Col. Ellison Capers, officer with 24th South Carolina, served at Franklin

This is the overcoat worn by Col. Ellison Capers, of the 24th South Carolina, Gist’s Brigade, Brown’s Division.  Fifteen (15) 24th SC boys are buried at McGavock Cemetery.

Picture credit: Arms and Equipment of the Confederacy (p. 150).

Regarding action Capers and the 24th saw at Franklin, Jacobson writes:

From the west side of the Columbia Turnpike, the sights of the artillery fire smashing into A.P. Stewart’s men was unforgettable. Everywhere the sights were incredible, almost breathtaking. Col. Ellison Capers was in the 24th South Carolina west of the pike and his regiment,  part of States Rights Gist’s Brigade, was on John Brown’s left flank. Some distance in advance and to the left of the South Carolinians stood magnificent Everbright mansion, home to the widowed Rebecca Bostick. But it was what Col. Capers saw to his right that he never forgot. At Capers and his fellow Palmetto Staters began to crest the rising terrain around Privet Knob, the ground stretching from the Columbia Pike to the Lewisburg Pike opened up into view. Capers wrote that ‘we beheld the magnificent spectacle the battle-field presented - bands were playing, general and staff officers and gallant couriers were riding in front of and between the lines, 100 battle-flags were waving in the smoke of battle, and bursting shells were wreathing the air with great circles of smoke, while 20,000 brave men were marching in perfect order against the foe.’”
Jacobson, For Cause and For Country: p. 278-279.

South Carolina head marker at McGavock.

4th Missouri Regimental flag,

The 4th Missouri carried this flag which was presented to them in April of 1862 in Springfield, Missouri.  The 4th fought for Cockrell’s Brigade, French’s Division alongside the:  1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th Missouri Infantry, and the 1st Missouri Cavalry (dismounted) and 3rd Missouri Cavalry Battalion (dismounted).

Cockrell’s Brigade fought to the immediate Confederate right of Cleburne’s Division, assaulting the Federal line at Franklin where the Union Brigades of Reilly and Casement came together.

Picture credit: Arms and Equipment of the Confederacy (p. 260).

There are five known-identified 4th MO soldiers buried at McGavock, a light number compared to the other infantries it fought with.  It is likely that there are several 4th MO boys buried as ‘unknowns’ at McGavock.

Russell and Gray, uncle-nephew with the 6th Arkansas buried side by side

John L. Russell fought with the 6th Arkansas Company C., at Franklin. He was part of Cleburne’s Division, Govan’s Brigade. Company C was known as the Dallas Rifles.

The 6th Arkansas also fought with the 2nd-15th, 5th-13th, 7th, 8th, and 19th-24th Arkansas regiments. This regiment saw heavy action around the Coton Gin at Franklin.

The 6th Arkansas regimental flag looked like this is in the Autumn of 1862.

Picture Credit: Arms and Equipment of the Confederacy (p. 259).

Forty-three of Govan’s Brigade are buried at McGavock, fifteen of those are from the 6th Arkansas; the most of all the Arkansas regiments.

Speaking of the action the Arkansas regiments saw at Franklin, including Russell’s 6th, Jacobson writes:

“Rebel troops, likely from Cleburne’s Division, pounced on the battery’s four guns [i.e., the guns of the 1st Battery, Kentucky Light Artillery] and hurriedly began turning them around to fire on the Federals. But the Confederates had a serious problem on their hands. When the Yankee artillerists had bounded away, they took with them the friction primers needed to fire the rifled guns. The crafty Southern infantrymen looked to improvise. A Federal officer nearby saw them pouring gunpowder ‘from their musket cartridges’ into the vent holes.”

A friction primer (above) was a small brass tube filled with powder, inserted in the vent and used to ignite the main charge.

Frank Gray and John Russell of Co. C. 6th Arkansas Infantry.  Twenty Nine year old John Russell was the Uncle of 21 year old Frank Gray.  They are buried side by side in the Arkansas Section, Grave 12 & 11 respectfully.  Source attribute for this info: T. Burgess.

Extra notes:

According to this web site: John L. Russell was a private when he enlisted on 3 June 1861 at Little Rock, Arkansas; in the Dallas Rifles. He was transferred from Co I, 30 June 1862. Russell was captured 10 October 1862 at Harrodsburg, KY. Then sent to Vicksburg, MS for exchange 5 Dec 1862. He was 26 years old when he was exchanged 22 Dec 1862.

