Our journey along Tennessee's Civil War Heritage Trail (www.tnvacation.com/civil-war/trails/) has taken us out of the main cities - Chattanooga, Nashville and Knoxville - into the countryside where much of the landscape looks like it did during the Civil War.
You get a very different perspective and understanding of this, the greatest conflict this nation has ever known, when you visit the sites, talk with the people who preserve the legacy. And you realize that what happened here 150 years ago, continues to resonate in today's political discourse.
We leave Spring Hill, where 25,000 Union soldiers have managed to literally slip by Confederates as they slept, for Franklin, where almost by a quirk, one of the most desperately fought battles take place, sealing the fate of the Confederacy.
Today, a thriving suburb of Nashville, at the time of the Civil War this was a sleepy farming village of 750 people. Here, the story focuses more on the civilians caught up in battle - what happens when war comes to your doorstep. And truth, as it turns out, is stranger than fiction
We head first for a promontory that looks down on the city, where we meet Eric Jacobson, a historianwho has made the Battle of Franklin here in Tennessee his focus since he was a 10th grader in Minnesota, recently named Chief Operating Officer of the Battle of Franklin Trust.
"It is one of greatest untold stories of the Civil War," he says. "What happens here on Nov. 30 1864 and its echo effects, are last great dramatic scene of Civil War. Because what happens here finally brings end to war.
"You hear people say it was 'reckless,' 'suicidal,' 'never should have happened.' But wars like this don’t just end one day. So the question is, 'Why did we have to fight such nasty, vicious battle, so late in war?'
"It was November, 1864. Lee’s army is pinned down by Grant, Sherman torches Atlanta. But out West [as the Tennessee front was known], Confederates still had mobility. The Confederates' plan was to invade Tennessee and retake Nashville, which had been occupied for 2 ½ years by Union forces.
Confederate General John Bell Hood is desperate. And while few hold out an illusion of conquering the North," the political situation for Confederates is that they are not ready to surrender and soldiers still have to follow orders. Soldiers don’t negotiate surrender, politicians do," he says. Hood gears up for a last desperate battle to change course of war.
"The Confederacy was not trying to win. It was trying not to lose."
But a Confederate win at Franklin would have prolonged the war, emboldened the South and demoralized the North. The War would have dragged on that much longer, with perhaps tens of thousands more dying. Northerners who were getting fed up with the war, would have put more pressure on Lincoln to end the War, giving more favorable terms to the South. Confederates were holding out that they could win a political victory, even without a military one.
Hood brings 30,000 troops; there are only 8,000 federals defending Nashville, but that will soon change.
Union Major General John Schofield, coming up from Spring Hill with some 25,000 troops, on his way to reinforce Nashville, is not looking for a fight.
"Nothing about Franklin is inviting from a military perspective – it is open. Schofield wants out but can’t get across the river."
Later, we hear later of a story about the bridge at Franklin having been burned early on in the war by a young girl who thinks she will keep the Yankees out of Franklin, and then a second time, so the wasn’t strong enough to hold the equipment; this forced the Union to stop and build a pontoon bridge, an ironic turn of events that brings the war to Franklin's doorstep.
"That means he has to dig in and build a crossing. He throws up a defense to buy time for his engineers. He wants to get out by 6 p.m.
"The Confederates form a line by the river; by 3:30 in the afternoon, 20,000 Confederate soldiers are strung out a mile, against 20,000 Federals.
"Many had fought at Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. The men who had been in the fight for two years had already seen 250,000 men killed or wounded. These are veterans, hardened American soldiers."
It is early November when we visit, just a couple of weeks before the actual anniversary of the battle, on Nov. 30, and it is even the same time of day, late afternoon, when the soldiers would have been amassing, so as Jacobson describes the scene, we can almost see it before our eyes, helped by a bronze relief positioned there that etches out the battle lines.
"It was a day like today – Indian summer, warm… Hood sees a wide open plain. He sees the defensive line. But he also sees [the Union forces] going to Nashville. Hood wants to stop them.
"Starting at 4 p.m., Hood initiates a frontal assault – an attack bigger than Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg. Arguably, it was the largest infantry attack of the war.
