Vol. 42, No. 3 Battlefield Of Franklin Land Preserv By Gregory L. Wade FRANKLIN, Tenn. — What is considered the bloodiest acreage in the Nov. 30, 1864, Battle of Frankli is now being reclaimed as part of th evolving Carter Hill Battlefield Par Local preservation leaders recently
from owners Reid and Brenda Lovell after a months-long process of coordinating various funding sources for the critical 1.6 acres t adjoin the Carter House, a major battle landmark. Details were recently provided at a press conference led by Franklin’s Charge board member Julian Bibb, who praised the “remarkable transition” of the Franklin battlefield. Franklin’s Charge is a coalition of civic and preservation groups who joined together more than ten years ago to purchase local battleground. Over 150 years ago the Army of Tennessee stepped off in a series of charges to be virtually destroyed by Federals under John Schofield in hopes of taking Franklin and later Nashville. At that time, most of the terrain was open farmland on the outskirts of what was once a small Middle Tennessee farming community. Over time development covered much of the battlefield with houses, light i dustry, and small businesses. All that remained of the critical area where the Confederates temporarily broke the Federal line was the small farmhouse and a few acres known as the Carter House farm. The 1.6 acres purchased, which adjoin the southern boundary of the Carter House property, is comprised of two lots. Today, they are occupie
Franklin Charge leader Julian Bibb s closing.
Purchase that were turned over to the City of Franklin Parks Department by Franklin’s Charge and the Battle of Franklin’s Trust (BOFT), managers of the Carter House the nearby Carnton Plantation. The structures will removed in coming months, possibly relocated for other use. The purchase is only the latest s in a long and arduous effort to rebuild the Franklin battlefield. “It had to be a miracle,” quipped Civil War Trust (CWT) President James Lighthizer, referring to the most recent acquisition. Local resident Michael Grainger, long time Trust board member and former chairman, said, “Local leadership has been incredible and will continue to be a partner [with the CWT].” In 2005, after years of frustrati attempting to preserve Franklin battleground, local preservationists de cided it would have to be done the hard way, by buying properties, often with buildings on them. The largest parcel of land was originally a local golf course slate to be sold to a developer to build houses on what was the right flank of the Confederate attack north toward the Federal lines just south of the town. It was then that Franklin’s Charg came into existence. Funds have
chase from private donors, the CWT, the City of Franklin and others. Tha 110-acre segment, now fully interpreted and known as the Eastern Flank Battlefield, is what got the preservation ball rolling in Frankli Since that time nine other parcel in proximity to the Carter House have been purchased and have been, or will be, turned over to the Frank
at the Lovell purchase (Gregory L. Wade photos
lin Parks Department, according to Bibb. But it was the land just south o Carter House, long considered the most bloodied ground in Franklin, and some say in America, that was the most coveted. BOFT Chief Executive Officer Eric Jacobson noted, “to not have this ground reclaimed and preserved would be like having Omaha Beach cut out of Normandy.” The most recent acquisition evolved when Franklin’s Charge and the BOFT began discussions with the Lovells, who have a strong sense of the history of the land, having gro up in Franklin. “I was born and raised in Franklin on ground many believe should have been a national park,” said Re Lovell. He recalled when visitors came to town and had to envision what happened, not walk on ground where it transpired. “My great-grandfather, who fough here, and my parents would be proud of what we are doing here today,” h said at the press conference. The Franklin Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted unanimously in February to fund part of the remaining debt on the Lovell property purchase. The previously
paid by the city on a non-interest basis over seven years. These funds will cover the balan now bridged by a local bank and wil
be derived from the city’s hotel-mo tel tax. Local banker Chuck Isaacs was instrumental in working out the loans. All the city funds are allot
by his employer, First Farmers and Merchants Bank.
