I took over 130 photos today at the Carter garden ceremony. Here are some highlights of today’s ceremony. To access the complete photo gallery click here.
Rob Shenk, the CWPT.
Historian-friends Eric Jacobson and Thomas Cartwright.
Nothing like a good snooze in the shine for a Rebel.
Federals armed with repeaters reenact in the likeness of the 72nd Illinois.
The Rebs pour fire into the Yankee line.
Unfortunately, the Rebs also created fire on the hay in the gardens too.
This Yankee-lad is a direct descendant of Capt James Sexton, 72nd Illinois.
Mom and sons, all direct descendants of Capt James Sexton, 72nd Illinois. Rayna Timmons-Boyles
The newly reclaimed Carter gardens was once a significant part of the Carter family property.
It's the 'next generation' who will have to carry the torch for preservation for the Franklin community.
The Franklin (TN) Civil War preservation community continues to have much to celebrate when it comes to reclaiming hallowed ground, land that played a crucial role during the American Civil War (1861-1865) . In 2007, in partnership with the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), a small portion (i.e., one-half acre) of the original Carter family garden was purchased for future posterity and remembrance of the horrific action that took place just 50 feet south of the present Carter House grounds. The half acre of land cost $210,000.00. The Battle of Franklin Trust, which stewards the Carter House grounds property, is hosting a dedication ceremony this Saturday at the site.
Carter garden section of the Battle of Franklin
Preservationist and author Robert Hicks said, “With the creation of the Battle of Franklin Trust and all of it’s plans for the future and with the ongoing work of Franklin’s Charge, as it moves forward to reclaim the battlefield around the cotton gin, reconstruct the gin and the historic trench line, Franklin may prove itself the national model for battlefield preservation it’s often touted to be.”
The Federal or Union defensive line (in discussion here) lay basically across an East-West diagonal line on the western side of Columbia Pike, just 50-60 feet in front of the present day Carter grounds. That line was an entrenchment that was dug by Union soldiers probably in the early morning hours of November 30th, 1864. The Carter family had a small family vegetable garden that is believed to have originally been a two acre parcel of land, about 50 feet south west of where the slave cabin is presently located.
Location of Carter garden in green box
Many Union soldiers’ letters and diaries record men having spent several hours the morning of the 30th hastily and hurriedly digging trench works along this line. This defensive line, also known as earthworks, or breastworks, was a significant reason why the Union side at Franklin saw modest casualties-killed (about 150), while the Confederates suffered a staggering amount, (around 1,700), according to Fred Prouty. Historian Eric Jacobson says those numbers are probably even too low. He believes there were probably 300 Federal killed at Franklin.
During the excavation on the original Carter family garden site, the team also unearthed partial human remains, probably from a Civil War soldier, and other related military items. Archaeologist Larry McKee has been working on the project and is expected to release his report in a few weeks. Robert Hicks of Franklin’s Charge said, “The fact that human remains were found there simply reminds all of us how hallowed the battlefield — all the battlefield at Franklin — is.”
Carter house grounds, garden was left (west) of the man standing
An army that fought behind defensive earthworks had a distinct advantage against assaulting troops, especially if the defending army also had artillery support. The Union armies at the Battle of Franklin had the advantage of both. Thus, as Jacobson says (p. 374 below), the ” . . . cards were stacked against them [the Rebels] almost from the start”.
I own a letter from a Union soldier who fought at Franklin for the 63rd Indiana (on the far eastern Union flank) named Addison Lee Ewing. His first letter after Franklin states the following:
“There is no quicker way of suffering this war than by having Rebs charge our works when they invariably get whipped.”
Ewing said it well, the Confederates at Franklin “got whipped”, and the biggest reason was because of the defensive earthworks.
Casting the larger significance of the Carter garden section of the battlefield, historian Eric Jacobson captures it best:
“The significance of the western edge of the Carter garden cannot be overstated. Around 4:30 p.m. on November 30, 1864, elements of Gen. John Brown’s Confederate Division ripped through the main Federal line of defense west of Columbia Pike. Among the units forced to withdraw was the 72nd Illinois Infantry, which held the section of the line which cuts through the garden property. The Illinois troops fell back to a reserve line held by the 44th Missouri Infantry. Only a firm stand by the Missourians prevented Brown’s troops from collapsing more of the Federal defensive position. The garden property was enveloped by a hail of relentless fire for hours and three separate charges made by Federal troops to retake the main line were unsuccessful. The Confederates held the outside of the main line until they started to withdraw around 9 p.m.”
