The Farm Office at the Carter House State Historic Site in Franklin, Tennessee is the most bullet-ridden structure remaining from the Civil War. A simple one-story, one-room wooden structure, it was dead center of one of the bloodiest battles between two opposing entrenched armies in the Second Battle of Franklin in 1864 – the Federal breastworks were erected just south of the home extending to both the east and west of Columbia Pike while the Confederate army occupied the nearby home as the headquarters of the Twenty-Third Army Corps commanded by Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox. There were so many dead soldiers who fell one on top of another on both sides that later soldiers that were shot fell on top of stacked bodies below at their feet.
Centric was selected to restore the building that had not been open to the general public for over forty years. Through careful selective demolition, it was decided to remove the later wall finishes on the north and south sides exposing the bullet holes and the intensity of the battle to the public. Through our investigation, additional bullets were found in the walls and wood framing, bits of original wallpaper, wood lath and plaster as well as original paint colors and decorative painting.
“It’s an emotional experience walking into that hallowed space knowing the intensity of the fighting and bloodshed and seeing light stream through the bullet holes from baseboard to ceiling– where they came in and where they may have left. No one could have survived that carnage in this small building on that cold day in 1864.” — Jim Thompson, Project Manager
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
