The second Battle of Franklin Tennessee in late November of 1864 took its toll on the citizens of Franklin. Many had offered their homes as hospitals for the wounded, while others had assisted with the burial of the dead. Few, however, made the sacrifices that the McGavock family of Carnton Plantation had.

Hundreds of dead had been brought to Carnton following the battle. Wounded men were placed on the Greek Revival porches of the sumptuous Carnton home, slave quarters were turned into makeshift hospital tents, and the grounds of the home were populated with tents holding injured soldiers, while others still were laid on the grounds themselves. Colonel John McGavock and his wife Carrie saw to the welfare of around 300 men in their own home-turned-hospital. Carrie McGavock and her children tended the wounded, even assisting in surgery. For months after the battle, convalescing soldiers remained in the McGavock home, recuperating under the care of the McGavock family. Read the rest of this entry »

When Civil War historian and preservationist Robert Hicks released his book The Widow of the South in 2005, he fictionalized the story of Carrie McGavock, who turned acres of her family’s home, Carnton Plantation, into a cemetery for the Confederate dead after the second Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. A best-seller, Hicks’ novel brought a long-forgotten chapter in the story of the Civil War to a new generation of readers. Hicks’ novel is a work of fiction, but the real story of Carnton Plantation, Carrie McGavock and the cemetery she helmed is just as fascinating.

Carnton Plantation, located at Franklin, Tennessee, was constructed between 1815 and 1826 by former Nashville mayor Randal McGavock. Presidents James Polk and Andrew Jackson were both visitors to Carnton, which McGavock built the plantation on the site of a Revolutionary War land grant belonging to his father. Carnton originally consisted of around 1,420 acres. Read the rest of this entry »

After his election to the presidency, Abraham Lincoln made appointments to his cabinet that perplexed not only his advisors but the entire nation. Of the Republicans he appointed, he chose men who openly disagreed with his policies, who’d supported his opponent, and even a couple who’d run against him for the presidential nomination. Many of these men had their own reasons for wishing to see him fail. Secretary of State William Seward and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, just to name two, both had designs on the White House, but one of his most surprising appointments was that of Edwin Stanton, an appointment that not only crossed party lines, but also put at the helm of the Civil War who’d referred to Lincoln on more than one occasion as “the original gorilla.”

Lincoln’s propensity for keeping his friends close and his enemies closer was obvious, but somehow Stanton, an enemy who was not only a Breckinridge Democrat but loudly critical of Lincoln, somehow missed being included in Lincoln’s initial appointments, despite his apparent qualification. Lincoln’s first appointee to the position of Secretary of War was Simon Cameron, a Pennsylvanian thought to be useful for his political and business ties. However useful Cameron was politically, he was certainly not of the caliber that the position needed during a civil war, and the fact that he would have to be replaced soon became obvious, even to Lincoln, who tended to overlook the faults of others, to a fault. Read the rest of this entry »

It is impossible to overstate the importance of cotton to the South during the antebellum period, or its contribution to the chain of events that resulted in the Civil War. As the major export of the South – perhaps the United States – cotton economically supported the South. As a crop that required extensive labor, cotton’s role in the slavery culture that grew in the South loomed large. Understanding the degree to which the South depended upon cotton is key to understanding the role this crop played in a war that divided a nation.

While the South was an agricultural society that produced other crops besides cotton – tobacco in the Upper South, rice in the coastal regions, sugar throughout – no crop was as essential to the economy of the South in the way that cotton was. The demand for cotton was great; not only did the South supply the textile mills of the Northern states in America with cotton – Europe depended heavily on Southern cotton, as well. The powerful nations of England and France relied on Southern cotton for their own textile industries, with Southern cotton accounting for more than three-quarters of the cotton imported into these countries. Read the rest of this entry »