Hoosier Lee Ewing paints the picture in vivid language that only a first-hand participant could have described that day:
“Colonels and Generals rode right up to our faces bringing their men in fine style but “blue coats” wouldn’t budge back one inch and there fell victims to their own mad actions. A person could walk over acres of dead . . . stepping on one dead body to another. It was a terrible slaughter. ”
– Lee Ewing, 63rd Indiana, December 5th, 1864 letter
The Tennessee Wars Commission provided the grant to Franklin’s Charge for the excavation of the Carter garden area. An archaeological team led by Larry McKee – with TRC Garrow Associates Inc. – found material evidence of that awful day, unearthed just several inches below the surface in the present-day Carter garden. Jacobson says that the team “excavated about 2/3rds of the Federal line that runs diagonally across the property”. They dug down roughly 20 inches and discovered the material evidence including: lots of bullets (Spencers), some fired and some dropped; ram rods, a bayonet, evidence of a fire pot, and human remains.
Among the human remains was “a piece of a skull, a finger, part of an ankle, and portion of femur-leg bone”, according to Fred Prouty. It would be impossible to know for sure if the human remains were Confederate or Union. However, we do know that it would have been Federal soldiers who would have dug the earthworks and originally manned them.
They dug down from the surface about 18-24 inches and then piled the dirt up in front of the trench, on the south side of the trench. Soldiers would have then placed head logs, branches, and anything they else they could have found around them (including portions of Carter outbuildings, barns, etc,) on the top of the piled dirt in front. In all, the earthworks would have been roughly five to six feet high, thus giving the Federals a tremendous advantage of protection against the assaulting Confederate troops.
View probably just 20 feet northeast of the original Carter garden location.
The Federals also had the advantage of artillery placed on the line as well as about 50 yards behind the line. As the approaching Rebels came upon the earthworks they faced a terrible blaze of fire from the Federals in this section, some of whom apparently even had Spencer rifles. A Spencer was a ‘repeating rifle’, capable of firing seven .52 cartridges in less than 10 seconds, compared to the standard Enfield rifle that could yield up to three discharges in one minute.
The discovery of the Spencer bullets is interesting as historian Eric Jacobson pointed out. The Illinois troops in that position did not have Spencer rifles. So where did they likely come from? Jacobson thinks they came from the 28th Kentucky Infantry (U.S.) who was posted a mile out front in Wagner’s brigade (U.S.), before the assault started. Wagner’s entire line made for a hasty retreat immediately upon the start of Hood’s charge and skeedaddled back behind the Union line. As the retreating Union soldiers came flying up and over the entrenchments on the Carter garden they no doubt dropped some Spencer bullets, and many also joined the Illinoisians on the line, discharging their rifles against the coming Rebel onslaught.
Spencer bullets
Three weeks after the battle of Franklin, Lee Ewing (63rd Indiana Infantry U.S.) came back through Franklin on the 20th of December, chasing after Hood’s defeated Army of Tennessee retreating to Alabama from Nashville. Ewing may have been standing right near the Carter gardens when he wrote this:
“. . . we was at Franklin where there are hundreds of new made graves filled by the Enemy. I went into the old breastworks where we lay and all over the front of our Brigade which is pretty well dotted over with rebble graves . . . There are dead horses laying around. Some of them almost up over our old works.”
– Lee Ewing, 63rd Indiana, December 22nd, 1864 letter
The Battle of Franklin Trust will host a ceremony and dedication this Saturday, April 17th, to formally open the recaptured tract of land that served as the garden for the Carter family. The public is invited to attend this free event which will be held from 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
The Franklin community’s preservation efforts are led and championed by many people, many behind the scenes, and from all over the nation. Robert Hicks said:
Truth is, this hallowed ground — the battlefield at Franklin, like the history of the battle, itself, is our nation’s patrimony. The reclamation of the back portion of the Carter Garden Plot could never have been possible without the passionate work of Thomas Cartwright, the CWPT and a host of individual donors, nation-wide. While it was supported by the many individual preservation organizations in Franklin that make up Franklin’s Charge, along with the collective support from Franklin’s Charge, itself, as we dedicate the garden plot, we are remind, once again that this was a national campaign and its success rests firmly on the shoulders of men and women across the nation.
The excavated Federal line is covered with sand.
Sources:
Eric Jacobson, Battle of Franklin Trust historian and Director of Operations
Phone interview 4/13/10; email correspondence; and personal conversations.
Also see Jacobson’s For Cause and For Country, 2006 (Hb): pp. 373-74.
Fred Prouty, Director of Programs for the TN Wars Commission.
