1826 Tennessee Plantation and Largest Confederate Field Hospital After Franklin
1345 Eastern Flank Cir, Franklin, TN 37064
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Admission to the house and grounds operated by the Battle of Franklin Trust. Combined tickets with Carter House and Lotz House available.
Access
Limited Access
Restored 1826 house with original stairs and uneven floors; outdoor grounds and cemetery on flat ground
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1826 · National Register of Historic Places · Battle of Franklin · Largest Privately Owned US Military Cemetery · Confederate Field Hospital · Enslaved-People Historical Site
Randal McGavock, a Nashville mayor and Tennessee state senator, began construction of Carnton in 1826 on land he had inherited north of Franklin. The 1,420-acre plantation was named after the McGavock family's ancestral home in County Antrim, Ireland. The Federal-style house was completed in stages through the 1820s and 1830s, with a Greek Revival addition in 1847. The McGavocks held approximately 39 enslaved men, women, and children who worked the property; their labor produced the cotton, corn, and livestock that supported the family's wealth. The Battle of Franklin Trust now presents the history of slavery at Carnton in dedicated tour content developed with descendant-community input.
Randal McGavock died in 1843. His son John McGavock and John's wife Carrie were living in the house when the Confederate Army of Tennessee, approximately 19,000 men under General John Bell Hood, marched past Carnton on the afternoon of November 30, 1864, heading toward the entrenched Union positions south of the town of Franklin. The combat that followed lasted approximately five hours. Casualties were among the highest concentration in the Civil War: roughly 9,500 total — 2,000 dead, 6,500 wounded, and 1,000 missing.
Carnton was pressed into service as a field hospital for Confederate General William W. Loring's division. By midnight, an estimated 300 wounded soldiers crowded the interior. Hundreds more filled the lawn, outbuildings, and barn. Approximately 150 men died inside the house that first night. The upstairs bedroom floors are still stained with their blood — the staining is preserved by the Battle of Franklin Trust as part of the interpretive material.
On the morning of December 1, 1864, the bodies of several Confederate generals killed in the previous day's fighting were laid out on Carnton's back porch. Patrick Cleburne, Hiram Granbury, John Adams, and Otho Strahl are the four most commonly identified in primary period accounts. Other Confederate general officers were killed in the battle, but the back-porch tableau as preserved in historical record specifically describes these four.
Carrie McGavock continued to care for soldiers who died at Carnton in the weeks following the battle, and she committed the family to the protection of their graves. In 1866, the McGavocks designated two acres of the property for permanent reburial of approximately 1,500 Confederate dead from the battle. Carrie McGavock kept a manuscript record of the names, units, and burial locations — a document that has remained the primary reference for cemetery identifications. The McGavock Confederate Cemetery remains the largest privately owned military cemetery in the United States.
The McGavock family owned Carnton until 1911. The property passed through several private owners before the Battle of Franklin Trust acquired and restored it. Today the trust operates Carnton and the adjacent Eastern Flank Battlefield Park alongside the Carter House and Lotz House properties in Franklin proper.
Sources
The Battle of Franklin Trust presents Carnton primarily through its documented Civil War and slavery history. Paranormal accounts are not part of the official interpretive material but circulate widely among visitors, former staff, and Tennessee paranormal investigators.
The upstairs rooms, where the most acute hospital activity occurred on the night of November 30 and morning of December 1, 1864, generate the densest concentration of reports. Phantom footsteps on the original hardwood floors are the most frequently cited phenomenon, followed by the unexplained smell of blood, ether, and what visitors variously describe as antiseptic or chloroform in the rooms where surgical amputations were performed. The original bloodstained floorboards remain in place, and visitors describe the air directly above them as noticeably cooler than the rest of the room.
A woman in 19th-century dress is reported in the hallways and on the staircase, observed by both visitors and overnight security. The descriptions are consistent with surviving photographs of Carrie McGavock and with the role she played in the immediate aftermath of the battle — coordinating care, organizing the temporary burials, and committing the family to the permanent reburial of the dead. The Battle of Franklin Trust does not officially identify the figure as Carrie McGavock; the identification is folkloric.
The back porch, where the four Confederate generals' bodies were laid out on December 1, is described by visitors as carrying a distinct quality of silence — sound seems to fall away. The McGavock Confederate Cemetery itself, organized by state of origin with approximately 1,500 markers, generates reports of indistinct voices, the smell of pipe tobacco, and cold spots near specific markers. None of these accounts has been formally documented by the trust.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Forty-five-minute guided tour of the 1826 McGavock family residence, focused on its role as the largest temporary Confederate field hospital after the Battle of Franklin. Original bloodstained floorboards remain in the upstairs rooms where roughly 300 wounded soldiers were treated in a single night, with another 150 dying before morning.
Walk the McGavock Confederate Cemetery on the property — the largest privately owned military cemetery in the United States — established in 1866 by Carrie and John McGavock to reinter approximately 1,500 Confederate dead from the Battle of Franklin. The cemetery is organized by state and remains intact today.
A dedicated guided tour focused on the experience of the people enslaved at Carnton — the McGavocks held approximately 39 enslaved men, women, and children. The tour, developed by the Battle of Franklin Trust, draws on documentary records, archaeology, and descendant-community research.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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