The Carter Farm

Just before 4:30 P.M., when the bulk of Confederate Gen. Patrick Cleburne’s Division struck this part of the main Federal line, the 100th Ohio Infantry buckled under the pressure. Although Cleburne had been killed just south of here, his men slammed into the earthworks and some vaulted over them. The 100th Ohio Infantry quickly fell back, as did part of the 104th Ohio Infantry. Some of the 104th Ohio soldiers tenaciously held their ground, as did two guns of the 6th Ohio Battery near the Carter cotton gin. These units, as well as the 65th Indiana Infantry farther east, anchored the line and averted further collapse. The Federal 12th Kentucky Infantry, 16th Kentucky Infantry, and 8th Tennessee Infantry were behind you in reserve. When the main line broke all three regiments charged forward to check the Confederate breakthrough, followed by the 175th Ohio Infantry, a new unit that had never been in combat. The reserves engaged the Southerners in bloody, hand-to-hand fighting and pushed many of them back outside the main line of works. More help arrived when three regiments of Col. Emerson Opdyke’s Brigade (sic) piled into this sector, and the two sides battled into the night. Several hundred Confederate soldiers surrendered as the fighting dragged on. Gen. Hiram B. Granbury, one of Cleburne’s brigade commanders, was killed not far west from here. As Federal troops took full control of this area they began to fire west across Columbia Pike. From here they could sweep some of the area along the main line west of the road and Confederate losses continued to grow.

Franklin, Tennessee · United States