"Many who watched couldn’t believe what they saw: a line of 20,000 soldiers coming at you to kill you…"
Today, as we look down, much of the battlefield has been built over. Suburban sprawl from Nashville has overtaken the landscape, a desecration for many who want the battlefield preserved as a monument. This is why many local people are working so hard to preserve the land, even buy up properties.
From this promontory, we see the expanse of the battle, where you can imagine some 40,000 troops. But to personalize the story, we go next to the Carter House.
Carter House
Jacobson continues the story on the porch of the Carter House, in Franklin, itself. This modest stone home became the headquarters for the union generals; the Carter family took refuge in the clammy cellar, along with the Lotz family who fled their wood frame house for the Carter's brick cottage.
The Federal Army had arrived from Spring Hill in Franklin around 1:00 that morning. Major General John M. Schofield led the operation and woke up the Carter Family, commandeering their home as his headquarters. At that time, the Carter Farm consisted of 288 acres on the south edge of town bordering the Columbia Pike. Their cotton gin was located 100 yards from the house where eventually the main line of Federal breastworks were constructed (www.carter-house.org/the-battle-of-franklin/).
"By 2 pm Confederate General John Bell Hood had made plans for a frontal assault over strong objections from his commanders. 'I don't like the looks of this fight, as the enemy has a good position and is well fortified,' General Cheatham says. Generals Cleburne and Forrest (cavalry) knew they would be flirting with disaster. But Hood would not be dissuaded. As Cleburne mounted his horse to leave, Hood gave strict orders for the assault. Cleburne responded, 'We will take the works or fall in the attempt.' The Army of Tennessee knew this assault on the town of Franklin would be suicidal. They bravely advanced toward the Carter House with their heads held high." (http://www.carter-house.org/the-battle-of-franklin/)
There are 40,000 soldiers - about 20,000 on each side - from 25 different states pitted against each other when the fighting starts at 4:30 p.m. The sun is just setting behind the Confederates, who are seen as silhouettes by the Union forces. By 5:15 p.m., it is dark and the battle is fully engaged.
The Battle of Franklin was one of most violent and horrific. It involved soldiers from 25 different states - old foes who had met before on other battlefields, with no love lost.
By 4:30, pm. the sun is headed toward the horizon. setting behind the Confederates – so Union soldiers only saw their silhouette. By 5:15, it is already dark, violent, the battle fully engaged.
They met like waves cresting together – clubbing, clawing, shouting, biting each other. The fighting soon became brutal and fiendishly savage. They fight with pickaxes and bare hands. Men are bayoneted and clubbed to death in the Carter yard.
Federal officer Arthur MacArthur (who we learned about at the Battle of Chickamauga and is the father of Douglas MacArthur), though shot in the knee, still killed a Confederate.
Those who survived the Battle of Franklin never forget.
The Southern army breaks the center of the Union line, just 250 feet south of where we stand. But a US counter assault – sealed the hole.
By 9 pm., the Battle of Franklin was over, but left a horrific scene: 2500 dead and 7,000 wounded, with the Confederate losses at more than three times those of the Union. More men were killed in the Confederate Army of Tennessee in this five- hour battle than in the two-day Battle of Shiloh, the three-day Battle of Stones River, and the seven-day Campaign in Virginia for the Federal Army.
The Battle of Franklin is considered the bloodiest five hours of the Civil War.
The field is a mass of bodies - so thick that some of the dead are still standing up.The wounded are pinned underneath the dead, howling. The field is so crowded, that the dead are left standing up.
The images would haunt most of those who survived.
Among the dead are six Confederate generals,Patrick Cleburne, John Adams, States Rights Gist (his name was based on the nullification politics politics of his father, Nathaniel Gist), Otho Strahl, and Hiram Granbury. An additional eight were wounded or captured.
The Army of Tennessee is no more.
"They deserved better than what they received," Jacobson says ruefully. "They are forgotten."
Eleven US soldiers earned the Medal of Honor.
Jacobson takes us out to a clapboard building, just steps from the house - the most bullet-riddled building still standing.
That is the "macro" story. But the battle becomes personal at the Carter House, and Jacobson continues the story in the cellar of the stone house.
In the cellar of the Carter House, Jacobson continues the story.
