Tonight Terry and I went to view the Battle of Franklin Illumination ceremony. This article in the Williamson Herald sums it up best:
The Battle of Franklin Trust once again displayed luminaries at dusk on Wednesday to honor the casualties inflicted during the Battle of Franklin 152 years ago. A few unusual conditions Wednesday mirror the day of the battle over a century ago. The battle’s anniversary this year, occurs on the same day of the week, the day after a new moon with the “exact temperature” – just like the day of the historical battle…
Luminaries lined the boundary between the two historical sites marking the boundary of the Federal line, while officials read the names of the fallen and injured during the battle. The Confederates briefly broke through the Federal line, where so many of the battle’s casualties occurred.
“This event is one of the most solemn ceremonies we perform here at the Trust,” Jacobson said. “It is sometimes difficult to explain the toll of the battle with words alone, and seeing the luminaries glowing at dusk and into the darkness profoundly contributes to our understanding of what happened in Franklin on Nov. 30, 1864.”
Both the historic Carnton Plantation and Carter House were both open to the public for free tonight from 5:00 – 7:oo pm. We started our tour at Carnton and then made our way into town to the Carter House.. For this ceremony, each home hat struck me the most was just how dark it was. There were a few uplights in the corners of the rooms but you really realized how what it would have been like to live by candle light. What it would have been like to wander around that big house with lanterns or candelabras. All of the furniture was pushed to the sides of the room to recreate the chaos of the time. frozen in time
This is an excerpt from the Battle of Franklin Trust website:
Beginning at 4 p.m. on November 30, 1864, everything the McGavock family ever knew was forever changed. The Confederate Army of Tennessee furiously assaulted the Federal army entrenched along the southern edge of Franklin. The resulting battle, believed to be the bloodiest hours of the Civil War, involved a massive frontal assault larger than Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg. The majority of the combat occurred in the dark and at close quarters. The Battle of Franklin lasted barely five hours and led to some 9,500 soldiers being killed, wounded, captured, or counted as missing. Nearly 7,000 of that number were Confederate troops. Carnton served as the largest field hospital in the area for hundreds of wounded and dying Confederate soldiers.
Next we drove over to the Carter house and toured the house and walked the grounds to the visitor center and studied the artifacts in the small museum.
Also from the Trust website:
Before daybreak Federal Brig. Gen. Jacob D. Cox woke the Carter family, took possession of the house and made the parlor his headquarters. The fighting began at 4 pm in the waning afternoon sunlight when 20,000 Confederates attacked a similar number of entrenched Federals. The Carter family, the Lotz family from across the street, and several Carter slaves took refuge in the north room of the basement as the battle raged around their home.
