When I saw the shell & bullet-scarred brick wall and the inside wall of the Carter house, I got chills and wept for the thousands of young lives hurled into eternity on that fateful day. As in all wars, the butcher's bill is always paid by the young, the hardy, those with the best years of their lives before them. Blessings to Eric for a great re-telling of the Franklin story. The irony of hundreds of Reb soldiers literally walking over what would be their future graves is stunning. the fact that it was the South's last significant effort to stave off defeat only adds to the drama of it all. Eric's passion is obvious. $4 million is a lot to raise to fully restore the park, but I have no doubt Eric & the FT will get it done. Thank you so much !
My wife and I visited the Franklin battlefield in October of 22 and were the only ones who signed up for the more extensive tour after the Carter house tour. Joe Ricci took the two of us for what turned out to be a private tour. It was positively magnificent.
The battle of Franklin should be made into a movie. A perspective from both sides. As historically accurate as possible. It will never happen but history is way more interesting that fantasy. Thanks for the video.
One did start, even some veterans, came and acted in it,...unfortunately the man in charge, had a fatal heart attack, which ended the production.....on top that...the film was destroyed in a historic fire...
My 2nd Great Grandfather, Albert Ewing, and his brother, Edmund Ewing, were with the 97th Ohio Volunteer Infantry ( part of IV Corps, First Division, 2nd Brigade, of the Army of the Ohio). Albert was wounded at Franklin.
Your absolutely spot on. These battlefields do have a tremendous significance,even today in 2023. Thank you and your organization for saving these historical locations.
When I saw the light coming through bullet holes in the Carter house, it reminded me of a starry night, and all that a starry night represents: the quiet solitude, certainty and solice of our kindred dead.
Thank you! I came to Spring Hill, from Decatur, Ala. I was shocked,...that there was not much, of anything, signage,...real blow me away The golf course.....Thru the Greens, become a shopping center,...😢wow. Thanks for what yall, yes I'm Southern, had a ancestor, wounded at Shiloh, was ...in the Tennessee arm,...that wound........created the possibility of my life....existing. So, I've always been mystified by the Civil War history. Hope to visit yall. Thanks, again.
Excellent video. I can’t believe how much ground the Trust has reclaimed and saved. Keep up the good fight Eric and BOFT. “I’m almost home. Come with me boys!”
eminent domain has been a thing for decades now why is that surprising? All the government needs to do is "decide" they want land and they can take it.
Very well said, Eric. Especialy at the end while standing in the Carter farm office when you eloquently summed up the significance of the battle of Franklin, our nation's Civil War and of unfortunately our human nature when it resorts to armed conflict. Indeed, well put. Thank you Sir and all of your staff, historians for the whole series.
This is a national treasure. Well done (if I do sayeth so myself). Remember the South/C.S.A. for they were some of our very best Souls... lost to a War of Secession. Pity.
Also, best explanation ever of why civil war site and battlefield preservation is so important. The civil war defined Americans as a people. We recovered from this national catastrophe to become the great force for good in the world we are today. Outstanding presentation!!
Amazing story of an incredible battle.. I love how y’all got an aerial view, it helps understand it all better..Will definitely be visiting next time in Tennessee
ABSOLUTELY ENJOYED THIS LATEST SERIES ON THE BATTLE OF FRANKLIN. KEEP UP THE OUTSTANDING WORK BOFT ITS LOOKING MORE AND MORE LIKE A BATTLEFIELD. THE BRAVE MEN ON BOTH SIDES ARE FINALLY GETTING THE RECOGNITION THEY DESERVE FROM THIS VERY IMPORTANT CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE. MY COMPLEMENTS TO YOU MR JACOBSON YOU ARE TRULY A GREAT HISTORIAN AND VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT THE BATTLE OF FRANKLIN.
Thank you for the fantastic presentation. You explained this battle better than I have ever seen. You presented the tactics, command decisions, and introduced us to the participants. You showed an important part of out national history. Great work!
I have a maternal relatives that fought with co I 39 Mississippi.. amazing that anyone came out of Franklin in wounded as they did to both be wounded at Spanish fort and captured
Another well done video. Since moving back to the midwest a two years ago I so miss the ability to visit this battle field and many others. The history, the stories, the richness, the reality of truly being there and being taught. I will be moving back to TN this spring and will be seeing you again soon Eric and the rest of you. Very well done finish, very true and moving. Thank you for all that you do.
Tragically a battle that did not have to be fought. I’ll never forgive John Bell Hood for a repeat of the 3rd day at Gettysburg, but with a greater loss of Southron blood.
