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Friday, March 14, 2014

THE WIDOW OF THE SOUTH by CHERYL PIERSON

It all started when I read THE WIDOW OF THE SOUTH by Robert Hicks, a novel about a woman who made the dead soldiers of the War Between the States her life's work. By the time I finished reading that book, I knew I had to go visit this place, Carnton, where she had lived and devoted her life to the dead.

Carnton is the name of the plantation just outside of Franklin, TN, where Carrie Winder McGavock and her husband John made their home with their two children, Hattie and Winder. There is so much history that comes before the fateful Battle of Franklin that changed Carrie’s life forever that there is no room to include it in this post.

So I will start with a brief nutshell of the circumstances. At the time of the Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864, Carrie’s children were nine (Hattie) and seven (Winder). Carrie herself was thirty-five, her husband, John McGavock, fourteen years her senior at forty-nine. They had been married several years, Carrie coming from Louisiana to marry John, who was quite a wealthy man for the times, worth over six million dollars in our present day currency. He owned the flourishing plantation where he and his brother James had been raised, Carnton, in middle Tennessee. The McGavocks raised wheat, hay, corn and potatoes as well as maintaining a thoroughbred horse ranch.
Carnton, (Scottish for “the place of stones”) was less than one mile from the battle that took place on the far Union Eastern flank. Most of the battle took place after dark, from 5-9p.m., so the McGavocks could see the firefight that went on over the town of Franklin that evening. Because their plantation was so close, it became a field hospital for the Confederate troops.

This, according to the Wickipedia account:
More than 1,750 Confederates lost their lives at Franklin. It was on Carnton's back porch that four Confederate generals’ bodies—Patrick Cleburne, John Adams, Otho F. Strahl and Hiram B. Granbury—were laid out for a few hours after the Battle of Franklin.

More than 6,000 soldiers were wounded and another 1,000 were missing. After the battle, many Franklin-area homes were converted into temporary field hospitals, but Carnton by far was the largest hospital site. Hundreds of Confederate wounded and dying were tended by Carrie McGavock and the family after the battle. Some estimates say that as many as 300 Confederate soldiers were cared for by the McGavocks inside Carnton alone. Hundreds more were moved to the slave quarters, the outbuildings, even the smokehouse—and when the buildings were full, the wounded had to lie outside during the frigid nights, when the temperature reached below zero.

After the battle, at 1 a.m. on December 1, Union forces under Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield evacuated toward Nashville, leaving all the dead, including (several hundred) Union soldiers, and the wounded who were unable to walk as well. So when morning came, the 750 or so residents of Franklin faced an unimaginable scene of what to do with over 2,500 dead soldiers, most of those being 1,750 Confederates.

According to George Cowan's "History of McGavock Confederate Cemetery," "All of the Confederate dead were buried as nearly as possible by states, close to where they fell, and wooden headboards were placed at each grave with the name, company and regiment painted or written on them." Many of the soldiers were originally buried on property belonging to Fountain Branch Carter and James McNutt. Many of the Union soldiers were re-interred in 1865 at the Stones River National Cemetery in Murfreesboro.

Over the next eighteen months (from all of 1865 through the first half of 1866) many of the markers were either rotting or used for firewood, and the writing on the boards was disappearing. Thus, to preserve the graves, John and Carrie McGavock donated 2 acres of their property to be designated as an area for the Confederate dead to be re-interred. The citizens of Franklin raised the funding and the soldiers were exhumed and re-interred in the McGavock Confederate Cemetery for the sum of $5.00 per soldier.

A team of individuals led by George Cuppett took responsibility for the reburial operation in the spring of 1866. By June, some ten weeks after the start, the last Confederate soldier was laid to rest at McGavock Cemetery. Some 1,481 Rebel soldiers would now be at peace. Soldiers from every Southern state in the Confederacy, except Virginia, is represented in the cemetery.
Sadly, George Cuppett’s brother, Marcellus, died during the process of the reburials. Just 25 years old, he is buried at the head of the Texas section in the McGavock Cemetery. He is the only civilian interred there.

The McGavocks, especially Carrie, took great care to preserve the identity of the Confederate soldiers. The original names and identities of the soldiers were recorded in a cemetery record book by George Cuppett, and the book fell into the watchful hands of Carrie after the battle. The original book is on display upstairs in Carnton. Time has not been favorable to the identities of the Confederate soldiers though. 780 Confederate soldiers’ identities are positively identified, leaving some 558 as officially listed as unknown.