nding and the most cording to Bibb. “With help from c vil War Trust and PP, we got it done her funding came f rs including local ard member Grainge en involved with o eservation efforts
rvation gro ears advoca battlegroun ng of offic been with
Since the first of this year, publish- more coverage of artifacts and muing Civil War News and serving its seums and we hope they enjoy the community has been an honor and a new “Treasures From The Museum” privilege for us. We have spent count- feature. less hours putting together the news There are no generals here at th briefs, upcoming calendar of events, Civil War News; we are publishers, laying out current news articles, editors, contributors, graphic desi planning trips to cover future shows ers, and hard workers. Peggy and and activities and brainstorming new I just want to thank all of you who ideas based upon suggestions from make our day, every day! our reader survey. We would like to Quote of the month: give special thanks to Kay Jorgensen Why, sir, in the beginning, we a for sticking with us and helping out pointed all our worst generals to with editing the book reviews, con- command the armies, and all our sulting and so much more. best generals to edit the newspaper Reaching out to new and existing As you know, I have planned some advertisers and, of course, getting to campaigns and quite a number of
sonally, even if by telephone is very I have given the work all the ca enjoyable to us. We have made new and thought I could, and sometimes, friends and enjoy speaking to old ac- when my plans were completed, as quaintances. We are very surprised far as I could see, they seemed to at how often the phone rings here at perfect. Historical Publications. But when I have fought them In the past two months that we through, I have discovered defects have answered over 1,500 emails and occasionally wondered I did not and several hundred phone calls see some of the defects in advance. from so many supporters and fol- When it was all over, I found by lowers. Many gave excellent sugges- reading a newspaper that these best tions and ideas for upcoming issues; editor generals saw all the defects others called just to say “thank you plainly from the start. for a job well done and keep up the Unfortunately, they did not comgood work”. We appreciate your in- municate their knowledge to me unti put and are open to all comments and it was too late. I am willing to yi criticisms, constructive, of course. my place to these best generals, an We are acting on suggestions sent I will do my best for the cause in by the more than 700 people who re- iting a newspaper. plied to the survey. Many asked for Gen. Robert E. L
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Roundtable News By Greg Biggs Sharing Speakers Makes Sense
If you stop to look at it, runni a Civil War roundtable is exactly like running a small business. You take in money from members (your customers) via dues; find a product to sell to them (your speakers) so they keep coming back and then market your business to attract new customers (promoting your CWRT). Thus, like all businesses, costs ar always a concern. Some CWRTs have huge budgets because they have lots of members. Others have 20 to 40 members and have a hard time spending on a big name speaker to help draw in new members whereas the big ones have no problem gettin in the biggest names in the Civil W business. So how does this get solved? Before I answer a little history is order. I began in the CWRT movement while living in California in the 1980s. I joined the Long Beach and Los Angeles CWRTs in 1988. After moving to Ohio in 1992, I co-founded a CWRT in the small town of Celina. We grew to about 35 members but even with that we could not afford to bring in an Ed Bearss Gary Gallagher, Gary Joiner, etc. as we would never really have the treasury to do so. Yet several year later we did bring in Ed Bearss, Wi Greene and the late Jerry Russell among a few others. How did we do
this? We did so by sharing these speakers with other CWRTs in our area. We worked with Dayton, Columbus, Fort Wayne, Hamilton and Cincinnati at times to share speakers. We met on the same week of the month on different nights, so it was very easy to work these things out with other CWRTs in our area. We were no more than two hours from any of these CWRTs, so distance was not a concern.
I “borrowed” the idea from the CWRTs down in Texas who worked along these lines sharing speakers between Dallas, Waco, Houston and even the New Orleans CWRT. It has worked for them for many years and continues to do so. Charl Nunez, who programs the New Orleans CWRT, tells me that they continue to work with these CWRTs and are happy to do so as it helps everyone save money and obtain great speakers. I moved to Tennessee in 2003 and contacted Jim Lewis of the Middle Tennessee CWRT in Murfreesboro beforehand. Finding out they met th third Tuesday of each month, I then decided to establish the Clarksvill CWRT on the third Wednesday. Clarksville and Middle Tennessee shared numerous speakers over the years splitting their travel co
between them with each CWRT covering the hotel and dinner in th respective towns. When the Nashville CWRT began a few years ago on the third Monday
Bowling Green, KY CWRT starting on the third Thursday and then that was followed by the Fort Donelson CWRT over in Dover, TN also taking that night. Lastly, with the Southe Indiana CWRT up in Evansville, only 2 hours north of Clarksville also being the third Thursday, establishing a sharing relationship
