Franklin, Tennessee (JFK+50) On November 30, 1864, a bloody battle took place here in Franklin, south of Nashville, between Union forces under Major General John M. Schofield and Confederate forces under Lt. General John Bell Hood.
The Rebels lost more than 6,000 men. Among the dead and wounded were 11 Confederate generals.
Sam Watkins* of General Hood's 1st Tennessee Infantry 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."
*Samuel Rush Watkins (1839-1901) was born in Mt. Pleasant, TN & fought in Civil War battles from Shiloh to Nashville. He was only one of seven men left in the 1st TN INFANTRY when it surrendered in 1865.
SRW's "Co Aytch" memoir is considered the greatest ever written by a soldier in the field. It was published in book form in 1882. Watkins' writings are often quoted in Ken Burn's "The Civil War" documentary of 1990.
SOURCE
"Civil War," The World Book Encyclopedia, Volume 4, Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, Chicago, 1967.
