Carter House Investigation

The Carter House State Historic Site is a historic house at 1140 Columbia Avenue in Franklin, Tennessee. In that house, the Carter family hid in the basement waiting for the second Battle of Franklin to end. It is a Tennessee Historical Commission State Historic Site, managed by the non-profit organization The Battle of Franklin Trust under an agreement with the Tennessee Historical Commission. The house is a contributing property and centerpiece of the Franklin Battlefield, a U.S. National Historic Landmark historic district.

Fountain Branch Carter completed construction of the house in 1830. The federal style brick farm house was accompanied by several other outbuildings such as the farm office, smokehouse, and kitchen. In the 1850s, Carter built a cotton gin on his property that became a much-remembered landmark during the Second Battle of Franklin in 1864. Though the cotton gin no longer stands, the house and the other three buildings are still intact and illustrate the horror of the Civil War battle with over a thousand bullet holes still visible.

The Carter House played a very important role in the Second Battle of Franklin. Prior to the fight, the house was taken over as the headquarters of the Twenty-Third Army Corps commanded by Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox. Federal breastworks were erected just south of the home extending to both the east and west of Columbia Pike. The Carter family took refuge in the basement of their home during the battle.

The middle son of Fountain Branch Carter, Tod Carter, was mortally wounded in the battle. He was still alive the morning after the battle when he was found and brought to the house. There he lived for several more hours, surrounded by his distraught family. Tod Carter died of his wounds December 2, 1864, and was buried in Rest Haven Cemetery just north of town. He came home for the first time in over three years when he fought at the Battle of Franklin in the 20th Tennessee Infantry. The room where Tod Carter died is one of the highlights of the guided tour of the home today. The last words his comrades heard Captain Carter utter were, “follow me boys! I’m almost home.” Within minutes, Tod Carter’s body was riddled with bullets.

The battle occurred when Lieutenant General John Bell Hood, frustrated that his Confederate Army of Tennessee had let a large Union force escape from Columbia the night before, ordered an all-out frontal assault against the Union fieldworks at Franklin, despite the protests of his subordinate commanders. The Southerners advanced across an open field, enfiladed in places by artillery in Fort Granger across the Harpeth River. Many of their Union opponents were armed with repeaters. Yet, they nearly broke through near the center of the Union line, only to be repulsed.

The Carter House stood at the epicenter of the Battle of Franklin. More Confederate generals were killed at Franklin than in any other battle in the war. Patrick Cleburne, John Carter, John Adams, Hiram Granbury, States Rights Gist, and Otho Strahl were all killed leading their men in the assault on the Union breastworks at Franklin. Four Confederate generals' bodies—Patrick Cleburne, John Adams, Otho F. Strahl and Hiram B. Granbury—were laid out for a few hours after the battle on the porch of the Carton House.

Several thousand Americans died in the five-hour battle, the vast majority of them Confederates. Eyewitness reports say that near the fieldworks some men died standing up, the dead bodies stacked around them too tightly to permit them to fall. More generals were killed than at any other battle of the war.

Tours of the Carter House and grounds are available daily and Sundays from 11am-5pm. The State of Tennessee has owned the house since it was purchased to save it from demolition in 1953. As one of the Tennessee Historical Commission's 18 State Historic Sites, the property is administered by the Battle of Franklin Trust, a non-profit organization that also oversees Carnton Plantation.

Address: 1140 Columbia Ave., Franklin, TN 37064

Phone: 615-791-1861

Owner: Battle of Franklin Trust

Website: www.boft.org

Hauntings: The house is rumored to be haunted by Tod Carter and his sister Annie Vick Carter seen running through the upstairs hall and down the stairway. Witnesses have seen spirits, a statue jumping up and down, tugging at their clothing and unexplained voices. The actual bullet that killed Carter can still be viewed today. There is the distant sound of gunfire reported by visitors and residents alike. Some stories say you can hear his horse Rosecrans galloping in the woods on the old Carter farm, reliving the battle time and time again.

Some visitors to Carter House even swear they have seen the image of a young man sitting up in bed in the same room where Tod was brought after being found gravely injured. Other Carter family members are also reported to have been seen in the house as well; one, a young girl, is playful with volunteers and visitors and has even been seen running down the stairs in the front, as if going out to play.

The GRS investigated the Carter House on July 11, 2021 and the team included: Mike Rosario and Dale Kaczmarek

Equipment setup: A digital camcorder, camera and audio recorders were used along with the Phasma Box on the back porch of the house.

Experiments performed; a single EVP session using the Phasma Box was conducted on the back porch of the house as it was raining outside when we visited this location.

