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.