Additional reading:

Calvin L. Collier, First In - Last Out: The Capitol Guards, Arkansas Brigade (Unit history and muster rolls for Company A.)

The 6th Mississippi Regimental flag, Company D, also known as Lowry’s Rifles.

The 6th Mississippi Regimental flag, Company D, also known as Lowry’s Rifles. The 6th was in Adams’s Brigade, Loring’s Division. The 6th saw action to the right of Cleburne’s Division, assaulting the Federal line facing fire from Casement’s and Reilly’s Brigades.

There are three known-identified 6th MS boys buried at McGavock. It’s very likely there are numerous more unknown buried at McGavock as their known dead is a very low amount for Mississippi regiments, and considering the 6th MS saw action to the Union left of the Cotton Gin.

Picture Credit” Arms and Equipment of the Confederacy (p. 259).

“The casualties of the corps,” reported Lieut.-Gen. Stewart, “were something over 2,000 in killed, wounded and missing. Among them were many of our best officers and bravest men. Brig.-Gen. John Adams was killed, his horse being found lying across the inner line of the enemy’s works.” The casualties of Adams’ Brigade were the heaviest of the division — 10 officers and 34 men killed; 39 officers and 232 men wounded, 23 missing. Col. Robert Lowry took command of the brigade, which, on December 9, reported an aggregate present 1,769, effective 1,047, prisoners of war 50. 

Dunbar Rowland’s “Military History of Mississippi, 1803-1898

Many boys of the 14th MS viewed this flag as they went to their deaths at Franklin

The 14th MS fought with Adams’s Brigade, Loring’s Division. The 14th faced heavy casualties near the Cotton Gin. As the 14th MS assaulted the Union line at the Gin, the colors displayed a picture of Lady Liberty holding a picture of Jefferson Davis.

The 14th also fought with: 6th, 15th, 20th, 23dand 43d Mississippi regiments. Many boys from the 14th MS are buried at McGavock. One wonder show many young men and boys saw this flag emblem in the final moments of their lives as the died on the Franklin battlefield.

There are at least ten young men from the 14th MS buried at McGavock Cemetery.

There’s a fascinating story behind this particular emblem/patch see below. Color Bearer Andrew S. Payne of the 14th Mississippi cut this emblem away from the rest of the flag when the 14th surrendered at Ft. Donelson and sewed the patch into the interior lining of his coat to keep it from falling into Federal hands. When Payne and his fellow comrades were paroled in October 1862 he returned the shield to his regiment.

Picture credit: An Illustrated History of the Civil War, (p. 136).

Joseph Henry Mitchell, 23rd MS, Company I, fought at Franklin

Joseph Henry Mitchell enlisted in the J.W. Thompson Invincibles in Company E of the 23rd MS Infantry. The picture below shows him in a brown uniform with black chest braids which may have been influenced by the “Army of Mississippi” regulations.

He is holding a foot artillery sword and has a .44cal Colt Army revolver tucked into his belt, which is fastened with a US Army pattern 1834 general service clasp.

Mitchell fought with the 23rd MS at Franklin, in Adams’s Brigade. The 23rd saw action around the Cotton Gin at Franklin. He would’ve faced fire from two Union Brigades; Reilly’s and Casement’s. He survived Franklin, though some of his comrades were not as lucky.

Picture credit: The Confederate Army 1861-1865: South Carolina and Mississippi, p. 33.

Pvt. John D. Jones, 39th MS, was killed at Franklin

Pvt. John D. Jones was a member of the 39th MS Infantry, Sears’ Brigade, French’s Division. He was killed at Franklin and is buried in Mississippi section 23; plot #30.

The 39th MS was in the Sears Brigade. Sears was behind Cockrell’s Brigade as the two French Division brigades assaulted the Federal line right at the center of the Carter Gin action.

Picture credit: The Confederate Army 1861-1865: South Carolina and Mississippi, p. 37

Five 13th Tenneseeans rest at McGavock

Major Williams J. Crook, 13th Tennessee Infantry, was lucky enough to survive the Battle of Franklin. The 13th was part of Vaughan’s Brigade, under Brig Gen George B. Gordon. The 13th TN fought with the 11th, 12th/47th, 29th and 51st/52nd TN Infantries at Franklin.

