Advancing With Scott's Brigade

At 4:25 pm on November 30, 1864, during the Battle of Franklin, Confederate Gen. Thomas Scott’s brigade advanced to within 1,000 yards of the Federal defenses, where casualties rose sharply under infantry rifle fire and canister shot. Directly ahead stood the 63rd and 120th Indiana Infantry, with the 128th Indiana on the left, all protected by earthworks. Scott’s brigade crossed the Lewisburg Pike and moved toward the Union flank on the Harpeth River, passing over the Nashville and Decatur Railroad within range of Fort Granger, whose guns fired almost lengthways down the tracks. Their advance was obstructed by jagged abatis made from sharpened felled Osage orange trees, and as they neared the earthworks, gun crews behind the Indiana regiments poured double and triple canister into them. One Alabama soldier called it “the most destructive fire” he had ever witnessed. With the river on the right, abatis on the left and front, and continual rifle and cannon fire striking them, the brigade fell back. The 35th Alabama Infantry was among the hardest hit, losing 150 killed and wounded, about half the regiment. Scott himself never reached the Union lines, suffering spinal and internal injuries from an exploding artillery shell. He was carried by wagon to the temporary field hospital at Carnton, survived, but never fully recovered.

Franklin, Tennessee · United States