Light and Shadows at Franklin Battlefield

by Chris Heisey

Posted on November 30, 2023

It’s been 159 years since the battle of Franklin when Union soldiers commanded by General Schofield stood against the attacks of General Hood’s Confederates. In the freezing darkness of that 1864 day and night thousands of soldiers lay wounded or dead on the field, including 14 Confederate commanders.

May these photos take you on a slow, reflective journey through light and shadows of history.

The rear porch at Carnton Plantation where 5 Confederate generals lay dead after the attack at Franklin, Tennessee, on Nov. 30, 1864.
Carnton’s McGavock Confederate Cemetery where thousands of Confederates were interred in mass graves after the battle.
A frost-edged leaf on the grounds of the Carter House along Columbia Pike in Franklin where the heaviest fighting occurred.
Darkness falls upon the Carter House.
Mass graves at McGavock’s Confederate Cemetery.
An outbuilding that is bullet riddles some 160 years after the battle at Franklin.
Carnton’s front entrance to the 1826-built mansion that was erected by slave labor.
Autumn brings death to the flower gardens at Carnton.
A lonely Mallard hen swims in the Harpeth River that flows on the Confederate right flank.

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