Franklin, Tennessee geography

larry_cockerham · #1 03-17-2007, 09:17 AM

Can anyone help me exactly more or less locate Hughes ford on the Harpeth east of town. This was apparently Wilson's favorite route. There were various names as some of you will know to crossings in this vicinity. Guess I'll need to hit the archives?

gunny · #2 03-17-2007, 02:16 PM

Larry,

Hughes' Ford was in the vicinity of present day Mack Hatcher Parkway and Harpeth River - just east of that point upstream.

Jamie

ole · #3 03-17-2007, 03:47 PM

Sword's book identifies Hughes' Ford on one if its maps of Franklin. Looks like it's right where I-65 crosses the Harpeth.
Ole

larry_cockerham · #4 03-17-2007, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gunny

Larry,

Hughes' Ford was in the vicinity of present day Mack Hatcher Parkway and Harpeth River - just east of that point upstream.

Jamie

Thanks Jamie. Is this also the source for the later appelation 'Forrest's crossing'... ? Wilson referred to the Hughes site several times also a McGavock ford which must have also been close-by?

ole · #5 03-17-2007, 07:28 PM

The Widow McGavock's place was a little downstream (north) from the ford. That might explain the name. Note: Sword's maps see to be lacking in scale.
Ole

gunny · #6 03-18-2007, 08:23 PM

I do believe those two sites are one in the same.

McGavock's Ford is located just off of Lewisburg Pike and north of Mack Hatcher. Its location is located very near a pumping station on the side of the road.

larry_cockerham · #7 03-19-2007, 08:21 AM

Gunny, thank you for local knowledge! Does it follow that Forrest's crossing, assuming such existing as an identified spot, was likely also very close by. I can't imagine any of these armies "backtracking" to the south (upstream) very far once they reached the McGavock plantation. When the Federals went north the first time, they were in perhaps a bit of a rush, but no Confederates present. By the time Forrest was ready to go on the morning of December 1, the Federals had largely moved towards Brentwood. I assume there's no reason they wouldn't have gone for convenience? Forrest, I have read, was headed for Wilson Pike on his northern trek.

gunny · #8 03-19-2007, 02:55 PM

Larry,

I might have misscommunicated. Hughes' Ford and Forrest's Crossing would be the same. East of Mack Hatcher Pkwy and upstream, while McGavock's Ford is near the pumping station on Lewisburg Pike - downstream and very near where the Pike and river come in close contact.

EricJacobson · #9 03-19-2007, 07:27 PM

Maybe worth noting is that McGavock's Ford is where John Croxton's cavalry brigade scampered across the Harpeth when the Rebel advance began in advance.

larry_cockerham · #10 03-20-2007, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gunny

Larry,

I might have misscommunicated. Hughes' Ford and Forrest's Crossing would be the same. East of Mack Hatcher Pkwy and upstream, while McGavock's Ford is near the pumping station on Lewisburg Pike - downstream and very near where the Pike and river come in close contact.

Jaime and Eric, thank you both for beating this information through my graying dense skull! I remember Gunny mentioning the pumping station, but it didn't sink in or penetrate the thick bone.

My interest is two fold, one of them being Forrest, but also Croxton and Hatch. My Union gg grandpa Cockerham was in Hatch's 10th Tennessee. I suspect he was somewhere near with a few nails and a horseshoe during these fateful days in November/December. I'm still trying, with some meager success, to track my two ancestors through Middle Tennessee. GG Grandpa Park was an ineffective with the 63rd Virginia Inf., Palmer's brigade. They were ordered to guard duty on the 30th and then sent to join Forrest at Murfreesboro before fighting the rear guard of the AOT.

I recently received mapping from Lanny Perry from down in Tuscumbia who has located for me both Palmer's brigade and Hatch's regiment at the battle site at Sugar Creek down in Lawrence County. First "evidence" that I've seen of my ancestors getting too close to each other for comfort.