Protecting Our Historic Resources

Winstead Hill, rising approximately 200 feet above downtown Franklin and located two miles south, served as a Confederate command and observation post during the Battle of Franklin in 1864 because of its exceptional vantage from the south. After General William T. Sherman sacked Atlanta in September 1864, Confederate General John Hood Bell led the Army of Tennessee into middle Tennessee intending to join Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia. While Hood was camped near this site south of Franklin, Maj. General John M. Schofield moved Union troops past Confederate forces during the night to join Fort Granger on the north banks of the Harpeth River. Against the advice of his subordinate generals, Hood then gathered the Army of Tennessee’s 20,000 soldiers for an attack on the Union camp beginning in mid afternoon. From atop Winstead Hill, Hood witnessed 13 assaults beginning at 4:00pm and ending near 1:00am. Union troops withdrew across the Harpeth River and retreated toward Nashville, but the battle cost the Confederacy heavily. The Army of Tennessee lost nearly a third of its forces, with 6,261 wounded and killed, while Schofield’s troops sustained 2,326 fatalities out of 22,000 soldiers. Hood also lost 15 allied generals in the battle, including 8 wounded, 6 killed, and 1 taken captive. The battle signaled the end of hope for Confederate armies to halt Sherman’s march through Georgia, removed a substantive threat to the security of Washington D.C., and the Battle of Nashville two weeks later culminated in the loss of hope for the South. Nearby, Carnton Plantation, built by Randall McGavock in 1825 and once called the McGavock House, was occupied by Union troops during the battle, and wounded soldiers were carried to the house and grounds for possible medical care, though many were left there to die; after the war, Colonel John McGavock donated two acres as a Confederate cemetery. The Carter House, built in 1830 as a red brick, two story colonial style home, served as a Union command during the battle, and its grounds saw heavy combat and hand to hand fighting on November 30, 1864.

Franklin, Tennessee · United States