Carter House Museum & Historical Site

The small town of Franklin, Tennessee had been a Federal military post since the fall of Nashville in early 1862. Late in the summer of 1864, Confederate President Jefferson Davis replaced Gen. Joseph E. Johnston with Gen. John Bell Hood.  Hood, a West Point graduate, had won acclaim for his achievements in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. He had also suffered a grievous wound to his left arm at Gettysburg and his right leg had been amputated near the hip after being shot at Chickamauga.  By the end of 1865, the Federal government had removed the bodies of the Federal dead and moved the bodies to the National Cemetery at Murfreesboro. In the spring of 1866, the McGavock family donated two acres near their home, Carnton, to establish a Confederate Cemetery where the remains of 1,481 Confederate soldiers were laid to rest. The Carter House was purchased by the State of Tennessee in 1951 and it was first opened to the public in 1953. Today it is managed, along with Carnton, by the Battle of Franklin Trust and is dedicated to the Carter family and all of the Americans who fought in this battle. Their legacy is our mission.