4/12/10 FCWRT, and phone interview 4/13/10
Robert Hicks, Franklin’s Charge, email interview 4/13/10
Kraig McNutt Civil War Collection, letter(s) from A. Lee Ewing, 63rd Indiana.
Franklin , Tennessee – April 5, 2010 – The Battle of Franklin Trust Board of Directors Chairman Marianne Schroer announced today a ceremony and dedication is set for Saturday, April 17th to formally open the recaptured tract of land that served as the garden for the Carter family and witnessed some of the most horrific fighting of the November 30, 1864, Battle of Franklin. The public is invited to attend this free event which will be held from 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
In making the announcement, Schroer said, “In recent years, Franklin was once listed as one of the top ten most endangered battlefields of the Civil War by the Civil War Preservation Trust. Our city has worked hard to recapture as much of the battlefield as we can to preserve and interpret its history. Opening the Carter House Garden is a significant step in the Trust’s commitment to preserve this hallowed ground.” The Program:
Participants in the program will include Schroer, The Carter House Board of Directors member Gene McNeil, Battle of Franklin Historian Thomas Cartwright and Battle of Franklin Trust Operations Director and historian Eric Jacobson.
Guests will be invited to help seed the property in an effort to feed the land and to symbolically initiate the further growth of the Battle of Franklin Trust and its mission.
The Carter House History:
The Carter House, built in 1830 by Fountain Branch Carter, witnessed one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War on November 30, 1864. This Registered Historic Landmark has been open to the public since 1953 and serves as a memorial to the Carter Family, as well as the countless heroes of the Battle of Franklin.
During the five hours of fighting, the Carter Family took refuge in their basement. Twenty-three men, women and children (many under the age of twelve) were safely protected while the horrible cries of war rang out above them. The head of the family, Fountain Branch Carter, a 67-year old widower, had seen three of his sons fight for the Confederacy. One son, Theodrick (Tod), was serving as an aid for General T.B. Smith on the battlefield and saw his home for the first time in three-plus years. Crying out, “Follow me boys, I’m almost home,” Captain Tod Carter was mortally wounded and died two days later at the Carter House.
The Significance of The Carter House Garden:
The Carter House Garden consists of approximately a half acre and is located directly behind the historic Carter House. The garden was originally two acres.
Eric Jacobson said, “The significance of the western edge of the Carter garden cannot be overestimated. Around 4:30 p.m. on November 30, 1864, elements of Gen. John Brown’s Confederate Division ripped through the main Federal line of defense west of Columbia Pike. Among the units forced to withdraw was the 72 nd Illinois Infantry, which held the section of the line which cuts through the garden property. The Illinois troops fell back to a reserve line held by the 44 th Missouri Infantry. Only a firm stand by the Missourians prevented Brown’s troops from collapsing more of the Federal defensive position. The garden property was enveloped by a hail of relentless fire for hours and three separate charges made by Federal troops to retake the main line were unsuccessful. The Confederates held the outside of the main line until they started to withdraw around 9 p.m.”
From 1997 until 2008, Thomas Cartwright served as Executive Director of The Carter House and worked diligently to secure funding to reclaim the property. At one time, the property included a house, swimming pool, and a trailer.
The Federal line is marked by the sand line.
Through Cartwright’s efforts along with The Carter House Association and the Civil War Preservation Trust, approximately $235,000 in funding was raised to clear the land and preserve it as an open area in reverence to the soldiers who fought and died on the property.
Thomas Cartwright frequently appears on various documentaries for the History Channel, A&E, Travel Channel, CNN, Discovery, and Preservation Channel. For many years, he has lectured throughout most of the United States for Civil War Round Tables, corporations, preservation groups and heritage organizations. He currently conducts walking tours of the battlefield from the Lotz House located across the street from The Carter House.
The Public Is Invited:
The public is invited to the free event which will begin at 1:00 p.m. at The Carter House located at 1140 Columbia Avenue . Free parking is available in the gravel parking lot adjacent to the house.
Prior to the garden ceremony from 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., author Ruth Hill McAllister will host a book signing from 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. of C. “Aytch” First Tennessee Regiment, or a Side Show of the Big Show by Sam R. Watkins, edited by Ruth Hill Fulton McAllister ( Franklin , TN : Providence House Publishers, 2007).
“The Battle of Franklin Trust is a 501 (c) (3) management corporation acting on behalf of Franklin ’s battlefield sites to contribute to a greater understanding and enrich the visitor experience of the November 30, 1864 battle. It’s organized for the charitable and educational purposes of preserving, restoring, maintaining and interpreting the properties, artifacts and documents related to the battle so as to preserve an important part of the nation’s history. Learn more at http://www.battleoffranklintrust.org .”
The Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864 