The Carter House

The epicenter of the Battle of Franklin, where 23 members of the Carter family hid in the basement while fighting raged around their home. Young Tod Carter, serving for the Confederacy, was mortally wounded within sight of his home.

The Carter House stands as one of the most bullet-scarred buildings from the Civil War still standing in America, its brick walls bearing over one thousand bullet holes, craters, and shell damage from one of the bloodiest engagements of the entire conflict. Fountain Branch Carter built the farmhouse in 1830 on his property in Franklin, Tennessee. For thirty-four years, it was simply a family home. Then, on the afternoon of November 30, 1864, the Union Army seized it.

Union Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox established his headquarters in the Carter House as Confederate General John Bell Hood launched a massive frontal assault on the Federal lines. The Carter family -- including patriarch Fountain Branch Carter, his daughter Annie, and other relatives -- huddled in the basement as the battle raged directly around and above their home. The fighting lasted five brutal hours of hand-to-hand combat in the darkness. The Lotz family from across the street had also fled to the Carter basement, and together the two families endured the sounds of thousands of men dying just feet away.

Among the Confederate soldiers charging toward the Carter House was Captain Tod Carter of the 20th Tennessee Infantry, Fountain's own son. Tod had been away from Franklin for over three years, captured once and escaping by jumping from a moving prisoner transport train to rejoin the Confederate forces. Now he was fighting his way home. He was shot in the head within sight of his family's house and fell on his father's own property. After the battle, his family found him among the wounded scattered across the grounds and carried him inside, where they tended to him for two agonizing days. Tod Carter died in his family's arms on December 2, 1864, in the house where he had been born.

The spirits of the Carter family appear never to have left. Tod Carter is one of the most frequently reported ghosts in all of Franklin County. Witnesses see a figure resembling a young Confederate soldier pacing the property, particularly during October around the anniversary of the battle. A ghost of a woman has been seen floating across the back porch, and a Confederate soldier paces the front porch.

Tod's sister Annie, who was in the basement when the battle raged and at his bedside when he died, also haunts the property. Multiple visitors have heard two voices chattering away -- believed to be the brother and sister reunited in death. Annie is suspected of being the playful spirit that tugs at visitors' clothing, pulling on sleeves and shirts seemingly for her own amusement.

One of the most unusual hauntings involves Tod's warhorse, Rosencrantz. The horse had displayed remarkable loyalty during the war, reportedly swimming across a river to return to the military encampment after Tod's capture. Now visitors hear the sound of a horse cantering through the woods surrounding the Carter property, as though Rosencrantz is still searching for the owner he lost on the battlefield. A statue on the grounds has reportedly been seen moving and jumping on its own.

Visitors report hearing the crack of gunfire, screams, and experiencing overwhelming sadness that seems to emanate from the grounds themselves. The Carter House is operated as a state historic site offering guided tours that walk visitors through the rooms where the family sheltered, the grounds where Tod fell, and the bedroom where he died -- all set against a building so riddled with bullet holes that the violence of November 30, 1864, remains written permanently into its walls.