with them also made sense. Tom Murray, program chair of the Southern Indiana CWRT loves the relationship that has been built. He writes, “The Southern Indiana Civil War Roundtable traces its history back to the Evansville Civil War Roundtable, which met monthly for dinner/programs in the early 1960’s. These popular social dinner/ programs were held in the historic old Evansville Coliseum. Many august guests have spoken here.” “Over the years, the roundtable popularity waned, and the dinners were discontinued. The roundtable continued to meet but in much smaller settings with less and less attendance. A resurgence of interest occurred with the Ken Burn’s Civil War series, and the name was changed to The Southern Indiana CWRT, but again began to decline in membership as older members began to step away due to age, and the lessening in the popularity of t Civil War history.” “As these members departed, it became difficult to find younger and newer members who demonstrated the same level of knowledge or desir to research and present a program. Bringing higher quality guest speakers into our corner of southern Indiana put stress on our meager budget, as some compensation was expected for those who traveled
some distance to get here.” “In an effort to attract speakers a higher caliber, expand the studies into all theaters and even help attract new members, I discussed working with Greg Biggs, who was instrumental in establishing RT’s in the Clarksville and Nashville, Tennessee areas, the possibility of our RT’s meeting in the same week, although at different nights, and combining our efforts to bringing in notable speakers, historians, and
authors to share during the week. Although individual RT’s would bear the expense of hosting a speaker overnight, the essential travel expense, i.e. airfare in some cases, would be shared by the roundtables. It was agreed, and four RT’s became the basis for the initia endeavor, each meeting on one night from Monday to Thursday in the third week of the month. With the exception of a few conflicts to work around, this has been a very successful arrangement and exposed our members to a quality of historical knowledge which they would otherwise not receive.” Tom’s CWRT is a fine case in poin for making a sharing relationship with other CWRTs that are close by. Others do this as well. Chicago and Milwaukee share speakers, and I know that St. Louis and Kansas
City have shared speakers including myself when I spoke there some years ago. I have been shared severa times as a speaker including Houston and New Orleans, Fredericksburg
works, and it makes sense. Southern California now has several CWRTs instead of the two when I was there. The metro Chicago area has seven, at last, some large and some smaller. The metro Washington, DC area also has several CWRTs. So far as I have been able to determine, these places do n
share speakers and meet on differen nights of different weeks. Californ in particular, would greatly benefi from sharing speakers with the several CWRTs in the Los Angeles area. Within the several CWRTs that I work with we can do all four CWRTs (in whatever combination), or even only two of the CWRTs if the speake cannot take the time to do all four Noted historian Stephen Davis is coming from Georgia this year, and two of the CWRTs are sharing him. The same is happening for March with a speaker from Chattanooga being shared by Clarksville and Dover. Clarksville and Evansville are sharing a speaker in August. We have had Ed Bearss for four CWRTs, Bobby Krick, David Bastain, and others from the East plus Mark Hoffman from Michigan, Mark Christ from Arkansas and Professor Mark Laus from Cincinnati as one of our annual Trans-Mississippi programs thanks to this sharing arrangement. It is time to think a little out of the box and change this. It is n hard to do at all. This just takes coordination and getting to know your neighbors. It also takes the willingness to move a meeting night to be able to share speakers with a neighbor CWRT. Pick a week and line up the CWRTs over consecutive
nights. This way an airplane ticket can be shared two to five ways and make it much cheaper for each CWRT. The CWRT handles its own hotels and dinners but other than that the rest falls into place with little work. This greatly benefits smaller CWRTs in a market, as with a couple in the metro Chicago area which could then get an Ed Bearss by sharing with bigger CWRTs there. Even those in central, and
more rural, Illinois would benefit. Getting bigger names helps increase and energize membership; this is a proven fact. It is great to have ho grown speakers, and we encourage that here in Tennessee, but getting a known author cannot be beaten. There is simply no downside to this at all. The Clarksville, Tennessee CWRT is now twelve years old, and we have shared speakers every year of our existence with our neighboring CWRTs and we will continue to do so for years to come. We relish working with our great neighbors. Once you try this, you will wonder why you had not done it before. It works. For a future column, I want to write about the CWRTs that meet at Civil War sites, be they battlefiel Civil War buildings or buildings th
Greg Biggs is a historian, author and speaker on the CWRT circuit
ical societies as well as Confedera and Union veterans organizations. He has founded or co-founded five CWRTs from Ohio to Tennessee to Kentucky and programs three of these. He is president of the Clarksville CWRT and an officer of the Nashville and Bowling Green CWRTs.