'Follow Me Boys'
Fountain Branch Carter, who had become a prosperous farmer, had 12 children with his wife Polly. At this point in time, he was a 67-year old widower, who had sent three of his sons to fight for the Confederacy.
During the day, they could see the troops massing, and go to General Cox who had commandeered their house for his headquarters, to ask what they should do.
(I find it so curious whenever we hear about the exchanges between the Southern and Northern figures, remembering it is a civil war)
The Carters are faced with a terrible decision: to leave everything and try to flee, or stay. But where would they go? The rest of the town is a mile away, behind Union lines. What would you come back to? He has his children with him. He decides to stay in the cellar.
It is here in this cramped, clammy cellar that the Carter family, with about 8 of their children, huddles for about 12 hours.
They are joined by the Lotz family, neighbors from across the street, who have also been faced with the difficult dilemma, and decide to leave their wood house for the comparative safety of Carter's stone one. About 2 dozen people are down there. They can hear the battle raging outside and the moans and cries of the men cut down during the five hours of fighting.
In a story where truth is stranger than fiction, this becomes one of the most tragic episodes in the war.
Fountain Branch's son, Theodrick (Tod) was serving as an aide to General Tb Smith on the battlefield. He didn't have to be in the fight, but he saw his home for the first time in three years. Crying out, "Follow me boys, I'm almost home," Captain Tod Carter was struck by gunshots.
The Federal forces began to withdraw about midnight; General Cox was last to leave. One Confederate soldier was bayoneted on the Carter's front steps.
At first Fountain Branch is relieved His house, though riddled with bullets, is still standing; everyone is okay. Then comes word that Tod is somewhere out there among the thousands and thousands of wounded.
They emerge to a scene that is utter destruction.
A soldier takes Mosco, Tod's 42-year old brother, onto the battlefield in dark, where they find him laying face down, just 170 yards from the door to his house, with eight bullets below his face, and one bullet in his head.
Tod mutters a friend's name. They bring him back to the house, where he survives 36 hours, then dies in his own parlor, surrounded by his family.
"Tod's story is as much about his father." Jacobson says. "His father had to bring his boy to the house, watch him die, bury him, and still go on with his life."
For years, soldiers who had been in the battle would come back and Fountain Branch would talk to them, until he died in 1871.
"These were real people, just like us, but lived in a difficult time," Jacobson says.
So much of the Civil War lore is focused on the soldiers' stories, but this day is mainly about how the war affected everyday people, who suddenly found it at their doorstep.
The Carters continued to live here until 1896 and the house was a residence until 1950. It was supposed to be demolished, but literally, at the last moment, it was saved from the wrecking ball. It was purchased by the State of Tennessee in 1951 and first opened to the public in 1953. Today a Registered Historic Landmark, it is dedicated to all Americans who fought.
A fledgling group, the Battle of Franklin Trust, founded just over a year ago, was formed to manage the battlefield site and better interpret it to the public.
A gymnasium next to the Carter House is being restored as a Visitor Center, hopefully in time for the 150th anniversary of the battle, in 2014.
Carter House, 1140 Columbia Avenue, Franklin TN 37064, 615-791-1861, www.carter-house.org, email CarterHouse1864@aol.com.
Lotz House
The war also came to the Lotz House.
We walk diagonally across the street from the Carter House to the white clapboard home, built by Lotz, who emigrated from Germany and built his home in Franklin, in 1854.
Lotz hadspent 20 years working to achieve the title of master woodworker. He built his house to showcase his skills to potential customers – finials, flowers atop columns all in different styles to show off the variations (like a catalog).
He is not a slave-holder, but by the time the Civil War comes to Franklin, he has developed a real hatred for the Federals. Eighteen months before the battle, his twin babies died after drinking from a well he believes was poisoned by the Federals. This is a bitter man.
On the eve of the battle, his daughter, Matilda celebrated her 6th birthday.
At 10:15 a.m. the morning of November 30, the Union soldiers have - in his mind - invaded. They tear down his barn, his stable, his woodworking shop, take down every tree and fence, slaughter his cows, sheep, chickens – everything - cut his milk cow’s throat purely out of maliciousness, he believes.
This family is filled with utter terror. The house is a wooden plank structure, and would be blasted to smithereens by cannon fire. He picks up his baby, his tools, and walks through federal troops to the Carter House.
