Carter House

A Federal-style brick farmhouse built in 1830 by Fountain Branch Carter, now a Tennessee State Historic Site museum in Franklin. The Battle of Franklin Trust operates it for the State of Tennessee.

On November 30, 1864, the Battle of Franklin broke over this yard. The house was Union general Jacob Cox’s command post, and the Carter family sheltered in the basement below.

Captain Tod Carter, the family’s middle son, was mortally wounded with the 20th Tennessee Infantry yards from his own front door. Carried inside, he died on December 2, 1864, at 24.

More than 1,000 bullet and shrapnel holes are still visible, most of them in the farm office and smokehouse, the two most heavily battle-damaged buildings surviving from the Civil War.

Visitors report a young man in Confederate uniform in the room where Tod died, sitting on the bed or staring toward the fields where he fell. Some describe him pacing the grounds.

Tod’s sister Annie gets her own reports: visitors describe clothing tugged or pulled, as if a child were trying to get their attention.

Other accounts make the Carter children playmates of the tour groups, describing a brother and sister running the halls and voices in rooms where nobody is speaking.

Inside, the reports get smaller and stranger: a statue that moves on its own, a rocking chair rocking unattended, and cold spots that come and go.

Guided tours run Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm, Sunday from 11am, and sell out at peak times, so book ahead. The farm office and smokehouse are on the tour.