So what is the Battle of Franklin, and why should you care?

The McGavock Confederate Cemetery is a real place one can visit in Franklin, TN, just a few minutes south of Nashville. It is the largest privately owned military cemetery in the United States. There are nearly 1,500 Confederate soldiers resting at McGavock.

Almost 150 years ago some 60,000 American Civil War soldiers—North and South—met close to downtown Franklin on a beautiful Indian summer evening, November 30, 1864. The carnage resulting from this late autumn clash would have a devastating impact on Franklin and the Confederacy.

By late 1864, the South was in desperate need of a victory to maintain their way of life and their cause. It seemed that a Confederate victory in Nashville would revive the hopes of the Southern Confederate States, and maybe even turn the tide of a nearly four year old war. A war that had already costs hundreds of thousands of lives for both sides. Many thought that the Confederate Army of Tennessee, coming home to their native State, just might infuse the Southern cause with new energy and purpose.

So when Confederate John Bell Hood’s troops clashed with Union General John M. Schofield’s forces around the Fountain Branch Carter farm some 10,000 men became casualties of the blood-bath. The battle was fought from four to nine that day resulting in nearly 2,000 killed outright. The amazing thing is that the battle was completely unexpected because the Federal army was held up at Franklin, due to bridges being out, that delayed them from actually getting to Nashville.

Most of the battle was fought after dark, and also with rare hand-to-hand combat. Historians say it was the “bloodiest five hours of the American Civil War”.

The entire town of Franklin only had some 2,000 residents at that time. Imagine a town having to deal with battle casualties ten times its own size. The after-battle scene, caring and tending to the wounded and dying, dragged this sleepy little middle Tennessee town into a story of unimaginable horror. Every available home and business was used as a field-hospital to tend to the thousands of casualties.

The most famous Franklin field-hospital was the John and Carrie McGavock residence—Carnton. Carrie McGavock became famously known as the ‘Good Samaritan of Williamson County’ as a result of caring for the hundreds of wounded and dying in her own home. She would later be immortalized in Robert Hicks’s novel as the Widow of the South.

The scars would heal and the screams would subside but the memories would never fade nor the bloodstains be completely washed away from the floors of many Franklin homes. The ripple-effects of this battle can still be felt almost 150 years today. The recent story of how the preservation community in Franklin successfully reclaimed over 100 acres of original Franklin battlefield land—formerly a country club– is evidence that the Battle of Franklin has become the Battle FOR Franklin.

The plan is to use this newly reclaimed land as the main base for the future official National Franklin Battlefield Park. This newly reclaimed land is the largest, most successful battlefield reclamation project in the history of Civil War preservation in the United States.

What is the McGavock Confederate Cemetery and why is it important?

At least 2,000 men were killed at Franklin, in just five hours. The South suffered 60-70 percent of the casualties. About 1,750 of the killed were on the Confederate side. Around 200 Union soldiers died. The percentage of men killed at Franklin-compared to the number of total men engaged– ranks as one of the highest kill-rates of any Civil War battle, far bloodier than even Gettysburg.

But for now appreciate this fact. The terrified residents of Franklin woke up the next morning—for those that could sleep– to a ghastly sight near their beloved town. Thousands of Confederate soldiers were lying on the cold ground. Many had died in the night from bleeding to death or from the sub-zero temperatures. Making it even worse was the fact that a couple hundred of these men claimed Tennessee as their native soil. Soil that would soon serve as a blanket for eternity for these brave soldiers, some just boys.

Farmers like James McNutt and Fountain Branch Carter must have been impacted for years afterwards. Their farms served as temporary cemeteries for the soldiers immediately after the battle. The Union army, whose objective was always to make it to Nashville and not fight at Franklin, evacuated during the late night of November 30th, leaving scores of their wounded and dying on the ground as well. Before they left they hastily buried as many of their own dead as they could.

By the afternoon of December 1st, 1864, hundreds of wounded Confederates had already been evacuated to local field-hospitals like Carnton, and in other homes of Franklin citizens. Local churches like St. Paul’s Episcopal, pictured right, were also used to care for the wounded and dying. Since John Bell Hood did not have much time, and he wanted to pursue Schofield’s army north, he detached some burial teams to take care of burying the hundreds of fallen Confederates at Franklin.

The burial teams had much work to do and it had to be done quickly. All of the Confederate dead were identified as best they could be, by name, state, rank, and regiment. They were then placed in long rows, usually by twos, in shallow two to three foot deep graves along the main line of entrenchments. The soldiers were given wooden markers to notate their identities. A Union soldier passing by two weeks later remarked that he counted over 1,700 Confederate graves.

About a year later the condition of the graves were already in poor condition. The wooden markers, now enduring their second winter, were being used for firewood and hogs and wild animals were disturbing the graves.

As one might imagine, this situation was unacceptable as a permanent solution to the final resting place for the Confederate dead. So, Col. John McGavock, and his wife Carrie, graciously donated about two acres of their farm land at Carnton to be used as a permanent cemetery for the fallen Confederates at Franklin. The challenge now would be getting the hastily buried soldiers on the battlefield moved from where they were originally interred to the new cemetery at Carnton. In an ironic twist of fate, Carnton comes from the Gaelic word ‘Cairn’. It means a “pile of memorial stones” used to honor fallen heroes.

