Carter House

The Union army took this Franklin farmhouse as a command post on November 30, 1864, while the Carter family sheltered in the cellar. It is a state historic site now, open for tours.

Fountain Branch Carter built the Federal-style brick house in 1830. Tennessee has owned it since 1953, and it anchors the Franklin Battlefield National Historic Landmark district designated in 1960.

Captain Tod Carter of the 20th Tennessee Infantry was shot within yards of his boyhood home. His family carried him inside, and he died there on December 2, 1864, at 24.

More than 1,000 bullet and shrapnel holes remain visible, concentrated in the farm office and smokehouse, not the main house. Those two outbuildings are the most battle-scarred buildings left from the Civil War.

Tour guides and visitors report a young man in Confederate uniform in the room where Tod Carter died, sitting on the bed or looking toward the fields where he fell.

Guides also describe the Carter children, including Tod’s sister Annie. Visitors report clothing tugged as if by a child, figures running through the rooms, and voices with no one speaking.

The Battle of Franklin Trust runs guided tours Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm, and Sunday, 11am to 5pm. Tours are paid and sell out at peak times, so book ahead.