Confederate Colonel W. D. Gale, writing to his wife a few weeks after the battle, described the scene at Carnton, "The wounded in hundreds, were brought to it during the Battle and all the night after. Every room was filled, every bed had two poor, bleeding fellows, every spare space, niche, and corner under the stairs, in the hall, everywhere — but one room saved for the family. And when the noble old house could hold no more, the yard was appropriated until the wounded and dead filled that." In the early hours of the next morning, the bodies of Confederate generals John Adams, Hiram Granbury, Patrick Cleburne, and Otho Strahl were laid out on the back porch as the men of the Army of Tennessee filed past and paid their last respects.

The floors of the elegantly restored historic home are still stained with the blood of the men who were treated there. After the war the McGavock family dedicated two acres of land to become the nation's largest private Confederate cemetery and the final resting-place for 1,481 soldiers killed in the Battle of Franklin.

Today, Historic Carnton Plantation is one the most intact Civil War sites in Tennessee and has received international attention as the home of The Widow of the South, the New York Times bestseller based on the story of Carrie McGavock, Carnton and the Battle of Franklin. People from all over the world visit annually to hear Cannon's remarkable story and the part it played in one of the most defining moments of our nation's history.

The House

Only the foundation remains of the first house built at Carnton ca. 1815 by Randal McGavock, the 11th mayor of Nashville and a member of one of the founding families of Tennessee. The McGavocks did not live on the farm until Randal retired from his political life in Nashville and in 1826 began building the house that still stands today. He attached this larger house, built in the Federal style, to the earlier house that then became the kitchen for the plantation for the remainder of the 19th century. Remnants of the earlier house can still be seen on the east wall of Carnton. Two doors on the east side of the house once connected the kitchen to the bigger house. When Randal died in 1843 his son John inherited the farm and began to make improvements to the house and grounds. In 1847 he extended the front walk and moved his mother's garden from the front of the house to the west side where it has been recreated today. In the 1850s, after his marriage to Carrie, John added on the front portico in the fashionable Greek Revival style and the back porch in the Italianate style. The name Carnton derives from the McGavocks' ancestral home in County Antrim, Ireland and the Gaelic word 'cairn,' which means a pile of stones raised to mark a memorable event or to honor a fallen hero.

The Smokehouse

A plantation's smokehouse (far right in this photo) was more than just a building where meat was preserved; it was a symbol of Southern identity by Southerners and outsiders alike. While a variety of meats could be smoked, most smokehouses in Tennessee and throughout the South were filled primarily with pork in the 19th century. It has been said that if cotton were 'king' in the South, then pork would surely be 'queen' as pork was a staple in the diets of plantation owners as well as slaves. According to census figures taken between 1840 and 1860, there were 2.2 hogs for each man, woman and child living in the South. The 1850 census shows 250 hogs at Carnton. Hogs were butchered in late fall after the first frost. Meat was then salted and placed in the hollowed out log where it would be dry-cured after up to six weeks. Once cured, the meat was hung from the rafters on hooks and a small smoldering fire would be started in the black kettle. Any sort of green wood, including branches from fruit trees and even corncobs, could be used in the smoking process that took a few days and gave the meat its rich color and flavor for which it would be so prized. After being cured by this process, meats could be stored in the smokehouse for up to a year providing a source of revenue and sustenance for those living and working on the farm, an important aspect, the self-sufficiency of a plantation.

The Slave House (left hand side of the photo)

Enslaved men and women were an integral part of the plantation economy, and by 1860 this "peculiar institution" was ingrained into every aspect of daily life in the South. In 1860 there were 11,315 whites and 12,152 slaves living in Williamson County. At Carnton the 1860 census shows the McGavocks owned 39 slaves living in 11 dwellings over 640 acres, making it one of the county's larger plantations with a cash value of $339,000. Today, Carnton has one remaining slave house, likely used by house slaves and skilled labor. One family may have lived in each of the four rooms that do not interconnect. House slaves were responsible for the daily operations of the owner's house such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, mending and childcare, and usually lived within shouting distance from the plantation owner's house. Historically, house slaves received preferential treatment over field slaves including better living quarters and better clothing, typically handed down from the plantation owners family. Skilled slaves were specialized workers such as millers, blacksmiths and leatherworkers. Some may have made the bricks used here and in other buildings on the plantation. The other ten cabins were likely one-room log houses. They were probably located in a small cluster in closer proximity to the fields south of Carnton and would have been used by field hands. These slaves held the most labor-intensive jobs on the plantation, working 12 to 16 hours a day, producing great quantities of corn, wheat, potatoes and other crops as well as tending the hundreds of heads of sheep, cattle, chickens, hogs, and thoroughbred horses raised on the plantation. Little specific information is known about the slaves who lived and toiled at Carnton. We do know that when John McGavock married Carrie Winder, from a large sugar plantation near New Orleans in 1848, her father gave her a slave child named Mariah who was seven years old and moved to Carnton with Carrie. Mariah stayed at Carnton until after the Civil War, probably in this house, raising three generations of both McGavock children and her own.

The Spring House (in the middle, above photo)

As a source of fresh water and a place to preserve dairy and other food products, springs played a major role in determining the location of plantation homes prior to the 20th century. The spring house was often the first structure built on a farm. Typically located on the slope of a hill, preferably under the shade of a big tree, they were placed over a flowing spring which formed a pool of water about two feet deep inside the building. A stone shelf was built around the perimeter of the interior where milk, butter, eggs and other perishables could be kept. Apples, peaches, and vegetables were kept on the second floor and were cooled by the evaporative effect of the water below.

The Plantation Landscape

A plantation, by definition a farm having 20 or more slaves, was, contrary to its sometimes romantic mythology, a difficult place to live for both the white owners and certainly for the slaves whose unrelieved labor and skills contributed to the wealth and prosperity of their owners. The plantation landscape was essentially a self-sufficient village with all of the activities taking place one would associate with these agricultural economies. Many structures were needed to support these activities including dairies, barns, chicken coops, graineries, outhouses, spring houses, smoke houses, greenhouses, icehouses, kitchens, and housing for the slaves and overseers. The plantation owner s grand home was typically the showpiece of the plantation and the other buildings were arranged in neat groupings in varying distances from the main house. The barn complex for Carnton was located near the area where the visitors' center is today. A greenhouse was located in the front yard and the main outhouse was located near the large elm tree in the back yard.


Historic Carnton Plantation
1345 Carnton Lane
Franklin, TN 37064
615.794.0903