The Tragic End

Here at Franklin in November 1864 when the hopes of 1861 seemed just a fleeting memory, the soldiers of the Army of Tennessee attacked furiously toward you across the rolling fields. A Federal officer who was here saw their "red-and-white tattered flags" flaring "brilliantly in the sun's rays," as if they were "phantoms sweeping through the air." The attack soon became a full-throttled charge and the Rebel yell echoed across these fields. The Federals opened fire, and a Confederate officer recalled that it seemed as if "hell itself had exploded in our faces," but those who survived the Union volleys briefly imagined themselves close to victory.

The Confederate troops who poured across the ground hailed from at least six Southern states. Most were young or middle-aged and most had served since at least 1862. The vast majority were poor farmers and merchants called to duty as they saw it to defend their homes and their "way of life." Many of them perished here, on this once quiet ground, during a battle so horrible that survivors found it difficult to describe. They carried awful memories for the rest of their lives.

The Army of Tennessee often experienced initial success and then terrible failure. Such was the case here. By the time the fighting stopped,



more than 2,000 Confederate troops had become casualties in this area. The bodies of the dead were heaped on one another, "piled up like snowdrifts in winter time," as a Union artilleryman wrote. Wounded men lay strewn across the ground and hundreds were led away as prisoners, including Gen. George W. Gordon. The battle had ended in disaster.

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The Carter Farm
The Carter Farm
The Cotton Gin Assault
The Carter Farm
The Carter Farm
The Carter Farm
Main Entrenchment Federal Battle Line
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