After a good night's sleep and a quick buffet breakfast at the hotel, we were in the lobby at 8:30am, ready to be picked up for our Civil War Tour. After collecting our small group of travellers from downtown (there were 10 of us), Bill, our driver and tour guide, set off toward the town of Franklin, some 30 minutes or so from Nashville. Our fellow travellers all hailed from various parts of the US and were very friendly and we all spent a pleasant day together.
The whole tour was about the Battle of Franklin which took place in the town of Franklin on 30 November 1864. There were approx. 10,000 casualties that day in the space of 5 hours and we visited 3 different sites to hear the stories of the families who were in the firing line that day. First was Carter House (that is one of their slave cabins above and the house below) where 28 people (family, neighbours and slaves) sheltered in their basement during the battle.
The house was well preserved and set up as it would have looked then - and it was peppered with bullet holes.
Next stop (above) was not far away where the Lotz family lived. They sheltered in the Carter's basement which was just as well as their house was totally shot up and hit with cannon balls - it took Mr Lotz 4 years to fix it up and rebuild.
The final stop was the Carnton Plantation (above) which was turned into a hospital on the day of the battle and remained one for the next 7 months. The blood stains remain all over the floorboards. The stories of these 3 families were fascinating and we certainly got a great picture of the battle and the Civil War. All in all it was a good day.
On the way back Bill called in to show us the Opreyland Hotel and Convention Centre - the largest non gambling hotel in the US - it was pretty spectacular.
Carly had done some research on trip advisor and chosen our dinner spot - Monell's - and it was fantastic! Typical southern home cooking complete with fried chicken, pork chops, mashed potato, green beans, corn pudding, coleslaw, apple cobbler...and heaps more! It is what they call "family style dining" which means people are seated together at a large dining table and they just keep bringing the food out as you pass it around, boarding house style. This means you interact with random strangers at your table, and that was very pleasant too.
After this massive feast we walked back in to town (about 30 min), did a bit of last minute souvenir shopping, caught the shuttle back to the hotel, and settled in to pack and prepare for our next part of the adventure. Tomorrow it's off to Boston...
1 comment:
Did they have a Beverley Hillbillies tour?
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