Great summation. Excited to hear that you are going to tear more buildings down. Getting rid of those, and hopefully, someday the cinder block monster will really make a huge difference.
You are sometimes a much more intriguing and good explainer as Garry addleman. Just a different flavor but both great . Can’t wait to make it out there
Hats off to you from Scotland. It cannot right that Confederate monuments are removed. They are not celebrating slavery but saluting the ordinary man that was fighting for his country.
Most of those Confederate monuments were put in place decades after the war. And in the opinion of many critics, to symbolize the reentrenchment of southern white supremacy. Many critics saw those monuments as being less about remembering southern valor on the battlefield, and more about telling the local Black population "Your Yankee benefactors are leaving. The white south has returned in force. And you had better know your place."
Eric, perfect timing on this last video - it reinforces the knowledge gained when I finished your book "For Cause and Country" yesterday and I'm watching this on the evening of Nov 29th. Shh, the Federal troops are sneaking by the Confederates in Spring Hill. I rave about your book and compare it to a ten course meal - so well researched and so well told that I could not put it down. Thank you for restoring the battle field sight lines and going to such lengths to raise the money necessary to purchase even more sight lines. We have family in Franklin so each year's visit we venture a little further south - last visit was Rippavilla, next one will be Pulaski and Columbia. Thank you very much for all that BOFT has done to enrich our lives through your restoration efforts. Eric, I have two questions: if the Federals dug their trench to a depth of 18-24 inches and threw the dirt in front of that trench I cannot imagine that the works were high enough to create a "ditch" on the south side. Obviously I must not be able to appreciate all the other "stuff" the Federals gathered to create a higher protective wall - how tall would the works have been from the south or how deep would the "ditch" have been? It had to be significant if someone could lay against it in order to boost a fellow soldier up and over the works - but that could not have been all just dirt. Secondly, the south had soldiers captured at Fort Donelson then held as prisoners at Fort Warren on Georges Island in Boston's Harbor. Any chance you could do a video about those men, the friendships they would have formed through that hardship at Fort Warren and their ties to the Battle of Franklin? Thank you very much!!
Superb Description and use of place, data and feel. Hard to even conceive of this assault and the psychology of such odds. John Adams deserves his own video :)
Thanks for the great content. Can you give us an idea of what the battlefield looks like where Henry R. Jackson's brigade attacked the Union lines? My ancestor, Colonel George A. Smith of the 1st Confederate Infantry, was killed while "gallantly putting his men into the enemy works" according to Bate's battle report in the Official Records.
Many people say the war was bound to end soon anyway. As long as there were Confederate armies in the field, though, the war was going to go on perpetually. The first 4 years proved that. If Schofield was cornered at Spring Hill, that question would definitely be open-ended. The reality of Franklin, and the near destruction of the Army of Tennessee, decided that question definitively.
Great point about Normandy! If you think about what was at stake during the Civil War, our country could've lost everything. If our country ceased to exist after the war, Americans may not have been around to save future generations such as those in the Holocaust. I've especially realized that the Civil War, with the exception of the Revolution, was the most important in not only American history, but also world history. If you think about how much other countries rely on the U.S. and how much of an integral part we play in the world today, then you would come to know that the Civil War was vitally important to winning and helped preserve this country for future generations, whether they live in the U.S. or not.
Confederate General Hood just massacred his own men sending them into a slaughterhouse at the battle of Franklin. The Union troops were entrenched in a strong defensive position with secure flanks on open ground with clear interlocking fields of fire for their field guns. The crippled General Hood had lost a leg and use of an arm. He should have been invalided out of the Confederate Army. General Hood was a brave Corps commander but he lacked the intellectual imaginatiion to be an army commander. No Civil War army on either side could have driven out the defenders at Franklin by direct assault. The reality here was that after Atlanta fell in September, 1864 to the Union General Sherman, a smarter Confederate government should have realized the game was up asking for terms for an armistice. But stubborn blind hatred of the Confederates meant the killing, death and widespread destruction throughout the Southern states had to go on for another eight months of futile useless resistance. The continued Southern resistance meant the killing, the burning of Georgia and the Carolinas, the carnage of Petersburg and slaughter at Franklin and Nashville continued onward unabated. Any small slight hope of a stalemated Civil War with some small hope of independence or better terms for the Confederacy ended after their key railroad and industrial center of Atlanta fell. All that was accomplished by continuing the futile war was filling up the cemeteries and filling up the hospital invalid wards with an endless flow of many tens of thousands crippled men.
