The Carter Farm

The Carter Family Garden occupied about two acres here and, like most antebellum gardens, was fenced to keep animals out. At the time of the Civil War, the Carter family and their enslaved laborers raised vegetables and herbs here, entering through a gate located between the smokehouse and the farm office, while a fruit orchard stood just west of the garden. On the morning of November 30, 1864, Federal troops obliterated the garden as they constructed a line of earthworks diagonally across it, tearing down the fence and leaving only the garden gate standing. During the battle, with the garden mostly between the main and secondary Federal lines, it became a no-man’s land of death and destruction. Confederate and Federal losses in this area totaled almost 1,900 men, and many fell in the blood-soaked garden. After the war, the Carter family continued to use this area as a garden and later as a more substantial apple and peach orchard. For decades, remnants and evidence of the battle were turned up in the soil. When this section of the battlefield was reclaimed in 2009 and 2016, after having been covered by dwellings and backyards for more than a century, it could rightfully be said that no other piece of Civil War battlefield so important had been lost for so long.

Franklin, Tennessee · United States