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John and Carrie McGavock owned the Carnton plantation or farm in Franklin, Tennessee, at the time of the Battle of Franklin. Carnton guide, historian and best-selling author, Michelle Place, tells us about the McGavocks and their farm, circa 1860s.
The McGavock home – Carnton – in Franklin, Tennessee.
Eric Jacobson describes A.P. Stewart’s Confederate Corps made up of the Divisions of Loring, Walthall and French, coming across the Eastern flank, across the McGavock farm, as the battle unfolded [Watch now, 1:42]
Read about the dedication of the marker to Loring’s Division on the Eastern flank in June 2008.
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.
By the time the Spring of 1866 arrived the condition of the graves and markers of the fallen Franklin Confederate were in bad condition. Many of the wooden markers were beginning to be hard to read and some had been used as firewood unfortunately. The identities, names and stories of these brave men were in danger.
The McGavocks of Carnton donated two acres of their property to be used as a permanent resting place for the soldiers. Citizens of Franklin began raising funds to exhume and re-bury nearly 1,500 Confederate soldiers, from where they lay on the field to the quiet field just northwest of the Carnton house. Enough money was raised to get started and a citizen named George Cuppett was placed in charge of the re-burial operation. He was paid $5.00 for each soldier. The work was “done in order to have removed from fields exposed to the plow-share, the remains of all those who were buried,” according to Col. John McGavock (quoted in Jacobson: McGavock, p. 24-25).
George was assisted by his brother, Marcellus, and two others. The entire operation took ten weeks and was completed in June 1866. Sadly, Marcellus, just 25 years old, fell ill during the process and died. He is buried at the head of the Texas section in the cemetery today. George Cuppett wrote, “My hole (sic) heart is with the brave & noble Confederate dead who fell whilst battling for their writes (sic) and Libertys (sic).” (Jacobson: McGavock, p. 25)
Soldiers from every Southern State in the Confederacy, except Virgina, are represented in the cemetery. Wooden headboards with the soldier’s personal identification were installed, as well as footboards in 1867.
Source: excerpted from the Wikipedia article (authored by Tellinghistory, the owner of this blog site)
Photo courtesy of the Carnton Foundation
Thomas Lindsay Murrell fought for the 6th TN and was killed at Franklin (Nov 30, 1864). He is buried in the TN section #52, plot #7 at McGavock Confederate Cemetery.
I picked up this handy resource at the Carnton gift shop recently.
It records the name and places of final restings of all Williamson County, TN, Confederate soldiers.
I found at least two more soldiers who died at Franklin and are buried at McGavock I previously did not have a picture of. Hurray!
George Cuppett wrote the names and information related to the identity of each soldier in the McGavock cemetery book (Jacobson: McGavock, pp. 39-44). After he finished the re-burials in mid 1866 he turned over the care of the book, and the dead, to the McGavock’s. Wood headboards were replaced with granite markers in 1896 by the John McEweb Bivouac veterans organization. The ongoing responsibility of maintaining the cemetery would fall on to the able and compassionate hands of Carrie McGavock, a labor of love she shouldered until her death in 1905. The original book is on display upstairs in Carnton.
It would fall to the McGavock’s to care for the nearly 1,500 Confederate dead for the remainder of their lives. John died in 1893 and Carrie in 1905. Carrie’s shepherding of the fallen of Franklin lasted 41 years. Rev. John W. Hanner was quoted in The Confederate Veteran magazine praying, mentioning about Carrie in 1905 (CV 30, p. 448):
We thank thee for the . . . feeble knees she lifted up, for the many hearts she comforted, the needy ones she supplied, the sick she ministered unto, and the boys she found in abject want and mothered and reared into worthy manhood. In the last day they will rise up and call her blessed. Today she is not, because thou hast taken her; and we are left to sorrow for the Good Samaritan of Williamson County, a name richly merited by her. (Quoted in Jacobson:McGavock, p. 37)
Time has not been favorable to the identities of the soldiers though. Today 780 Confederate soldiers’ identities are positively identified, leaving some 558 as officially listed as unknown.
Today, the McGavock Confederate Cemetery is the largest privately owned-maintained military cemetery in the United States. The Franklin Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy have maintained the cemetery now since 1905.
Source: excerpted from the Wikipedia article (authored by Tellinghistory, the owner of this blog site)
It was Carrie Winder McGavock, wife of John, who spearheaded the Good Samaritan operation of mercy that last evening of November 1864. She personally supervised the logistics of the effort and sacrificed much food, clothing and supplies to care for the wounded and dying. When she arose to make breakfast in the morning witnesses say her dress was soaked at the bottom with bloodstains. At least 150 Confederate soldiers died the first night at Carnton.
The smell of blood, wounds, infection and death was horrible. The visual scenes must have been indescribable as well. Carries two surviving children, Hattie (age nine) and Winder (age seven) served as medical aides throughout the evening as well.
Source: excerpted from the Wikipedia article (authored by Tellinghistory, the owner of this blog site)
“The Carnton Plantation is a historic house museum located in Franklin. Randal McGavock (1768-1843), builder of Carnton, emigrated from Virginia in 1796 and settled in Nashville. He was involved in local and state politics and eventually served as mayor of Nashville, 1824-25. Around 1826 McGavock moved his family to the recently completed Carnton to farm and raise thoroughbred horses until his death in 1843. After his death, his son John inherited the plantation and continued to farm the land until his own death in 1893. The McGavocks grew wheat, corn, oats, hay, and potatoes, in addition to raising thoroughbred horses.
Randal McGavock named his property after his father’s birthplace in County Antrim, Ireland. The Federal-style plantation house became a social and political center where McGavock entertained Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk and presided over an estate that grew to 1,420 acres. For many years the main house was joined to the smokehouse by a two-story “wing,” that was actually the first structure on the site (ca. 1815). The “wing” was damaged by a tornado in 1909 and torn away soon after, though its outline remains clearly visible on the wall of the house.
In 1847 John McGavock added a two-story Greek Revival portico and two dormers in the attic just prior to his 1848 marriage to his cousin, Carrie Winder of Ducros Plantation in Louisiana. A few years later, the couple added a two-story porch onto the rear of the house, which extended at one end to take advantage of southerly breezes. The interior was also updated in the 1850s, with the addition of fashionable wallpapers, carpets, and paint. The central passage now appears much as it did during the Civil War years, with restored paint colors and an original wallpaper pattern reproduced from a fragment that remains in place at the top of the stairs. The parlor was upgraded by adding a Greek Revival mantel, new wallpaper, and wall-to-wall carpeting.”
Citation source: The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture (online)
If you plan to visit Carnton you need to know:
Call 615-794-0903 to verify information before visiting
HOURS
Monday to Saturday
9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Sunday
1:00-5:00 p.m.
John and Carrie McGavock describe the scene at Carnton after the Battle of Franklin.
‘Every room was filled, every bed had two poor, bleeding fellows, every spare space, niche, and corner under the stairs, in the hall, everywhere. And when the noble old house could hold no more, the yard was appropriated until the wounded and dead filled that.’
‘Our doctors were deficient in bandages and [Carrie McGavock] began by giving her old linen, then her towels and napkins, then her sheets and tableclothes, then her husband’s shirts and her own undergarments. … Unaffrighted by the sight of blood, unawed by horrid wounds, unblanched by ghastly death, she walked from room to room, from man to man, her very skirts stained in blood.’
Carnton is open Monday-Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday 1-5 p.m.
Visit their web site for more info.
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