Monday, December 19, 2016

Franklin, TN: Carnton Plantation and Civil War Battle

3D Satellite

The Carnton Plantation served as a field hospital after the Battle of Franklin. The house has been restored to the civil war period, including some of the original furniture donated back to the house by the descendants. Also, they have built a building to house a gift shop and an exhibit on the civil war battle. The battle was part of a last gasp effort to retake Nashville, which fell early in the war. Of the 40,000 combined soldiers, there were 10,000 casualties. 600 who needed surgery were brought to the plantation. 300 were in the house, and the other 300 were on the grounds.

I confirmed with the guide that surgery, in practice, meant amputation. He explained that the soft lead bullet used in that war would shatter when it struck a bone creating shrapnel that in turn shattered, not just broke, the bone. Chloroform and nitrous oxide were available for anesthetics. There were 10 doctors, and they could do an amputation in about 10 minutes. The blood stains have been sanded off the first floor, but you can still see blood stains on the second floor. Particularly in a corner where they surmised the amputated arms and legs were piled. (You could not throw them out the window because people were also operating on the grounds.)

The federal artillery had a range of about a mile. It did not reach the plantation house. But later when one of the trees removed from the northern part of the property was burned in a fireplace, a dud cannonball in the firewood exploded. So the cannonballs were landing rather close to the house.

As was common practice after a battle, the dead were hastilly buried where they fell in shallow graves because the army needed to move on to the battle near Nashville. Later, when limbs and bodies would start appearing after heavy rains, a Texan was paid $5 a body to dig up the body and properly rebury it in a private cemetery created on the plantation next to the family cemetery. They showed us the book that was written to record which lot each body was buried in. For decades, the descendants would help visiting relatives and friends of the dead find the lot of their loved one so that they could find closure.

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