Haunted Places in Franklin

Five hours on 30 November 1864 killed more men here than most campaigns did, and the house they were carried into still has the floors. What is here, and what it costs.

The bloodiest five hours

On 30 November 1864 John Bell Hood sent the Army of Tennessee across two miles of open ground against entrenched Union positions on the southern edge of Franklin. In about five hours the Confederates took between six and a half and seven and a half thousand casualties, roughly seventeen hundred and fifty of them killed - close to a third of the force - and six of Hood's generals died. The Union side, some fifteen thousand engaged behind earthworks, lost around two hundred killed and over two thousand wounded. It is often called the bloodiest five hours of the war, and the fighting was through the town.

Carnton

The house belonged to John and Carrie McGavock, and it became the largest field hospital in the area that night. Wounded and dying men were carried in by the hundred and laid through the rooms and along the upper floor. The floors of the restored house are still stained. It is open to visit with a ticket, run by the Battle of Franklin Trust, and it is the least atmospheric and most affecting building on any list of haunted places in Tennessee.

1,481 men, and two people who kept them

In the spring of 1866 a veteran named George Cuppett and four men spent about ten weeks exhuming the Confederate dead from their temporary graves on the battlefield and reburying them on two acres beside Carnton, which the McGavocks gave for the purpose. There are 1,481 of them, and it is the largest privately owned military cemetery in the United States. John and Carrie McGavock maintained it themselves for the rest of their lives; it passed to trustees in 1911.

The Carter House

The Union line ran across Carter Hill, and the Carter family's house and outbuildings sat at the centre of the worst of it - the family sheltered in the cellar while the fighting went on over their heads. The buildings still carry the damage, and the farm office is among the most heavily battle-scarred structures surviving anywhere from the war. Also ticketed through the Battle of Franklin Trust.

Free, paid, and what a tour is for

The McGavock cemetery beside Carnton is open to walk and is the part that costs nothing; downtown Franklin, which the fighting went through, is free. Carnton and the Carter House are ticketed by the trust that maintains them, and the money goes back into the buildings. That makes Franklin unusual on this site: the ticketed options here are the serious ones, and the ghost walk is the optional extra rather than the other way round.

That sits in the typical band for the category, whose median is $30.

Franklin ghost tours

1 of the 1 Franklin tours we track . Ordered by review depth.

Questions people actually ask

What was the bloodiest battle in Tennessee?
By intensity, Franklin - about five hours on 30 November 1864, with six to seven and a half thousand Confederate casualties, some seventeen hundred and fifty of them dead, and six Confederate generals killed. By total numbers over a longer engagement, Stones River and Chickamauga were larger. Franklin is the one people mean when they say the bloodiest five hours of the war.
How many Confederate generals died at Franklin?
Six, which is the reason the battle is remembered as it is - no other engagement of the war killed that many general officers in a single day. Hood also lost close to a third of the men he sent forward. The army never recovered, and was effectively destroyed at Nashville two weeks later.
What is the history of Carnton House in Franklin, Tennessee?
It was the McGavock family's home, and on the night of 30 November 1864 it became the largest Confederate field hospital in the area, with hundreds of wounded men carried into its rooms. The floors are still stained. In 1866 John and Carrie McGavock gave two acres beside the house for the reburial of 1,481 Confederate dead and maintained the cemetery themselves for the rest of their lives. Both are open today under the Battle of Franklin Trust.
What is Franklin, TN famous for?
Two things that do not sit easily together: a very well preserved and prosperous historic main street, and the battle of 30 November 1864, which was fought through the town and killed more men in five hours than most campaigns managed in weeks. Carnton, the McGavock Confederate Cemetery and the Carter House are all within a short drive of the square.
Where can I find the best ghost tour in Franklin, Tennessee?
Franklin is the rare town where the ticketed historic sites are the stronger booking and the ghost walk is the extra. Carnton and the Carter House run their own daytime and evening programmes through the Battle of Franklin Trust, and those go inside the buildings that the events actually happened in. Independent ghost walks cover the downtown streets, which are free to walk yourself.