposing troops.
We drove downtown Franklin after visiting the Carter House and had a most delicious lunch at the Puckett’s Grocery & Restaurant. We walked around the downtown area a little (notice the sweet shop’s name), stopping at the Landmark Bookstore, before traveling to the Carnton Plantation which was another battle site during the Battle of Franklin. The Carnton Plantation was located south and downhill of the Carter House. It became a hospital site for the Confederate army and over 1000 wounded men were treated in about a day and a half…..during and after the battle. Six of the Generals who died in the battle were laid out on the back porch of the Carnton Mansion for the men to pay service to. Again we had a tour guide who engaged us so completely in that time period. As we toured the house gazing on many pieces of furniture and household items that have been loaned to the house that were actually in the house during the battle, I was truly impressed by the devotion of the people today who are so interested in keeping these historical sites true to the period. The historical impact in this house were the blood stains that no scrubbing could get out. These stains were in almost every room in that 3 story house as each room held an operating table and 10-15 injured soldiers. The lady of the house (Carrie McGavock) was considered an “angel” as she was the one who offered a caring face and compassionate words to those wounded soldiers in her house. The McGavock family took it upon themselves to bury over 1400 soldiers on their property, document the names of those they could and then maintain that cemetery for all these years.
We didn’t leave the Franklin area until after 5:00. Driving back towards Nashville, through the beautiful country, we could see the clouds building and it was getting darker and darker. The rain started to fall and the last half hour to the RV park the rain was so thick we could hardly see out the window. We definitely got a taste of Tennessee thunderstorms….like the cloud burst we experienced the day before in Lynchburg. The rain sure keeps the grass green….wish we could get some in CA!
Over The Top Quilting with CeCe 