BATTLE OF FRANKLIN FOUGHT 150 YEARS AGO
Franklin, Tennessee (JFK+50) 150 years ago today, November 30, 1864, the Confederate Army of Tennessee under command of Lt. General John Bell Hood suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of a Union army under Major General John M. Schofield just south of Nashville, Tennessee.
The Battle of Franklin, which began at four in the afternoon and concluded at nine was fought in an area two miles long and a half mile wide.
The intense fight included hand to hand, bayonet clashes in the yard of the Carter House which General Schofield was using as his headquarters.
The death toll included 2300 Union and 6200 Confederate.
Sam Watkins of the First Tennessee Infantry later wrote...
"It was the bloodiest battle of modern times in any war. It was the finishing stroke to the independence of the Southern Confederacy. I was there. I saw it."
In today's Knoxville News-Sentinel, Matt Lakin describes the battle as an..."ill-fated clash nothing but 'cold-blooded murder' and a Confederate disaster."
Moscow Carter, on whose property the battle was fought, said...
"In this yard and in that garden I could walk from fence to fence on dead bodies...."
Union forces again devastated Hood's Confederates in the Battle of Nashville two weeks later.
SOURCE
"The Battle of Franklin," by Matt Lakin, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, November 30, 2014.
Franklin, Tennessee (JFK+50) 150 years ago today, November 30, 1864, the Confederate Army of Tennessee under command of Lt. General John Bell Hood suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of a Union army under Major General John M. Schofield just south of Nashville, Tennessee.
The Battle of Franklin, which began at four in the afternoon and concluded at nine was fought in an area two miles long and a half mile wide.
The intense fight included hand to hand, bayonet clashes in the yard of the Carter House which General Schofield was using as his headquarters.
Carter House
Franklin, Tennessee
The death toll included 2300 Union and 6200 Confederate.
Sam Watkins of the First Tennessee Infantry later wrote...
"It was the bloodiest battle of modern times in any war. It was the finishing stroke to the independence of the Southern Confederacy. I was there. I saw it."
In today's Knoxville News-Sentinel, Matt Lakin describes the battle as an..."ill-fated clash nothing but 'cold-blooded murder' and a Confederate disaster."
Moscow Carter, on whose property the battle was fought, said...
"In this yard and in that garden I could walk from fence to fence on dead bodies...."
Union forces again devastated Hood's Confederates in the Battle of Nashville two weeks later.
Battle of Franklin
By Kurz and Allison (1891)
Library of Congress Photo
"The Battle of Franklin," by Matt Lakin, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, November 30, 2014.
