The Work Never Stops at the Battle of Franklin Trust
ECW welcomes back guest author Joseph Ricci.
There is never a dull moment at The Battle of Franklin Trust. Over the past summer, we’ve had the opportunity to engage with guests from around the world and across so many walks of life. Normal operations and tours keep a steady pace, while progress on research, improvements to interpretation, content creation, and battlefield reclamation seem to ramp up on a daily basis. Additionally, historic sites and structures are constantly in need of restoration and upkeep. In short, these three homes and the surrounding battlefields are a bustling hive of activity.
Over the last several months, we have been hitting the fundraising campaigns hard to save two vital tracts of land that sit immediately south of the Carter House. It was over this ground that the soldiers of Maj. Gen. John C. Brown’s Confederate division charged toward the Federal positions manned by the men of Col. Silas Strickland’s brigade. While this parcel is occupied today by two office buildings and a cinderblock warehouse and office, on November 30, 1864, an intense, superhuman struggle unfolded here, and many soldiers, Federal and Confederate, spilled their lifeblood. In the same vein, in May, The Battle of Franklin Trust and our partners erected a monument to the Texans who fought and fell on the battlefield at Franklin. In the years that followed the war, the viewshed from the Carter House looking south was built on and eventually came to be cluttered with homes and businesses. Over more than two decades, Franklin’s battlefield has become one of the greatest preservation stories of all Civil War sites in the nation. Soon, with your help, a historic viewshed and the most important piece of ground in American history that has never been protected will be saved.
In addition to work on the battlefields, interpretive efforts have continued to expand to tell an inclusive story about the enslaved populations at Carter House, Carnton, and Rippa Villa. At Carnton, four silhouettes which depict five McGavock slaves have been erected as part of The Battle of Franklin Trust’s Enslaved Project. Our aim is to allow visitors a space to reflect on the realities of slavery at a location like Carnton, which was not only a home and temporary hospital, but a place where by 1860, forty-four men, women, and children lived in bondage. The silhouettes are but a small step on a long path to learning and understanding how interconnected slavery, race, the Civil War, and spaces like Carnton are.
Just recently, The Battle of Franklin Trust celebrated its 15th anniversary. For those keeping score, that is nearly half of my life- I was a high school freshman in New Orleans, Louisiana. Today, I am on the ground level with the premier force in Civil War interpretation in Middle Tennessee. As a friend of mine often says, “time is relentless.” Every day those of us fortunate enough to work in this field, at this time, and at these incredible and unique sites interact with guests and get to share what we believe is the most amazing story of our Civil War. Whether it is the first time, or the one hundredth time, you’ve visited, there is no better time than now for you to hear this story.
Joseph Ricci serves as the Historian for The Battle of Franklin Trust.
