November 30, 1864 Battle of Franklin

   After the Union troops slipped past General John Bell Hood's Confederate forces camped at Spring Hill, Tennessee the night before, they began building entrenchments at Franklin. Their main line of defense was built across the Columbia Pike and at the home of Fountain Branch Carter. As Hood watched from Winstead Hill south of Franklin, he ordered his men at nearly dusk to charge into the Federal earthworks repeatedly.

   Confederate forces lined from Carter's Creek Pike on the left to the Carnton Plantation and the Harpeth River on the right. Carter's family hid in their basement as the fighting raged around their house. Just as the Confederates were able to break through the trenches near the center, Union General Opdycke's forces came up over a hill from behind to reinforce the line and repulse the attack. Fighting waged on well into the night. Casualties numbered in the thousands, with the Confederates having 1,750 killed, including six generals.
   I will talk more about the battle and the aftermath in tomorrow's post.