Bids were solicited for the reburial work and a man by the name of George Cuppett, a veteran Confederate soldier with the 8th Texas Cavalry, was awarded the job to rebury the soldier-dead at a price of $5.00 per man. He had a small team helping him, including his brother Marcellus. The burial team worked for about ten weeks, from April until June 1866, reburying the dead. They took great care to keep as many of the men identified as possible.

George Cuppett started a ‘book of the dead’ in which the names and information on each soldier were carefully recorded. The book would be handed over to Carrie McGavock who kept it for over 40 years. Many family members of the soldiers buried at McGavock would correspond with Carrie through the following decades to gain information about their loved ones. For many years after the battle, people would travel from various southern States to Franklin in order to visit their loved-one’s grave and to personally meet Carrie McGavock. Some would return year after year.

One of the sadder stories related to this reburial process is that George Cuppett’s younger brother, Marcellus, who was helping with the reburials, mysteriously died during the reburial project. The McGavocks allowed him to be buried in the same cemetery. He was buried with the Texas soldiers. Marcellus Cuppett is the only civilian buried in McGavock Confederate Cemetery.

The cemetery has remained in private hands since 1866. An annual memorial service is held the first Sunday in June to honor the brave Southern soldiers. A local Boy Scout troop places flags next to each marker to honor their sacrifice.

If you come to Franklin make sure Carnton is on your list of stops. Plan at least one hour for the house tour and an additional 20-40 minutes to walk through the cemetery. This guidebook is a valuable resource for your self-guided tour through the cemetery.

Going Home by Mary Fahl (lyrics)

They say there’s a place
where dreams have all gone
They never said where
but I think I know
It’s miles through the night
just over the dawn
on the road that will take me home

I know in my bones
I’ve been here before
The ground feels the same
though the land’s been torn
I’ve a long way to go
The stars tell me so
on this road that will take me home

Love waits for me ’round the bend
Leads me endlessly on
Surely sorrows shall find their end
and all our troubles will be gone
And I’ll know what I’ve lost
and all that I’ve won
when the road finally takes me home

And when I pass by
don’t lead me astray
Don’t try to stop me
Don’t stand in my way
I’m bound for the hills
where cool waters flow
on this road that will take me home

Love waits for me ’round the bend
Leads me endlessly on
Surely sorrows shall find their end
and all our troubles will be gone
And we’ll know what we’ve lost
and all that we’ve won
when the road finally takes me home

I’m going home
I’m going home
I’m going home

How many soldiers are buried at McGavock, how many are identified, and how is the cemetery designed?

The reburial operation took place between April and June 1866. 1,481 bodies were reinterred in McGavock Cemetery. The cemetery has always stayed in private hands since 1866. It is the largest privately-owned military cemetery in the United States. The United Daughters of the Confederacy, Chapter 14, maintain the cemetery today.

There were 225 soldiers placed in an Unknown section—pictured right. Not even their state identity was even known.

Another 333 unknowns are spread out in state sections throughout the cemetery, their state identity having been known, but not their names. So of the total of 1,481 Confederate soldiers buried here, 780 are identified positively. Another 143 graves have some sort of identification, genuine or otherwise.

The cemetery layout is simple. Ten of the eleven Confederate States are represented at McGavock. Only Virginia is not. There are also two neutral States: Kentucky and Missouri. The entire cemetery can be leisurely walked in 20-30 minutes. Budget 30-45 minutes if you have this guidebook with you.

The cemetery is basically divided down the middle by a fourteen foot walking path. The cemetery lays facing east-west. The entrance is on the far west side.

Walking in, one will see the first section to the left dedicated to the states of Florida, Kentucky and North Carolina. These states had the fewest casualties: Florida 4, Kentucky 5, and NC had 2.

The next section, on the left, is the Unknown section. There are 225 men buried here. There is just one large marker to honor the unknown dead. The flag pole is also in this section.

Continuing down to the left side one will then find the following state sections, the number buried is indicated to the right.

Louisiana—19
South Carolina—51
Georgia—69
Alabama—129
Tennessee—230

Once you get into these sections, with individual plots, each row has 15 granite markers corresponding to a given soldier.

The markers are well-worn but originally had the initials of the soldiers engraved on the top, as well as the plot number for that section. Many of the markers today are unreadable, thus it can be difficult to locate a given marker without a little patience and knowledge of how the cemetery is laid out.

As you make your way down the entire left— north side – of the cemetery you will end in the Tennessee section. Cross over to the south side now, where the Texas section begins.

Now, working your way back to the front of the cemetery, you will run into these state sections as you walk back toward the west:

Texas—89
Missouri—130
Arkansas—104
Mississippi—424

Mississippi has more young men -424- buried at McGavock than any other state. The number of Mississippi boys reflect the brutal cost paid by Loring’s Division as it absorbed Union artillery shelling on the far left Union flank. The 31st MS has the highest number of known men buried at McGavock— twenty-one men.