Well, done....What alot people don't get....common soldier, did get the news,...other than word of mouth, they knew nothing.....but, the horror of the conditions, weather, lack of supplies,....the enthusiasm of being in an army,..being part of something.....big,...changed quickly !!! ......Fear,...had to be a constant!!!
The civil war still matters today because it still resonates with the tragic human cost that was paid to build the foundation of what is today the United States of America. An America that’s not perfect and that’s still in the process of “becoming”. The War of the Rebellion is THE inflection point which makes modern America. The War of the Rebellion resolved by combat two questions that both the American Revolution and the United States Constitution had left unresolved. First would the United States survive as one nation, indivisible? Second, would Thomas Jefferson’s words in the Deceleration of Independence that “all men are created equal” with “certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life and Liberty” be a reality or merely a rhetorical flourish limited to a certain few elite white men. The civil war still matters today because it forces America to reflect with clear eyes, on the long and hard truth about what the total military defeat of the Confederate rebellion made possible. Union victory in War of the Rebellion is quite literally the forge upon which the modern United States of America was hammered out in blood. In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; But spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls. And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream; And lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, And the power of the vision pass into their souls.” This is the great reward of service, To live, far out and on, in the life of others; General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain 20th Maine Infantry Gettysburg Marker Dedication Speech, October 3, 1886
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When I saw the shell & bullet-scarred brick wall and the inside wall of the Carter house, I got chills and wept for the thousands of young lives hurled into eternity on that fateful day. As in all wars, the butcher's bill is always paid by the young, the hardy, those with the best years of their lives before them. Blessings to Eric for a great re-telling of the Franklin story. The irony of hundreds of Reb soldiers literally walking over what would be their future graves is stunning. the fact that it was the South's last significant effort to stave off defeat only adds to the drama of it all. Eric's passion is obvious. $4 million is a lot to raise to fully restore the park, but I have no doubt Eric & the FT will get it done. Thank you so much !
My wife and I visited the Franklin battlefield in October of 22 and were the only ones who signed up for the more extensive tour after the Carter house tour. Joe Ricci took the two of us for what turned out to be a private tour. It was positively magnificent.
My great great grandfather, Pvt James Madison Shirley 34th Alabama Infantry, Gen. Arthur M. Manigault’s brigade, fought here.
The battle of Franklin should be made into a movie. A perspective from both sides. As historically accurate as possible. It will never happen but history is way more interesting that fantasy. Thanks for the video.
From the 44th Missouri's views. Their first battle was against the veterans!
One did start, even some veterans, came and acted in it,...unfortunately the man in charge, had a fatal heart attack, which ended the production.....on top that...the film was destroyed in a historic fire...
My great great grandfather and great great great uncle who were in the 32nd Tennessee Infantry fought at Franklin and Nashville
My 2nd Great Grandfather, Albert Ewing, and his brother, Edmund Ewing, were with the 97th Ohio Volunteer Infantry ( part of IV Corps, First Division, 2nd Brigade, of the Army of the Ohio). Albert was wounded at Franklin.
Your absolutely spot on. These battlefields do have a tremendous significance,even today in 2023. Thank you and your organization for saving these historical locations.
When I saw the light coming through bullet holes in the Carter house, it reminded me of a starry night, and all that a starry night represents: the quiet solitude, certainty and solice of our kindred dead.
Thank you! I came to Spring Hill, from Decatur, Ala. I was shocked,...that there was not much, of anything, signage,...real blow me away The golf course.....Thru the Greens, become a shopping center,...😢wow. Thanks for what yall, yes I'm Southern, had a ancestor, wounded at Shiloh, was ...in the Tennessee arm,...that wound........created the possibility of my life....existing. So, I've always been mystified by the Civil War history. Hope to visit yall. Thanks, again.
Excellent video. I can’t believe how much ground the Trust has reclaimed and saved. Keep up the good fight Eric and BOFT. “I’m almost home. Come with me boys!”
eminent domain has been a thing for decades now why is that surprising? All the government needs to do is "decide" they want land and they can take it.
Very exciting things going on at Franklin with further battlefield reclamation! Thank you for the video!
Great job BoFT!
Very well said, Eric. Especialy at the end while standing in the Carter farm office when you eloquently summed up the significance of the battle of Franklin, our nation's Civil War and of unfortunately our human nature when it resorts to armed conflict. Indeed, well put.
Thank you Sir and all of your staff, historians for the whole series.
This is a national treasure. Well done (if I do sayeth so myself). Remember the South/C.S.A. for they were some of our very best Souls... lost to a War of Secession. Pity.
Also, best explanation ever of why civil war site and battlefield preservation is so important. The civil war defined Americans as a people. We recovered from this national catastrophe to become the great force for good in the world we are today. Outstanding presentation!!