Most of the above was taken from the Wikipedia article about Carnton and the McGavocks. Now you know the FACTS, but let me tell you about my impression of this remarkable woman and the cause she put above all else.

Robert Hicks's book, THE WIDOW OF THE SOUTH, is a fictionalized story about Carrie and John McGavock and their lives, but that was what made me want to travel to Franklin and see the house for myself. I put the description that Wikipedia gave near the beginning because I can’t begin to do it justice. It is one of the most gorgeous, meticulously restored homes of that period you will ever see. They do not allow pictures AT ALL as you’re touring inside. Many of the pieces of furniture, glassware and the pictures that are on the walls have been donated by the McGavock extended family and most everything in the house is a genuine period piece, whether it belonged to the family or not.

It is said that Winder’s room was used as an operating room. A table was set up by the east-facing window where the surgeries were performed. Today, there is a table there much like what would have been used, along with the crude medical implements that were available at the time. Our guide told us that when the doctor finished an amputation, he would throw the limb out the window, get the man off the table and make room for the next one. Because the doctor most likely wore a rubberized apron, the blood pooled in a kind of horseshoe shape on the floor where he would have stood. He walked in it and stood in it, grinding it into the wood. It is still there, to this very day—a testament to five of the bloodiest hours in the history of the Civil War.

Once, Hattie was asked about her most enduring childhood memory. “The smell of blood,” she replied.

In the book, there is mention made of Carrie’s friend, Mariah, who had once been her slave but chose to stay with her as they had been together since childhood. Mariah was said to have had the ability to look at some of the graves and tell something about the person who was buried there. She had “the sight.”

For the next forty years, after the Battle of Franklin, Carrie dressed in black, visiting the graves every day. She carried the book of names with her. I have to tell you, when I saw that book of names I got chills thinking of the devotion she had to this cause. Those men were not forgotten.

At one point, the house fell into disrepair, but was bought by a historical preservation society and maintained. The cemetery was the largest privately owned war cemetery in the US. Robert Hicks meticulously researched for the book he wrote, and the profits from the book (which made it to the NYT Bestseller List) helped to re-establish this grand old home as a piece of history where we can go to learn firsthand about what happened on that fateful day.

My husband and I toured the house, a gorgeous old mansion, with a wonderful guide who was glad to answer any and all questions. Tours are around $15, and well worth it. The cemetery tour is $5, or you can just walk around and look for yourself, which is what my husband and I did. If you buy the book, I promise you will be as anxious to see this place for yourself as I was.

Walking those same floors that were walked upon by Carrie and her family, and the wounded men, the generals, the doctors…gave me feeling I will never forget. I could almost swear I felt her presence, still there, still watching over the soldiers she devoted her adult life to at Carnton…the “place of stones.”

You can order the Kindle version of THE WIDOW OF THE SOUTH here, and it's also available in print.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Widow-South-ebook/dp/B000FCKEWC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1374024632&sr=1-1&keywords=the+widow+of+the+south+robert+hicks

16 comments:

  1. Wow! This house sounds amazing. I'd love to visit it. I can only imagine the size of the goosebumps as you walked through it. Seeing that blood that had soaked into the wood would do it for me. Such pain and suffering. I've been a few places where I felt a ghostly presence pressing around me. One was in Jefferson, Texas. I once stayed in the old Excelsior Hotel there and it was unbelievable. The sound of footsteps in the room and the brush of a hand on my arm kept me awake. It's reputed to be very haunted and I can certainly vouch for that. Such an interesting post, Cheryl.

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    1. Linda, if you ever get a chance, you should try to go visit this place. You know, it's set kind of in the country with a bunch of beautiful homes nearby -- within probably 3/4 of a mile of it. Wouldn't it be cool to live so close to such history? And the hotel we stayed at had an old 1700-1800 cemetery right out beside the parking lot in front of it. After dinner, we went walking to see the tombstones--I spent a lot of time over those couple of days looking at tombstones, there and at Carnton! LOL Oh, gosh, if I'd felt a brush of a hand on mine like you did I couldn't have slept a wink in that room. LOL Yes, Carnton is one of those places that's not really "broadcast" but is surely a "must see". I will never forget it.
      Cheryl

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    2. What a strong, compelling person Carrie McGavock must have been. Obviously, the enormous loss the Civil War visited upon both sides bothered her tremendously. Bless her for refusing to forget the human cost.

