Before we left, Sister Johnson read the historical novel: "Widow of the South" about a family who buried about 1500 soldiers, mostly Confederate who died in the Battle of Franklin. This is not one of the well-known battles of the Civil War, but is is among the bloodiest. In Nov 1864, a Union army was headed north to reinforce Nashville, which had been in Union hands for some time. About 15 miles south of Nashville, the Federals were stopped by a bridge which was impassable. While their engineers repaired it, they dug in on a defensive line about 2 miles wide. A Confederate army was following them, not intending to fight there, but wanting to get to Nashville. They approached across an open field about 4pm, and an impromptu battle started. It was dark within an hour, and the fighting continued til 9pm, hand-to-hand. There were about 7500 Confederate casualties, and about 2500 Union.
The next day, the Union army crossed the bridge, then blew it up. The remaining Confederates had to rebuild the bridge and continue to Nashville. The battle caught everyone by surprise, including the local residents of Franklin, who had an intense battle going on all around them. The story is told in the context of a few families whose homes and property were involved and/or destroyed.
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