He made the right decision to shelter there in the Carter's stone cellar: a six-pound Confederate cannonball came through his roof and we can see the floor where it fell through from three floors above. An entire side of his house is blasted through. We get to hold a cannonball that was dug out from the lawn.
After the battle, Lotz tries to repair his house. Insteat of the painstaking care, you can see the haste with which he worked, using mismatched yellow poplar wood instead of a termite-resistant wood; he borders up the south side, where there had been windows. December 1864 was the coldest in Tennessee on record.
t takes him three years to repair the house. He tries unsuccessfully to recover $62,000 from the Union for reparations.
"You see his mental state, his fear and anger," J.T. Thompson tells us.
Lotz lasts here until 1869. He makes a piano with an American Eagle with a US Flag and a Confederate flag, where the eagle's talons are grasping the Confederate flag. He means it to represent that the war over and it is time for reconciliation, but the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, angered by the representation, accuse him of desecrating the Confederate flag. The Klan intends to teach the German immigrant a lesson. In fear, Lotz hastily sells his home and everything he owns in a matter of days, travels 2,300 miles to resettle in San Jose, California.
His daughter, Matilda, six years old during the Battle of Franklin, grows up in California and becomes an artist. Phoebe Hearst supports her art studies, and one of her paintings hangs in Hearst Castle. When she is 21 years old, she goes to Europe to paint; a bold woman, she wears pants, sails down the Nile and spends 10 years in Egypt, and is today recognized as a pioneering female artist.
"She sees, hears the worst the world can offer. That empowers her and emboldens her. She sees her pet calf slaughtered by federals, and later paints a calf."
There are two of her paintings in the house, including an 1880 painting of a donkey, one of her earliest pieces.
The Lotz house is 152 years old, and has been many things including a Subway sandwich shop. It was close to being turned into a Mexican restaurant when it was purchased for a nonprofit foundation, and now is run by volunteers.
The tour of the house is fascinating - to see Lotz' carvings and workmanship and the various period furnishings and artifacts. Everything in the house is the Thompson family's private collection and only now available for public view. There is a hair wreath - which seems to have originated as a slave custom to be like a portrait after death, but which the Southern ladies embraced as a traditional craft.
J.T. points out how they used gold in the furnishings, in order to reflect light (important before electricity).
Here in the parlor we see a dome housing a collection of stuffed birds that were made by John J. Audubon himself – a bird inside has been extinct since 1860.
The dining room table is set, and we note how small the plates are - serving sizes were much smaller than today.
Lotz House, 1111 Columbia Avenue, Franklin, TN 37064, 615-790-7190, www.lotzhouse.com.
What is unique about Franklin is that though much of the battlefield has been developed - it is Nashville's suburbia - in this small area are three amazing houses that bring this epic battle down to human terms: the Carter House, the Lotz House and Carnton Plantation, where our Tennessee Civil War Heritage trail continues.
For additional trip planning help:
For Tennessee Civil War trip planning, go to www.tnvacation.com/civil-war/. For the Tennessee Civil War Heritage Trails, go to www.tnvacation.com/civil-war/trails/. You can see maps and have planning tools; there is even a mobile app.
A brochure, "A Path Divided," is downloadable at http://tn.gov/environment/hist/doc/brochure.pdf.
Another source is the Civil War Traveler: Tennessee, www.civilwartraveler.com/WEST/TN/index.html.
Williamson County Convention & Visitor Bureau, 615-791-7554, www.VisitWilliamson.com
Battle of Franklin: www.civilwar.org/battlefields/franklin/franklin-2010/franklin-then-now.html
See next: Carnton Plantation & 'The Widow of the South'
See also:
Tennessee launches Civil War Heritage Trail in time for Sesquicentennial
Chattanooga is key stop on Tennessee's Civil War Heritage Trail
Civil War comes home to Spring Hill on Tennessee's Heritage Trail
--Karen Rubin, National Eclectic Travel Examiner
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© 2011 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit www.examiner.com/eclectic-travel-in-national/karen-rubin, www.examiner.com/eclectic-traveler-in-long-island/karen-rubin or www.travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate. Send comments or questions to FamTravLtr@aol.com. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com.
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