Aftermath of the Battle of Franklin

   Six Confederate generals were dead. The Union army had left Franklin and were headed to join the regiments who were already situated in Nashville, about 20 miles north. The Federals had not lost as many men, but those wounded were left behind. Confederate General John Bell Hood would foolishly pursue them to Nashville where his Army of Tennessee would be devastated on December 15th and 16th.

   The Confederate dead in Franklin numbered near 1,750 men. Carrie McGavock, lady of the house at Carnton Plantation, saw to it that most of those soldiers were buried at their home, next to their family cemetery. It is known as McGavock Confederate Cemetery and there are at least 1481 buried here, most of them unknown soldiers. Others were buried in mass graves, one being located at the Carter farm. I was told when I first toured the Carter House that it might still be under the nearby Domino's Pizza(shown in the photo below). That place has recently been bought and torn down-I look forward to hearing about the archaeological digs that take place in this area.
    Union soldiers who had been killed were hastily buried by townspeople and later re-interred either in Stones River National Cemetery in Murfreesboro or sent home to their families. As recently as 2009, during excavation for a new business not far from Winstead Hill, the remains of another soldier were found. They were unable to positively identify whether or not he had been Union or Confederate, so he was buried with full honors in Rest Haven Cemetery in Franklin as simply "Unknown Soldier".
    Today's battlefield does not resemble the ones at Gettysburg or Antietam, with tour roads and numerous monuments. But efforts are being made to preserve the historic events that took place here. As I mentioned, the Dominos Pizza and another shop across from the Carter House have been bought and torn down. Where you see the stack of cannonballs monument in that photo was once a Pizza Hut. A golf course next to the Carnton Plantation was bought and transformed into an interpretive walking path. You can tour the Carter House and Carnton. You can see the bullet holes that pepper the side of the Carter buildings, the blood stains on the floor of Carnton where so many wounded men were tended to. The only real monuments to speak of are on Winstead Hill, where Hood watched his soldiers go to die.
   Tomorrow I will talk about the life of one soldier in particular who died at the Battle of Franklin.