Thank you Eric and BOFT. I made the anniversary last year. Wish I could be there for all of them.
Amazing story of an incredible battle.. I love how y’all got an aerial view, it helps understand it all better..Will definitely be visiting next time in Tennessee
Love these videos. So informative. Keep them coming👍
ABSOLUTELY ENJOYED THIS LATEST SERIES ON THE BATTLE OF FRANKLIN. KEEP UP THE OUTSTANDING WORK BOFT ITS LOOKING MORE AND MORE LIKE A BATTLEFIELD. THE BRAVE MEN ON BOTH SIDES ARE FINALLY GETTING THE RECOGNITION THEY DESERVE FROM THIS VERY IMPORTANT CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE. MY COMPLEMENTS TO YOU MR JACOBSON YOU ARE TRULY A GREAT HISTORIAN AND VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT THE BATTLE OF FRANKLIN.
Thank you for the fantastic presentation. You explained this battle better than I have ever seen. You presented the tactics, command decisions, and introduced us to the participants. You showed an important part of out national history. Great work!
I have been to the confederate cemetery near the old plantation house. I gathered over $15.00 in change from the tops of grave stones. Thanks!
Kudos, BOFT. Outstanding work. No one does it better than y’all.
Thank you for preserving the Battle of Franklin. I loved my visit there and I hope to return and learn more.
Another great series. Thank you
I have a maternal relatives that fought with co I 39 Mississippi.. amazing that anyone came out of Franklin in wounded as they did to both be wounded at Spanish fort and captured
Another well done video. Since moving back to the midwest a two years ago I so miss the ability to visit this battle field and many others. The history, the stories, the richness, the reality of truly being there and being taught. I will be moving back to TN this spring and will be seeing you again soon Eric and the rest of you.
Very well done finish, very true and moving. Thank you for all that you do.
Powerful summation, highly suggest viewers to share this vid
Unusually clear and moving connection of the present with the past.
Tragically a battle that did not have to be fought. I’ll never forgive John Bell Hood for a repeat of the 3rd day at Gettysburg, but with a greater loss of Southron blood.
Wonderful video. Have been to Franklin Several Times.
A place to clear your mind and regroup 🤔
Well and respectfully done! I have visited twice and will return again soon!
I remember the dominos the battle of Franklin is middle Tennessee history love what you guys are doing
My ancestor, Otho Strahl, gave his all there, for a cause that he knew was right.
great job
Been there. It’s worth seeing this history.
Great summation. Excited to hear that you are going to tear more buildings down. Getting rid of those, and hopefully, someday the cinder block monster will really make a huge difference.
You are sometimes a much more intriguing and good explainer as Garry addleman. Just a different flavor but both great . Can’t wait to make it out there
My cousin 3x removed died at this battle. 97th Regiment Ohio: Robert Stockdale.
Hats off to you from Scotland. It cannot right that Confederate monuments are removed. They are not celebrating slavery but saluting the ordinary man that was fighting for his country.
my family fought and died for the south...they were fools and deserve no recognition for fighting for the right to own people....
Most of those Confederate monuments were put in place decades after the war. And in the opinion of many critics, to symbolize the reentrenchment
of southern white supremacy. Many critics saw those monuments as being less about remembering southern valor on the battlefield, and more about telling the local Black population "Your Yankee benefactors are leaving. The white south has returned in force. And you had better know
your place."
They were fighting against their country. Their country won
Thank you
Eric, perfect timing on this last video - it reinforces the knowledge gained when I finished your book "For Cause and Country" yesterday and I'm watching this on the evening of Nov 29th. Shh, the Federal troops are sneaking by the Confederates in Spring Hill. I rave about your book and compare it to a ten course meal - so well researched and so well told that I could not put it down. Thank you for restoring the battle field sight lines and going to such lengths to raise the money necessary to purchase even more sight lines. We have family in Franklin so each year's visit we venture a little further south - last visit was Rippavilla, next one will be Pulaski and Columbia. Thank you very much for all that BOFT has done to enrich our lives through your restoration efforts.
Eric, I have two questions: if the Federals dug their trench to a depth of 18-24 inches and threw the dirt in front of that trench I cannot imagine that the works were high enough to create a "ditch" on the south side. Obviously I must not be able to appreciate all the other "stuff" the Federals gathered to create a higher protective wall - how tall would the works have been from the south or how deep would the "ditch" have been? It had to be significant if someone could lay against it in order to boost a fellow soldier up and over the works - but that could not have been all just dirt. Secondly, the south had soldiers captured at Fort Donelson then held as prisoners at Fort Warren on Georges Island in Boston's Harbor. Any chance you could do a video about those men, the friendships they would have formed through that hardship at Fort Warren and their ties to the Battle of Franklin? Thank you very much!!