      Great post, Cheryl. Thanks for reminding us about another often-overlooked American heroine. :-)

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    3. Kathleen, after I read the book I knew someday I just had to go there. Finally talked Gary into it on one of our trips to WV, and though he'd never admit it, he was just as taken as I was about the entire thing. (You know how guys sometimes don't want to admit something was interesting when it was YOUR idea?)LOL Anyhow, it was just marvelous. I wish we could have gone through it again--because I know there were things I missed. You can't take pictures at all, only of the outside of the house, nothing inside. She was an "odd one" from the beginning, but I believe the deaths of some of her children and then the horror of having her home turned into a field hospital really pushed her over the edge in a lot of ways. She wore black until she died, but she also wore black (see picture) for her engagement portrait (much to the artist's dismay). Glad you enjoyed the post.
      Cheryl

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  2. One of my favorite books and the writing is BEAUTIFUL -- I have read the novel twice and visited the Carnton Plantation twice -- this story is eloquent and fascinating and the entire Battle of Franklin an unbelievable story as well.....thanks for sharing, Cheryl! You and I are on the SAME PAGE!

    When our son was living in Nashville I went to the Carnton Plantation and I was lucky enough (sad to say!) to be the ONLY person in the tour group. The guide was incredible and as we made our way to the house she remarked, this is the exact hour that the battle began.....and this is the view we'd have had....

    Like you, I could not get enough of the story and so began reading all that I could about the Battle of Franklin -- touring the Lotz house and other sites in Franklin (one of my all-time favorite cities in TN!!!!).....on my next visit to Nashville, I took our son to the plantation and toured it again. The courage of this woman was amazing -- and her dedication awe-inspiring!!!

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    1. Oh, Gail you were very lucky to be the only one in your group! There were probably about 20 in our group and I wished it had been smaller--I just wanted to reflect on things more and it's hard to do with a big group of people like we had. I thought we had a wonderful tour guide. Like you, I loved Franklin. I wouldn't mind at all just moving there to live.

      Even now when I think of going through that house and standing in the very places where such history happened, it just gives me chills. I do plan to go back again some day.

      Cheryl

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  3. I've had this book for quite some time, and still haven't read it. Your article really rekindled my interest in it.
    I was taken by your quote about Hattie' s childhood memories of smelling blood. Ugh!
    Wonderful little jewel about our history, Cheryl.

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    1. Sarah, you will enjoy it. I think our tour guide had mixed feelings about the book because it is a fictionalized account of what happened, using the facts that were at hand. But she was young...LOL The writing is so wonderful--it's truly one book you'll be so glad you took time to read. Glad you enjoyed the blog.
      Cheryl

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  4. Such a great piece of history and lucky to have found an author to tell it. Doris

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    1. Doris, I thought Robert Hicks did an excellent job of writing this story. In the book, he talks about how he did it to help with funds for preservation of the estate, etc. Evidently, it had fallen into civilian hands (other than the McGavock family) and people had lived in it, then sold it, and it was falling into a terrible state of disrepair. But they have meticulously recreated even the wallpaper that looks to have been used! It's a marvel.
      Cheryl

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  5. Hi Cheryl
    Wonderful post. these kinds of historical homes fascinate me, particularly when they have a story such as this one attached to them.

    Regards

    Margaret

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    1. Margaret, I love them too. My mom used to always say, "If these walls could talk..." I think of that every time I go in someplace like this. And what a rich history this home has. The people who bought it out of the family (before it became this beautiful historically preserved site) actually scrubbed up the old blood stains out of the wood with bleach in one of the rooms downstairs and replaced a couple of the planks, I believe the tour guide told us. Thank goodness they did not make it to the upstairs bedroom where the surgeries were done. So glad you stopped by!
      Cheryl

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  6. Amazing story of devotion, Cheryl. I had not heard of The Widow of the South before. She was surely brave and strong, and if the horror of what she witnessed made her a bit "off", can anyone blame her? God bless her!

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    1. Lyn, I've tried to just think of what she must have gone through, being the person responsible for orchestrating everything--where to put the men, what to use for bandages, how to feed them...while at the same time having two small children to care for. She truly was a strong woman, to be able to do what she did--and then to continue on in the aftermath of taking care of the graves for all those years.
      Cheryl

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  7. Sorry to get here so late. Wow, this place definitely is a somewhere I want to visit and yet again, another remarkable, admirable woman from history! Great post, Cheryl.

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    1. Tanya, I hope you do get to go there sometime and visit. It's kind of "out of the way" and you have to be intending to go there, but it is truly truly worth the visit.
      Cheryl

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