TO THE EDITOR: Mr. Dennis Middlebrooks, of Brooklyn, New York, dismisses my letter to the editor in the January as another “tired neo-Confederate rant,” and then goes on to deliver another rendition of the tired “propaganda of the victorious” (as Voltaire termed history.) His point about the preponderance of legally-elected Southern presiden in the early years of the United Sta is irrelevant to my letter, as is hi curious comparison about the thirtee colonies not having dominated the British government prior to colonial secession, so I will not address tho issues.
What I will address are three erroneous points in his letter. Firs
Mr. Middlebrooks states that “the South’s response to the legal electi of Lincoln was armed insurrection in the defense of the perpetuation and expansion of slavery.” This is incorrect. The response of some of t Southern States (only seven “Cotton States,” not “the South” at large) was an attempt at peaceful secession
from the Union by the same method all States acceded to the Union when they ratified the Constitution – through their respective sovereign conventions. I will not argue with M Middlebrooks that one reason (but not the only reason, as any reading of these Ordinances of Secession
will readily reveal) was to preserve slavery within their respective sovereign bounds. But Mr. Middlebrooks is incorrect when he says these States seceded in order to expand slavery. Quite to the contrary, by these States’ acts
secession from the Union of States, they willfully gave up any claims to the common U.S. Territories and thereby willfully gave up any claims to their rights to carry slavery int
them! It is ironic to note also, tha the secession of the Southern States
Surviving Cannon Registry Update By Jim Bender Eleven cannon were added to the Registry in 2015, for a net gain of seven, bringing the grand total of
known surviving Civil War cannon to 5,778. The first is a carryover from 201 Tom Batha shared a list of cannon at the Artillery Museum at Fort Sill
O.K., and it lists 6-pounder bronze field gun, M1841 Ames No. 140, dated 1844. Two have been added by Joe Gluckert, historian at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard; IX-inch Dahlgren
shell gun, Alger No. 258, dated 1859 and 32-pounder Navy gun of 57 cwt Tredegar No. 380, dated 1848, both former bollards at Henderson Point.
Three cannon have surfaced this year and noted as privately owned. 3.67-inch Sawyer cast steel rifle No. 13 was reported and bringing the number of these known survivors to two. No. 16 is in Lakewood
Cemetery, Minneapolis, MN. 3.5inch Blakely rifle, Type 2 Foundry Number 27 with an inferred Regis-
try Number of 26 was also reported, making it the eleventh known survivor of this type.
The third is a 3-pounder bronze field gun made by Ames, dated 1861,
from the United States altogether. One would think that the abolitionis Northerners would have happily said “Goodbye – and good riddance!” to those people whom they evidently hated so much, but they did not. Why not? The second fallacy in Mr. Middlebrooks’ argument is his assertion that the South’s response Lincoln’s lawful election was armed insurrection. There was no war until Lincoln willed it. With these Southe States out of the Union, the Norther industrial economy would lose its
major source of cotton for its mills a large portion of its markets for i
manufactured goods, a large portion of its tariff income (remember,
there was no income tax back then), and control of the mouth of the Mississippi. The nascent industrial economy would collapse. Virginia, the “Mothe of States and of Statesmen,” told Lincoln that she thought the course
taken by the “Cotton States” was unnecessary and a mistake, but that
she would brook no coercion by the Lincoln administration to drive these States back into what was up until that time a voluntary Union of sovereign States. Lincoln did not listen to Virginia. He listened inst
to the industrialists, the financier the railroad magnates, and the crony
capitalists who had gotten him elected. So he rebuffed all attempts of Southern envoys to settle the situat diplomatically, and launched an
armada to Charleston to provoke the first shot, get the war he wanted, a
drive the Southern States back into Union at the point of the bayonet. T governor of Virginia was astonished
when Lincoln called for troops, and refused to send them – while chargin
Lincoln with inaugurating civil war. The Virginia Convention, which had
top of the reinforce is ornately engraved “Presented To / Brigadier General / Robert B. Moss / May 31,
1886 / By the / Wadsworth Flute and Drum Band / of New York City.” Two cannons previously mentioned in the Fall 2015 issue of The Artilleryman are 24-pounder flank
howitzers, M1844 in Palmetto, GA. Unfortunately, my time in the Atlanta area was cut short before I could secure permission to remove the multiple layers of paint to search f markings.