Personal experiences:

Mike Rosario: Equipment and Initial Investigation: For this investigation, we traveled to the historic Carter House Farm and Museum in Franklin, Tennessee. This took off at approximately 5:10pm with Dale Kaczmarek and me. Day weather was hot and humid, around the mid-upper 80’s, and was raining heavily at times throughout the day. Equipment used in this investigation were my K-II Meter; a Philips Voice Tracer Digital Voice Recorder; a DVC 4K Ultra HD 48mp Night Shot Digital Video Camcorder and my iPhone for exterior HD pictures.

For this investigation, I was accompanied by Dale, and we pretty much stuck together as a two-man crew for this investigation. I began by doing my usual K-II sweeps in and around the farm and house areas. I tried my best to keep getting EMF sweeps, but the rain kept pouring every time, and had to withdraw further sweeps. I kept getting a low and steady 0.5-1.1mG reading. But, around 15-20 minutes later, whilst on the house’s porch area, it had spiked a bit to about 5mG. I definitely think that were not alone during this investigation, because we had instrument fluctuations, and Phasma Box session anomalies. With these few incidences, I began taking some pictures whilst my video camera was rolling on the porch area in hopes of capturing some good visual and/or audio evidence whilst we were there. It was a very interesting investigation, and it definitely warrants another, and on a sunny day!

Evidence: Upon reviewing all of my evidence, surprisingly, I didn’t have any visual or audible evidence captured on my devices, except for the Phasma Box audio sessions. This was partly due to some tech difficulties with my digital voice recorder’s SD card malfunctioning. I captured about two files of recording sessions, and the rest were wiped out, possibly by the inadvertent pressing of some buttons whilst the recorder was moving around in my duffle bag or so, after I packed everything away for the day.

*Note to all investigators: It is best to remove batteries from not just one, but all electronic battery-powered equipment while you are transporting them in any fashion. This avoids any battery drainage, and any other unnecessary technical mishaps along the way when enroute to your next investigation!*

Dale Kaczmarek: The first time I visited this location was on August 25, 1992. I took the tour of the inside of the building and also toured the battlefield with historian and author, Thomas Cartwright who did an amazing job pointing out where the Union breastworks were and the lines of both Armies. It was almost 29 years later that I revisited this Civil War site which pretty much destroyed the Army of Tennessee under MG John Bell Hood. I was able to meet my friend again and amazingly, he remembered me from site without any introductions. Mr. Cartwright is now in charge of running tours of the Lotz House directly across the street from the Carter House. I showed him a picture of him that I took in 1992 and he made a humorous remark of “who is that guy?”

Unfortunately he was busy conducting house tours and Mike and I didn’t have the time to take one of those tours. He even conducts ghost tours of the area as well. I remember him gladly sharing two interesting ghost photographs; one at a grave in the McGavock Family Cemetery near the Carnton House, which is also haunted.

Again due to time constraints I was unable to conduct an EVP session near the grave where that amazing ghost photograph was taken. I will return there, perhaps in 2022 when I might have more time.

It was a rainy day and Mikey and I took shelter on the back porch to conduct our EVP sessions. Rosario indicated that someone unseen had tugged on his shirt while investigating the battlefield and original buildings; many of them with hundreds of bullet holes from the battle.

Evidence collected:

1992 Carter.MP4 – a video taken back on August 25, 1992 during my first visit to this Carter House that shows the tremendous amount of bullet holes in the buildings that stood on the property back in 1864.

Enjoyment Carter.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the back porch of the Carter House, a question was asked, “What did you see during the battle?” The device responded with, “Enjoyment.”

Mikey Carter.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the back porch of the Carter House, a question was asked, “Do you want us to stay or do you want us to leave?” “I do want to go, I like it here, said Rosario.” The device said, “Mikey.”

We did Carter.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the back porch of the Carter House, a question was asked, “Who won the battle here?” A voice came through that said, “We did!”

Conclusions: There were three intelligent responses on the Phasma Box to direct questions posed. I was able to locate the markers across the street from the Carter House where the Franklin Discount Drug store and a Pizza Hut once stood. It was there at that intersection where an old phone booth once stood that was the spot where a Confederate drummer boy attempted to plug up a Union cannon where today a marker exists. Just as he attempted to put that cannon out of commission, the cannon fired, obliterating the young boy. It was here that people sometimes eating at the Pizza Hut had complained of strange paranormal events happening including some encounters reported by the employees themselves. Both of these businesses are gone but I was able to locate their exact position.

Much more time could have been spent here but we had seen so much during our 2021 Tennessee trip that we couldn’t spend the quality time that I would have like to spend. I plan to return to some of these places in the summer of 2022 to explore those places on the itinerary that either weren’t open or we didn’t have the time to investigate.