Burial of the soldiers right after the battle

Most of the Confederate (and Union dead) were buried “near and along the length of the Federal breastworks, which spanned the Southern edge of what was then Franklin,” according to Jacobson; The NcGavock Confederate Cemetery, p. 21. Union dead were placed by twos in shallow grave in long rows by their comrades without marking the [...]

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Condition of Confederate graves at Franklin in Spring 1866?

By the time the Spring of 1866 arrived the condition of the graves and markers of the fallen Franklin Confederate were in bad condition. Many of the wooden markers were beginning to be hard to read and some had been used as firewood unfortunately. The identities, names and stories of these brave men were in [...]

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Carnton becomes Civil War field-hospital after battle

The Col. John and Carrie McGavock home – Carnton – was situated less than one mile from the epicenter of the action that took place on the Union Eastern flank at Franklin. Because of close proximity geographically, and the compassion of Carrie McGavock, hundreds of Confederate soldiers were tended and cared for immediately after the [...]

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William Candace Thompson, 6th MS, writes of the action . . .

The 6th MS was part of Adams’s Brigade, which has 43 known dead buried at McGavock.  The 6th MS has 3 known buried dead at McGavock.
“During the movement of this division the Federals had a battery planted on the right of Harpeth River that we could not reach, dealt great destruction to our forces, using [...]

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Gen Featherston’s Mississippi boys (Loring’s Division) faced horrible artillery fire

Featherston’s C.S.A. Brigade has 68 boys known buried at McGavock Cemetery
“Near the Harpeth River, Major General William Loring’s troops could begin to see the looming Federal line protecting Reilly’s division. Buford’s dismounted troopers and Brigadier General Winfield Featherston’s Mississippians advanced between the river and the Lewisburg Pike, their line bisected by the Central Alabama Railroad. [...]

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Many wounded and dead were spread out on the porch at Carnton

“Our loss of officers in the battle of Franklin on the 30th was excessively large in proportion to the loss of our men. The medical director reports a very large proportion of slightly wounded men.”
- John Bell Hood, writing two days after the battle to Confederate Secretary of War, James A. Seddon.

The bodies of several [...]

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Blockbuster novel is centered around the McGavock cemetery.

Robert Hicks, author of Widow of the South
“The setting for Hicks’ novel is Carnton Plantation, home of the McGavock family. The house was used as a field hospital in the days and weeks after the battle, and though many other homes in the area were used for the same purpose, it was at Carnton that, [...]

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Col Cassius E. Merrill tells of the bloodshed at Franklin

“Most of our battles from Virginia to Texas were fought by private soldiers, the generals trolling along ‘just to have it said,’ but Franklin was the general’s own, both in conception and execution. Franklin was no battle storm, but a cyclone, rather, which struck and seared the earth and left it red with blood and [...]

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Sight of mass formations at Franklin must have been incredible

McGavock Cemetery has nearly 1,500 Confederate soldiers buried on the grounds in front of Carnton. There is no doubt that scores, if not hundreds of them, were casualties resulting from the mass formations and marching the Confederate Army of Tennessee made on open ground, for nearly two miles, as the Rebels came upon the defended [...]

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McGavock’s describes the scene at Carnton after the Battle of Franklin.

John and Carrie McGavock’s describes the scene at Carnton after the Battle of Franklin.
‘Every room was filled, every bed had two poor, bleeding fellows, every spare space, niche, and corner under the stairs, in the hall, everywhere. And when the noble old house could hold no more, the yard was appropriated until the wounded and [...]

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