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Franklin's Carter House full of haunting history

On Nov. 30, 1864, Franklin, Tenn., witnessed and was part of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.  It was also one of the few night battles and occurred on one of the smallest battlefields of the war, only 2 miles long and 1 1/2 miles wide, and in the middle of it all stood the Carter House.  When the fighting was over casualties totaled 2,326 Federal Troops and 6,252 Confederates.  Among the dead and wounded were 15 Confederate Generals and Captain Tod Carter, the youngest son of the Carter family.

 

Fountain Branch Carter bought 19 acres in Oct. 1829 and spent 1830 building a modest farm and home for his family.  While on the outskirts of the small town of Franklin, the Carter farm was considered to be "out in the country."  By 1864, Carter had watched his farm flourish, the birth of 12 children and the death of 4, as well as the death of his beloved wife, Mary, and three of his sons fight for the Confederacy.  His youngest son, Theodrick or Tod, was a Captain with the 20th Tennessee Infantry and serving as an aid to General Thomas Benton Smith. 

 

Captain Tod Carter was a distinguished soldier, intelligent, educated and well thought of, having volunteered for duty with his older brother, Moscow, a veteran of the war with Mexico 15 years earlier.  He even acted as a war correspondent for a time, writing under the pen name "Mint Julep."  Captured by Federal forces during the Battle of Missionary Ridge in late 1863, Carter's horse swam across the river in full rig to return to camp, leading many to believe the young soldier had perished in battle.  Imprisoned at Johnson's Island in Ohio, Carter was scheduled to be transferred to Point Lookout in Maryland when he made his daring escape.

 

On Feb. 9, 1864, Carter and other prisoners of war were loaded onto a train to begin the journey from Ohio to Maryland.  As the train passed through the dark Pennsylvania countryside, Carter feigned sleep.  When the guard on duty looked the other way, Carter's seatmate gave him a nudge and the young Captain was out the train window.  Tod Carter had jumped from a moving train!  The transport was stopped, a search party was formed, but Carter was on his way south. 

 

Befriended by a northern farm family, Carter made his way down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to Memphis, Tenn.  From there, he travelled across the south to Dalton, Ga., where the 20th Tennessee was encamped.  While it's not known exactly what day he returned to his regiment, Capt. The. Carter was noted in official records as being present in March and April 1864. 

 

Nov. 28, 1864, brought new orders to Capt. Carter, orders that must have given him joy, for he was being told to go ahead of the Confederate Army to Franklin, to his family.  After 3 1/2 years of war, young Tod Carter was going home.  Traveling by horseback over rough road, Carter and his good friend, Sgt. James L. Cooper, finally reached Winstead Hill, about two miles from the Carter House. At the foot of the hill on Columbia Turnpike was the Mr. Green Neeley home. Carter and Cooper spent the night of Nov. 29 there, both sleeping under the same Army blanket. Mr. Neeley later told that Carter was "in a perfect ecstasy of joy" at the thought of seeing his family the next day.  Also while at Winstead Hill, Carter visited with an old friend and neighbor, Mrs. Sophronia Reams, and told her that he would "eat breakfast at his father's house in the morning."

 

During the night, a Union Army of about 24,000 under Gen. John M. Schofield crept past the sleeping Confederate Army, under Gen. John B. Hood, at Spring Hill. Throughout the night a double column seven miles long marched down the Columbia Pike, past the Neeley house and into Franklin. Desperate to join the forces of Gen. George H. Thomas at Nashville, Schofield's men found themselves thwarted by the Harpeth River.  The bridges had been destroyed, the ford was impassable, and ordered pontoons had not arrived.

 

As the sun just began to rise over the horizon, it became obvious to the Federal forces that Carter Hill was the key to defending Franklin.  At 4:30 on the morning of Nov. 30, Gen. Jacob D. Cox knocked on the door of the Fountain Branch Carter home and promptly commandeered it as the Federal Command Post.  Weary Union soldiers dropped to the floor of the front parlor for some much-needed sleep while other soldiers hurriedly dug entrenchments, tearing down four barns and the Carter cotton-gin across the road for timber to use as head-logs. 

 

According to a story later written by a Philadelphia Times correspondent, Tod Carter awakened to the presence of the Union army but would not be deterred from his visit home, making his way to Franklin via the woods and paths he'd traveled as a child.  Later in the morning, he arrived at the garden gate between the smokehouse and the farm office, and tears streamed down his face to see Union soldiers destroying his beloved home.  Pausing to take it in, or to say a prayer, Carter was spotted by a loved one, who quietly but frantically waved him away.  Carter returned to Winstead Hill. 

 

Around four in the afternoon, the battle erupted.  Gen. George W. Gordon later wrote that when the armies met it  "seemed as if Hell itself had exploded.  The very atmosphere was hideous with the shrieks of the messengers of death. The booming of cannon, the bursting of bombs, the incessant rattle of musketry, the shrieking of shells, the whizzing of bullets, and the shouting of hosts all added to the horror of that night". 

 

Fountain Branch Carter gathered his family, servants and neighbors, the Lotz family of five, and took shelter in the cellar of his home.  There, 23 individuals, 12 of them young children, huddled together.  Some Union soldiers sought refuge with the family, who retreated behind a partition, but the soldiers pushed back with them as well.  Carter then took his little band of refugees farther into the cellar, and the soldiers again attempted to join them as there was no way to bar the door.  Carter, however, turned them out, cursing and driving them back toward the battle. 

 

About an hour after the battle began, Tod Carter, whose duties as Assistant Quartermaster to Gen. Smith should have kept him from combat, mounted his gray horse, Rosencrantz, and charged into the fray, determined to lead his men against those he felt were a threat to his home.  Crying out, "Follow me boys, I'm almost home," Carter and his horse were both struck almost immediately.  It was barely 5:00, the sun was just setting, and young Theodrick "Tod" Carter lay mortally wounded, only 500 feet from  his home.

 

Fountain Branch Carter and the others in his party remained in the darkened cellar, following the battle's progress through the iron grating of a small window.  Around 9:00pm the Union army retreated toward Nashville, and the small Carter group cautiously surfaced from their haven around midnight.  Emerging to dead and dying bodies all about, the weary party had scarcely made it above ground when a Confederate soldier arrived with the news that Tod lay dying, so close to home.  Moscow, a prisoner of war at home on parole, immediately went in search of his brother, but fate took him in the wrong direction.   

 

In the meantime, Gen. Smith also reached the Carter House to report that his aide was gravely wounded.  The general himself then led the search, followed by Carter's father, three sisters and a sister-in-law.  Searching by lantern-light, climbing over the dead and peering into the faces of the dying, the weary searchers found Tod just as day broke.  He was brought home, through the garden gate he'd tried to enter the day before, and laid upon the floor of the debris-filled family room.    

 

As the parlor of the Carter House was being used for field surgery, Tod was carried to his sister Annie's room, just in the ell of the home off the porch.  There, on Dec. 2, 1864, Theodrick "Tod" Carter died, only feet from where he had been born. 

 

The Carter House stands today, preserved along with several out buildings and eight acres of battlefield.  You can see evidence of the horrendous battle in the 1,000 bullet holes that remain.  If you're lucky, you'll enjoy the poltergeist-like antics attributed to Annie, Tod Carter's sister.  You might see items jumping about, a ball roll by or feel a tug on your sleeve.  Or you might hear the friendly voice of a woman, welcoming you to the house.  Or, you might see young Tod Carter, sitting on the side of the bed, or standing in the hallway of his home, the home he tried so desperately to make it back to one more time.