State Owned Historic Sites

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Designed and built under the supervision of Fountain Branch Carter in 1830, this house was occupied successively by three generations of his family. It is a National Historic Landmark.

The Carter House commemorates the tragic Civil War Battle of Franklin, said to have been one of the bloodiest in the nineteenth century. The Confederates suffered 6,606 casualties. Of the Union forces, 2,326 soldiers were killed. The Carter House was the command post of Major General Jacob D. Cox, Federal field commander of Schofield's delaying action. It became the center of some of the heaviest fighting, and by the morning of December 1, 1864, it had been ravaged by bullets and parts of its roof splintered by cannon. East and south of the house some 13 charges were made by Confederate soldiers. The greatest loss of general officers in the war occurred in this battle on December 1. Nearby, Captain Theodoric Carter, C.S.A., scion of the Carter family, was mortally wounded, and died in the house on December 2.