Today, Williamson is the wealthiest county in Tennessee. However, the county’s economic origins are on the humble side. This photograph from the late 1800s shows men logging near the present-day site of College Grove.
The Carnton Plantation
The Battle of Franklin was one of the last battles of the Civil War to occur in Tennessee. The story of one house tells you something about just how awful it was.
On November 30, 1864, a Confederate army under General John Bell Hood charged into a Union Army under General John Schofield just outside of Franklin. The Confederates are said to have made as many as 18 separate charges, but were repulsed each time.
The cemetery at Carnton
In about six hours, 7,000 Confederates and 2,500 Union troops were killed and wounded. Most of them were left to die on the field, but some were hauled to the Carnton Plantation, a small field hospital where dead bodies were literally stacked on top of one another. At one point, the lifeless bodies of no less than four Confederate generals lay on the back porch of Carnton.
Here’s the Williamson County Courthouse in Franklin.
