REVISITING THE BATTLE OF FRANKLIN

How many of us were taught in American History classes that the Civil War was fought
in eastern States (such as Virginia, Maryland, and South Carolina), culminated at Gettysburg in
1863 (as memorialized by the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in downtown Syracuse), and
ended at Appomattox in April1865 (with the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee and his forces)? In
varying degrees, and like many other teachings of histories, these commonly understood truisms
are fiction.

Consider the Battle of Franklin fought in 1864 in Tennessee, which was part of the
Western theatre of the Civil War. In the Eastern theatre, Gen. Lee is under siege in Petersburg,
VA. In the deep South Gen. Joe Johnston is in a death struggle with Gen. Sherman and his so-
called "March to the Sea" (also known as "Savannah Campaign"). In the Trans-Mississippi
theatre, Gens. Sterling Price and Joe Shelby fail in their effort to re-take Missouri from the Union
forces in September-October 1864, resulting in the virtual destruction of the entire CSA Army of
the Trans-Mississippi. There were few opportunities left for the South to stop the Union
juggernaut or turn the tide of the war. The town of Franklin, TN was one of those opportunities.
“Bloody Franklin” as it came to be known, was in effect the last stand of the Confederate Army
and part of a campaign that become known as the South’s “Last Hurrah”. A few weeks later the
CSA Army of the Tennessee was totally destroyed, CSA Gen. John Bell Hood would resign his
command, and the Confederacy would end its quest for sovereignty.

After having lost Atlanta, Gen. Hood, in September 1864, brought his Confederate Army
of the Tennessee, numbering approximately 30,000, into Middle Tennessee with hopes of
recapturing Nashville, invading (and liberating) Kentucky, and moving eastward with men and
supplies to relieve Gen. Lee at Petersburg. Gen. Hood's immediate goal was to flank Union Maj.
Gen. John M. Schofield, who commanded a combined force of approximately 23,000, and cut
his retreat route northward to Nashville either at Columbia (Duck River), Spring Hill or Franklin
– all located on a major pike in central Tennessee running north-south and roughly parallel to a
nearby Nashville & Decatur railway line.

Union and CSA forces fought at Columbia and Spring Hill before arriving just south of
Franklin. Gen. Schofield had no desire to stay in Franklin and fight the larger Southern forces.
His engineers planked the railroad tracks and frantically rebuilt the destroyed bridge at the
northern edge of town across the Harpeth River in order to escape north to Nashville and join up
with another Union Army. While the engineers and other troops repaired the bridge, 18,000
Union troops formed a defensive position south of town behind fortifications constructed earlier
in 1863 and now further fortified by Schofield’s troops. Gen. Schofield was preparing to
evacuate the town at 6:00 p.m. on November 30, 1864.

Despite the objections of fellow CSA Generals Cleburne, Cheatham and Forrest, Gen.
Hood decided at 2:30 PM on November 30 to launch 20,000 infantry of the Army of Tennessee
on a bloody frontal assault directly into Gen. Schofield's heavily fortified Union position. As
Union soldiers sang hymns and Confederate bands played “Dixie”, Confederate infantrymen
charged the well-fortified Union line.
 The fighting lasted for five hours, with the main fighting between 5:00 p.m. and 9:00
p.m. It was immediately brutal, savage and regarded as the bloodiest five hours of the Civil War.
The CSA infantry assault of 20,000 men was much larger than the better-known Pickett’s Charge
at Gettysburg and the largest infantry charge ever conducted in North America. Almost one-third
of the Confederate infantry forces sent into battle, approximately 7,000 men, became casualties
(1,750 killed, 4,500 wounded, 702 captured). Fifteen of 28 CSA Generals were casualties (six
killed or mortally wounded). The Union forces suffered only 2,500 casualties. The Army of
Tennessee could not recover, and was soon to be shattered on December 16, 1864 in Nashville,
thereby ending any hopes for liberation of central Tennessee and Kentucky or any invasion of
the Eastern theatre. Four months later, in April 1865, Gen. Lee and his forces surrendered at
Appomattox.

On Thursday 19 August at 7:00 PM at The Town of DeWitt Community Room at 148

Sanders Creek Pkwy in East Syracuse, the Onondaga County Civil War Roundtable will be
featuring a widely-praised 2005 film documentary by Wide Awake Films called "The Battle of
Franklin: Five Hours in the Valley of Death." The meeting is open to the public and parking
and refreshments are free. Civil War Round Tables, which are found across the United States,
are groups of persons interested in furthering their knowledge of the Civil War. Like the other
Round Tables, the Onondaga County Civil War Roundtable welcomes individuals regardless of
whether their interests lie in Confederate or Union history. A not-for-profit corporation, the
Onondaga County Civil War Roundtable is also a supporter of the battlefield preservation
activities being undertaken in Franklin, Tennessee and elsewhere.

-2-