More markers depicting Federal trench line have popped up in Franklin, Tenn. Meanwhile, battle-damaged Carter House is breaking ground for new visitor center

At right, Sam Huffman of the Civil War commission and planners Emily Huffer and Elizabeth Bulay (City of Franklin)

The city of Franklin, Tennessee – which makes preservation the name of the game -- has installed new markers identifying where Union Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield’s troops dug in before the Nov. 30, 1864, assault that cost the Confederacy six generals and 6,200 casualties.

The announcement this week came ahead of a March 28 groundbreaking for a new visitor center at the Carter House, which was in the center of the fierce fighting.

The Federal trench line was crescent-shaped and anchored by the Harpeth River. The city’s Civil War Historical Commission erected six markers this month, according to preservation planner Emily Huffer.

The first two markers were dedicated in November 2023 near the Carter House and Carter Hill Park, “a reclaimed Civil War battlefield site where some of the heaviest fighting took place,” Kelly Dannenfelser, assistant director of long-range planning and historic preservation, told the Picket in an email. Those markers were funded by Save the Franklin Battlefield and the Battle of Franklin Trust.

Huffer said the markers, made of Indiana limestone and standing about 5 feet tall, are being placed on either side of 10 streets (20 markers total). They are labeled "U.S. Army Line."

Currently, there are posts on Columbia Avenue, Hillsboro Road, New Highway 96 W. and Fair Street. (Click map to enlarge to see the 10 locations)

“Using these markers as a reference point, locals and visitors can visually identify where the forces were located to better understand how the battle enveloped much of the central Franklin area and to obtain a sense of how much the landscape has evolved since the time of the Civil War,” Huffer wrote.

The Harpeth River served as the natural barrier for the entrenchment line. The US Army did not dig up the roads on the streets that the entrenchment line went through, only between each of the streets.

The Union soldiers were set up on the streets between the earthen mounds to protect Franklin citizens, she added.

The city is developing new software that integrates mapping, historical documentation and brief descriptions of each site and location, planners said. That is a project of the historic parks audio tour subcommittee of the Civil War Historical Commission. 

Franklin, about 20 miles south of Nashville, has long been known for working to save or reclaim battlefield. (New marker, right)

The Civil War Trust (now known as the American Battlefield Trust) worked with the city and nonprofit groups to do so following decades of rampant development over battle sites.

”Today, well over a hundred acres of battlefield land have been reclaimed and preserved, often one acre at a time over a span of many years,” says the trust.

“In 2005, (a) Pizza Hut property was bought and restored to its 1864 appearance. In 2012, the Civil War Trust and its partners secured the strip mall, another acre and a half, and thus scored another major victory in the historic journey to reclaim the heart of a battlefield that was once considered lost forever. “

Franklin formed a Civil War advisory task force in the early 2000s, said Huffer. It suggested reproduction carriages for four authentic cannons on the Public Square and the establishment of U.S. trench line markers.

The late Sam Gant was the driving force behind the latter.

The visitor center, other buildings are behind the Carter House (Tenn. Historical Commission)

Perhaps the main Civil War attraction in Franklin is the Carter House on Columbia Avenue. Over 1,000 bullet holes remain in the structure.

Among the most popular stories is of Tod Carter, a young Confederate mortally wounded 500 feet from his boyhood home. His family found the captain on the battlefield. “Dying and insensible, Tod was carried back to the Carter House near dawn and set down in his sister Annie’s room.  He died the next day, just one of the nearly ten thousand family tragedies that the battle wrought,” said the American Battlefield Trust.

The Tennessee Historical Commission said this week $8.5 million has been earmarked for the new Herbert Harper Visitor Center at the state site, which is managed by the Battle of Franklin Trust. The trust will sponsor interpretive exhibits.

The existing visitor center, which has been in use since the early 1980s, will be replaced by a new multiuse building designed to blend with its surroundings.

Map of main combat courtesy American Battlefield Trust (https://www.battlefields.org/)

Built in 1830, the brick house served as headquarters for the Federal 23^rd Corps during the Battle of Franklin. The state acquired the property in 1951 when it was threatened by demolition to make way for a gas station.

The loss at Franklin had a mighty influence on Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood and his troops.

“The scale of the Confederate charge at Franklin rivaled that of Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg. The action resulted in a disastrous defeat for the South and failed to prevent the Union army from advancing to Nashville,” said the American Battlefield Trust. “The fighting force of the South’s Army of Tennessee was severely diminished.”

Among the Southern generals killed were Patrick Cleburne, Hiram Granbury and States Rights Gist.

The markers are visible along the right of way, from sidewalks (City of Franklin)