Fort Granger-Franklin Stronghold - Franklin - Civil War Discovery Trail Sites on Waymarking.com

Fort Granger-Franklin Stronghold— Hood's Campaign — In September 1864, after Union Gen. William T. Sherman defeated Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood at Atlanta, Hood led the Army of Tennessee northwest against Sherman’s supply lines. Rather than contest Sherman’s “March to the Sea,” Hood moved north into Tennessee. Gen. John M. Schofield, detached from Sherman’s army, delayed hood at Columbia and Spring Hill before falling back to Franklin. The bloodbath here on November 30 crippled the Confederates, but they followed Schofield to the outskirts of Nashville and Union Gen. George H. Thomas’s strong defenses. Hood’s campaign ended when Thomas crushed his army on December 15-16.

Capt. Giles J. Cockerill, Battery D, 1st Ohio Light Artillery, commanded four 3-inch rifled cannon in Fort Granger on the hill in front of your during the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864. Cockerill’s guns fired 163 rounds and inflicted serious losses among the Confederates behind you and across the Harpeth River. Most of the shells fell on Gen. A. P. Stewart’s Corps, which formed the right wing of the attacking Confederate line, as it marched toward the Union defenses. Many Confederates later recounted the awful fire that poured into them from the fort across the river.

Fort Granger, named for Union Gen. Gordon Granger, was an impressive post. After United States forces captured Nashville early in 1862, they occupied Franklin within a few weeks. The planning and construction of a new fort north of the Harpeth River atop Figuers Bluff, adjacent to the railroad to Nashville, began a few months later. When completed, its interior encompassed almost 275,000 square feet. By early in 1863, it bristled with artillery, and several thousand troops were stationed there. Within a month, however, most of the Federal troops posted at Fort Granger were ordered east to join Gen. William S. Rosecrans’s army as it moved south. From that time until the Battle of Franklin, only a small garrison occupied the fort. The Federals hanged two Confederate spies there on June 9, 1863.

Picture captions:
Execution of Confederate spies, Fort Granger, Courtesy Williamson County Historical Society
Gen. Gordon Granger, Courtesy Library of Congress
Schematic of Fort Granger, Courtesy The Heritage Foundation

Type of site: Battlefield Address: 405 Murfreesboro Rd in Pinkerton Park, near the foot bridge Franklin , TN USA 37064 Admission Charged: No Charge Website: [Web Link] Phone Number: Not listed Driving Directions: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   10/06/2021 Don.Morfe visited it