Sixty-four yards. That is the distance from the back window of the historic Carter Farm Office to the main line of Federal troops during the calamitous Battle of Franklin on Nov. 30, 1864. Until 2017, commercial development stood atop the main line, and the wood-sided office — arguably the most bullet-riddled building in America — was used for storage, never opened to the public.
To put that proximity and calamity in perspective, Battle of Franklin Trust CEO Eric Jacobson explains what happened that afternoon in the Carter family’s yard.
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“The main Federal line stretched at least two miles wide, with 20,000 men. They were attacked by a like number of Confederates, who came off of Winstead Hill in columns, marched through the open field and then formed shoulder to shoulder as they hastened their approach,” Jacobson says. “I had always believed that the Confederates held their fire until after they hit the main line, which was hand to hand combat with bayonets and rifle butts, and then they were pushed back. Now that we can understand the bullet holes in the farm office, that theory has been proven true.”
The restoration project removed the gypsum board inside the structure, allowing light to pour through the hundreds of bullet holes and illustrating the volume of fire that a battle between 40,000 men in close proximity would produce. But the Metro Nashville Police forensics unit shed even more light on precisely what happened.
“The shots were coming from four directions, but almost all of them came from at least 150 plus feet from the south, beyond the main line,” he says. “It was after they were pushed back that they used their rifles to try to break through again.”
When five bloody hours had passed and the sun was long down, the battlefield was strewn with nearly 10,000 casualties, including the Carters’ son Tod. The Army of Tennessee was nearly decimated, and the Civil War would end five months later.
For the Battle of Franklin Trust, Franklin’s Charge and a host of partner organizations and individual donors, the challenge has always been to open up the battlefield so that visitors might better understand it. The success has been unprecedented, with over a half dozen commercial buildings demolished and more soon to come. The net result is that the Carter Hill battlefield — the original Carter House state historic site combined with what parcels that have become City of Franklin public parkland on the east side of Columbia Pike — has expanded tenfold. The remaining battlefield that once comprised about three acres now covers more than 30.
“Two thirds of the Confederate casualties were on the East side of the pike, which had been totally overshadowed because it was all built upon. Nobody knew anything happened there,” Jacobson explains. “But now, and especially once these last two buildings are removed from the battlefield, you can really get a visual sense of what happened and understand what that must have been like from both perspectives. You see the line of sight, the topography. It’s the reclamation of an entire view shed.”
With the Carter House, the farm office, the brick smokehouse, a cabin that was home to the enslaved, and the restored gardens and orchards all open to visitors, the experience is far more comprehensive than ever before in the site’s history. Now, the Battle of Franklin Trust is set to embark on the construction of a new 6,500 square-foot visitors center, focused on not just the combat, but the fuller story of everyone involved.
“The theme is all men are created equal, which was the moral statement that Thomas Jefferson chose to begin the Declaration of Independence,” Jacobson says. “The focus is on teaching the founding of the country, which descended into Civil War and then emerged and repaired itself into the country it is today. We focus on the battle every day, but the bigger picture is ‘Why did this happen?’ Three and a half years into it, we were still killing each other right here, in Franklin.
“They were still trying to figure out what the United States was supposed to be, and anyone who says we’re more divided than ever today is insulting the legacy of the people of the mid 19th century. It’s minimizing the cost of slavery, of 750,000 people killed as a result of the divisions, and it didn’t end with the war — the economy and social climate was awful for years to follow. It was tough, tough times before we repaired our nation, and that’s what we want people to understand as part of this experience.”
November 30 marks the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Franklin. The Trust will hold commemorations at Rippa Villa in Spring Hill on the 29th and in Franklin on the 30th; both the Carter House and Carnton, which served as a field hospital for hundreds of wounded, will be open for free tours. In the days following the anniversary, Carnton will host a living history exhibit depicting the aftermath of the battle, with re-enactors demonstrating the horrors of men who had been blown apart, and the medical staff, family members and enslaved who cared for them.
To learn more, visit boft.org.
