Haunted Carnton Plantation

Carrie McGavock is sometimes seen on her back porch that overlooks a historic Civil War cemetery, adjacent to her home, in Franklin, Tennessee.

Her home's name is Carnton.

Franklin seeps of antebellum history, so non-residents don’t find it odd a resident of this small town enjoys the view from her porch.

People do wonder why Carrie wears a long white dress even in the hot summer months.

What these witnesses do not know, is there is something even more peculiar about Mrs. McGovack--she has been dead since 1905.

A former mayor of Nashville, Randall McGavock had Carnton built-in 1826 in the Greek Revival Style. This property quickly became one of the prominent farms in Williamson County.

Randall's son, John inherited the plantation and married Carrie Elizabeth Winder in December of 1848. The couple had 5 children 3 of whom died young.

Carrie McGavoc

In November of 1864, a five-hour Civil War battle was fought after dark near this plantation.

This battle is considered one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Over 9,500 soldiers were killed, wounded, captured, or counted as missing. 7,000 of these soldiers were Confederates.

Wounded Confederate
soldiers.

The Carnton mansion, used as a military hospital served thousands of wounded and dying Confederate soldiers.

For more information about the Battle of Franklin-- check out this site.

This experience changed the McGavock family.

After the war in 1866, when they noticed farmland encroaching upon the shallow graves of the fallen soldiers, they donated 2 acres of their land near their family plot as a memorial burial ground for 1500 soldiers.

The family maintained this cemetery until their respective deaths.

Memorial cemetery.

According to Margie Thessin, a tour guide at the mansion, Carrie McGavock still watches over these graves.

Her daughter saw Carrie’s ghost wearing a long pink gown.

Typical reports include her sitting on the porch where there is a good view of the cemetery. Yet other witness reports state that she is also seen floating over the back yard in a white dress.

Other ghosts seen at Carnton are Confederate soldiers that died during the Battle of Franklin. This activity is most pronounced in the autumn, and at dusk when the battle was fought. 

The following describes one of these sightings.

A descendant of one of these fallen soldiers visited the plantation in autumn recently. He arrived in the late afternoon after the mansion was closed to visitors for the day.

He decided to walk around and followed a path to the back. He spotted a silhouette of a man dressed in uniform about to mount a horse.

Carnton back porch.

As the man did this, his horse vanished. The visitor approached another man dressed as a Confederate officer on the back porch and asked, “What happened to his horse?”

The soldier stated this horse had been shot out from under this soldier, just like his had been earlier. He explained that without their horses, they were at the mercy of the enemy.

He looked at the visitor and told him if he was going to stay he would need his pistol, or he wouldn’t last long.

The visitor then asked him what kind of gun he used. As the officer replied in detail, it slowly dawned on him that these men were not Civil War enactors, as he had first thought.

He choked out he did not have a gun. The officer alarmed at his announcement told him that he should quickly leave--to get out of harm’s way.

The officer then turned to another spirit that stood nearby. “Well if we are going to die, let us die like men.” He then threw his hat in the air forcefully and vanished.

Carnton Mansion is on the National Register of Historic Places and ghost and historical tours are offered.