The final cannon were the major subject of the Winter 2015 issue of
The Artilleryman, raising of the thr cannon for the CSS Pee Dee. For the
record these are IX-inch Dahlgren shell gun, Fort Pitt Foundry No. 513 dated 1862; 6.4-inch Brooke 2-band
navy rifle, Selma No. 53, dated 1864 and 7-inch double-banded Brooke rifle, Selma No. 46, also dated 1864
on their recovery, Roger Warden gets the credit for being the first.
Some may wonder how adding eleven cannon in 2015 only nets seven. When good reason warrants,
cannon added years ago without any reported markings may need to be
in the Union, immediately passed an Ordinance of Secession. Virginia’s decision exposes the speciousness of Mr. Middlebrooks’ argument that the South’s response to Lincoln’s election was armed insurrection. The South’s response to Lincoln’s electi was – in seven cases - secession. Th South’s response against Lincoln’s war of invasion, conquest, and coerced political allegiance was the secession of the States of the Upper South, and armed defense. Finally, Mr. Middlebrooks gives a litany of Southern takeovers of
federal property on the soil of the sovereign States that had seceded,
as well as the firing on the armed steamer The Star of the West. But
the first act of war was waged by the United States on Christmas Day, 1860, in Charleston Harbor, five day after South Carolina had seceded from the Union, when Maj. Anderson burned the gun carriages and spiked the guns at Fort Moultrie, and slipp
into Fort Sumter. The account is the very first entry to be found in the
Official Records of the War. Before the South is condemned too harshly, may I remind the reader that the Massachusetts Minutemen fired the first shots in the war of 1775, and that Boston still celebrat
“Evacuation Day” – commemorating the evacuation of a British fort on
sovereign soil. And may I also remin Mr. Middlebrooks that his home State of New York joined the Union with th specific provision that she reserved the right to withdraw from it at any
time she felt it was arrayed against her interests and liberties. No one
at the time objected. Later, the New England States came within a hair of seceding from the Union during the
Hartford Convention. No one at the time objected. As Massachusetts has
writ large on her license plates, it “The Spirit of America.” I sometimes
think we have forgotten all of that. H. V. Traywick J Richmond, Va.
removed. Tom Batha send a detailed email in June 2015, providing good arguments to remove the two flank howitzers with no data reported for
Clement, N.Y. I also searched for these in the summer of 2010, inquiring of several locals and came up empty handed as Tom has for years. Additionally,
Tom suggested removing two Napoleons with no reported markings which were at Springfield Armory in Massachusetts. Tom remembers seeing them there in crates and they were shipped out from the armory
the addition of IX-inch Dahlgren shell gun, Alger No. 258, at Ports-
mouth Naval Shipyard. Four IX-inch Dahlgren shell guns were report at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1997
as “former bollard not yet cleaned” and the only marking reported was for one gun with the Ordnance In-
inspected by William R. Taylor. This summer will be my 10th year
as keeper of the Registry and with some luck we may just top the century mark for new cannon added under
TO THE EDITOR: A record of the Savannah Volun-
teer Guards at Sailor’s Creek is being compiled. I am seeking the present location of the Guards’ flag that was capture at Sailor’s Creek, Va., April 6, 186 by Warren Dockum, Co. H, 121st New York. The flag was scarlet silk, fringe with gold, featured an altar and a s gle star in silver; and in gold bore inscription, “For Our Altars and Our Hearths.” The inscription might have been in Latin Pro Aris Et Focis. It was last known to have been seen in Savannah, Ga., in April 1905 at the Savannah Volunteer Guards
armory building. The Guards were also known as the 18th Georgia
Battalion Infantry. If you have any information please contact: Gregory C. Whit Canton,
TO THE EDITOR: and the FABULOUS color photographs! Glad to see you decided to keep the Book Reviews as well as
Round Tables! My friends and I were discussing the other day how our favorite newspaper is the CWN despite the fact it doesn’t have a sports se tion. (LOL). Only kidding.
I wonder if you or any of your readers have read about any attempts
by Union and Confederate Soldiers to point any commanding officers? It would not surprise me at all if any
CSA troops tried to do that to Gen. Braxton Bragg who was pretty de-
The Artilleryman Magazine A quarterly magazine for enthusi and shoot cannons from the Revol Civil War to World War II.
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EDITOR: ference ere are es alre en I re magazin the pol will lo e been tely 10 ical co subscr azine f