Just visited Lourings grave the other day, just west of Saint Augustine, Florida…. Wow!
Superb Description and use of place, data and feel. Hard to even conceive of this assault and the psychology of such odds. John Adams deserves his own video :)
Great video
Good one
How can I arrange a tour? I will be there several times throughout the yeat.
To book a tour go to boft.org/visit!
Thanks for the great content. Can you give us an idea of what the battlefield looks like where Henry R. Jackson's brigade attacked the Union lines? My ancestor, Colonel George A. Smith of the 1st Confederate Infantry, was killed while "gallantly putting his men into the enemy works" according to Bate's battle report in the Official Records.
It is largely protected and is just southwest of Carter House.
Need a clear overlay map to show where he is walking and talking from. The ones provided are not oriented well.
'Would love to visit.
Many people say the war was bound to end soon anyway. As long as there were Confederate armies in the field, though, the war was going to go on perpetually. The first 4 years proved that. If Schofield was cornered at Spring Hill, that question would definitely be open-ended. The reality of Franklin, and the near destruction of the Army of Tennessee, decided that question definitively.
Great point about Normandy! If you think about what was at stake during the Civil War, our country could've lost everything. If our country ceased to exist after the war, Americans may not have been around to save future generations such as those in the Holocaust. I've especially realized that the Civil War, with the exception of the Revolution, was the most important in not only American history, but also world history. If you think about how much other countries rely on the U.S. and how much of an integral part we play in the world today, then you would come to know that the Civil War was vitally important to winning and helped preserve this country for future generations, whether they live in the U.S. or not.
Ill never understand the fascination w murder that happened 160 years ago😂
Confederate General Hood just massacred his own men sending them into a slaughterhouse at the battle of Franklin. The Union troops were entrenched in a strong defensive position with secure flanks on open ground with clear interlocking fields of fire for their field guns. The crippled General Hood had lost a leg and use of an arm. He should have been invalided out of the Confederate Army. General Hood was a brave Corps commander but he lacked the intellectual imaginatiion to be an army commander. No Civil War army on either side could have driven out the defenders at Franklin by direct assault.
The reality here was that after Atlanta fell in September, 1864 to the Union General Sherman, a smarter Confederate government should have realized the game was up asking for terms for an armistice. But stubborn blind hatred of the Confederates meant the killing, death and widespread destruction throughout the Southern states had to go on for another eight months of futile useless resistance. The continued Southern resistance meant the killing, the burning of Georgia and the Carolinas, the carnage of Petersburg and slaughter at Franklin and Nashville continued onward unabated. Any small slight hope of a stalemated Civil War with some small hope of independence or better terms for the Confederacy ended after their key railroad and industrial center of Atlanta fell. All that was accomplished by continuing the futile war was filling up the cemeteries and filling up the hospital invalid wards with an endless flow of many tens of thousands crippled men.
Well, done....What alot people don't get....common soldier, did get the news,...other than word of mouth, they knew nothing.....but, the horror of the conditions, weather, lack of supplies,....the enthusiasm of being in an army,..being part of something.....big,...changed quickly !!! ......Fear,...had to be a constant!!!
The civil war still matters today because it still resonates with the tragic human cost that was paid to build the foundation of what is today the United States of America. An America that’s not perfect and that’s still in the process of “becoming”. The War of the Rebellion is THE inflection point which makes modern America.
The War of the Rebellion resolved by combat two questions that both the American Revolution and the United States Constitution had left unresolved. First would the United States survive as one nation, indivisible? Second, would Thomas Jefferson’s words in the Deceleration of Independence that “all men are created equal” with “certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life and Liberty” be a reality or merely a rhetorical flourish limited to a certain few elite white men.
The civil war still matters today because it forces America to reflect with clear eyes, on the long and hard truth about what the total military defeat of the Confederate rebellion made possible. Union victory in War of the Rebellion is quite literally the forge upon which the modern United States of America was hammered out in blood.
In great deeds something abides.
On great fields something stays.
Forms change and pass; bodies disappear;
But spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls.
And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream;
And lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom,
And the power of the vision pass into their souls.”
This is the great reward of service,
To live, far out and on, in the life of others;
General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
20th Maine Infantry Gettysburg Marker
Dedication Speech, October 3, 1886
Thank you for this.
Lincoln should have left the south alone. So now we have a centralized government how you like it
...why is ur face the thumbnail?