The 13th TN was on the furthest right of the advancing Gordon Brigade, just west of the Columbia Turnpike. Gordon’s men overtook Wagner’s (Union) men as they retreated back behind the Federal line in the opening battle sequence. Once reaching the Federal line in front of the Fountain Branch Carter farm, Gordon’s Brigade and he 13th TN met fierce resistance from Opdycke’s and Strickland’s Brigades. There was brutal hand-to-hand fighting here.

This hat was worn by Crook during the Civil War.

Picture credit: Arms and Equipment of the Confederacy, (p. 16

Five of Crook’s fellow regimental comrades - 13th Tennesseans - rest peacefully from the guns at McGavock Cemetery in Franklin.

John McGavock (b. 1815) married Carrie McGavock in 1848

Randal McGavock (d. 1843) was a prominent local politician, even serving as Mayor of Nashville for a one-year term in 1824. Randal knew President James K. Polk and was good friends with President Andrew Jackson who stayed in the McGavock home on more than one occasion. Jackson gave a rocking chair to the McGavocks and it is one of the several original artifacts or pieces of furniture one can see when touring the home today.

The home was ready for the McGavock family to permanently occupy in the late 1820s. At the time it was 1400 acres of which 500 acres was used for farming. McGavock – in the 1830s – had 250 hogs, cattle and sheep.

Randal died in 1843 leaving his property to two sons, James and John (1815 - 1893). John (pictured right) took possession of the Carnton property. He continued to farm it until his death in 1893. John married Carrie Winder (1829 - 1905), who is famously known as the “Widow of the South” based on Robert Hicks’s novel.

Randal started renovating the home in the late 1840s preferring a Greek revival style to the Federal style it was birthed from. Thus, he added a two-story Greek revival portico and two dormers in the attic. In the 1850s McGavock added a two-story porch on to the rear of the home. It was on this porch that four Confederate Generals’ bodies – Patrick Cleburne, John Adams (Confederate Army officer), Otho F. Strahl and Hiram B. Granbury - were laid out for a few hours of the Battle of Franklin (November 30, 1864).

In December 1848 John married his cousin Carrie Winder of Ducros Plantation House in Thibaudaux, Louisiana. The couple had five children but only two would survive past 1864. McGavock sent his slaves to Alabama in 1862 so in 1864 there were no McGavock slaves present.

Source: excerpted from the Wikipedia article (authored by Tellinghistory, the owner of this blog site)

The famous back porch were the four Confederate Generals were laid out after the Battle of Franklin, the evening of November 30, 1864.

Carrie McGavock’s labor of love . . . she is blessed!

George Cuppett wrote the names and information related to the identity of each soldier in the McGavock cemetery book (Jacobson: McGavock, pp. 39-44). After he finished the re-burials in mid 1866 he turned over the care of the book, and the dead, to the McGavock’s. Wood headboards were replaced with granite markers in 1896 by the John McEweb Bivouac veterans organization. The ongoing responsibility of maintaining the cemetery would fall on to the able and compassionate hands of Carrie McGavock, a labor of love she shouldered until her death in 1905. The original book is on display upstairs in Carnton.

It would fall to the McGavock’s to care for the nearly 1,500 Confederate dead for the remainder of their lives. John died in 1893 and Carrie in 1905. Carrie’s shepherding of the fallen of Franklin lasted 41 years. Rev. John W. Hanner was quoted in The Confederate Veteran magazine praying, mentioning about Carrie in 1905 (CV 30, p. 448):

We thank thee for the . . . feeble knees she lifted up, for the many hearts she comforted, the needy ones she supplied, the sick she ministered unto, and the boys she found in abject want and mothered and reared into worthy manhood. In the last day they will rise up and call her blessed. Today she is not, because thou hast taken her; and we are left to sorrow for the Good Samaritan of Williamson County, a name richly merited by her. (Quoted in Jacobson:McGavock, p. 37)

Time has not been favorable to the identities of the soldiers though. Today 780 Confederate soldiers’ identities are positively identified, leaving some 558 as officially listed as unknown.

Today, the McGavock Confederate Cemetery is the largest privately owned-maintained military cemetery in the United States. The Franklin Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy have maintained the cemetery now since 1905.

Source: excerpted from the Wikipedia article (authored by Tellinghistory, the owner of this blog site)