Over the twenty-five-year period from 2000-2025, Franklin’s Civil War preservation efforts received national attention. Jim Lighthizer, former CEO of the Washington, DC based American Battlefield Trust, America’s most prominent battlefield preservation organization, has said that Franklin’s Battlefield reclamation efforts over this period of time represent the largest battlefield reclamation efforts in America. This effort has been featured at times in National Geographic, CBS, Sunday Morning News, PBS Radio, and in numerous newspapers, magazines, and books. EARLY ACQUISITIONS OF LORING’S ADVANCE AND COLLINS FARM As the year 2000 began, Franklin’s Civil War battlefield sites largely consisted of Winstead Hill, the Carter House, Carnton Plantation, Fort Granger, and Roper’s Knob. At that time, there was no coordinated visitor experience. The battlefield itself largely had been lost to retail and commercial development. In some circles, Franklin was recognized as a community that had simply paved over its Civil War history. Franklin’s Civil War preservation movement had begun to coalesce in the 1990s, and in the 2000s local visionaries and historians began to take notice that Franklin needed to change direction and preserve its unique Civil War history. In 2001, a local preservation group acquired a five-acre parcel known as Loring’s Advance. Also in that same year, another preservation group acquired a three-and-a half-acre parcel known as the Collins Farm along Lewisburg Pike. The following year, a private group acquired the Lotz House on Columbia Avenue and began efforts to convert the building into a Civil War House Museum. SAVING THE EASTERN FLANK BATTLEFIELD The most dramatic change, however, occurred in 2003 when a group of local preservationists learned that the Franklin Country Club was going to sold and they developed a vision to reclaim the land as a Battlefield Park. This property was adjacent to Carnton Plantation and the Confederate Memorial Cemetery. The cost to purchase the property was $5 million. Armed only with a vision, but no financial resources, this group ultimately formed what became known as Franklin’s Charge, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to local battlefield preservation. Robert Hicks reached out to a preservation-minded couple then living in Washington, D.C. who had ties to Carnton and the McGavock family to ask them if they would purchase the property and hold it until the battlefield preservation groups could repay them the amount of the purchase price. The couple generously agreed, and Franklin’s battlefield reclamation effort was launched. Over the next 14 months, Franklin’s Charge, working in partnership with almost every preservation group in Franklin began raising funds. Under the leadership of a preservation-minded BOMA, the City agreed to fund one-half of the purchase price if Franklin’s Charge could match it. Those efforts led to the successful purchase in 2005 of what is now known as the Eastern Flank Battlefield Park. The area has since been developed into a Civil War Battlefield City Park. With assistance from the State of Tennessee (both TDOT and TDEC), the CWNHA, the CHP at MTSU, and the City, new access drives were developed, and signage and other tourist features were installed, all at a cost in excess of $1.1 million. Franklin’s Civil War Preservation Initiatives 85
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