The Path Less Taken?

[larry_cockerham]

Big is a relative term, but from our perspective, yes. The Carter house museum (state supported) has a staff of five or six folks, and maybe two or three at a time at the Carnton mansion (part of the Franklin battlefield). Our (SCV) Winstead Hill draws folks as does the adjacent city park, but we don't man the hill. Ft. Grainger, the Union component to Franklin, has been part of a city park for about 30 years. Constant, though minimal, traffic there. The city of Nashville is currently building an interpretive building and visitor center at Ft. Negley. The Stones River National Park at nearby Murfreesboro gets reasonably constant traffic. All these facilities are within a roughly 25-mile triangle. Shy's Hill in Nashville, like Winstead Hill in Franklin, is un-staffed. The rest is 'marked' by historical commission markers at best. From my few years of observing these sites, I sense an increase in traffic, but not nearly as much as when the yanks invaded the first time. We now have our own yankees, thanks to the automotive plants in La Vergne and Spring Hill. Generally (no pun) speaking, most of them don't seem too excited about the Civil War.

[richard]

CW:

In Middle Tennessee, East Tennessee, Northern Alabama is full of sites where small but important engagments took place. Today, I made a day trip from Indianapolis to Manchester, Tn. to take some photographs of a battle site that I 24 runs through. A small two day battle that engaged Col. Wilder's men and a division of A.P. Stewart's men.

More and more people visit this site each year. But this site needs some more informational markers placed arround. There are now three groups working on different markers. I truely beleave that if these sites are marked and more infomation about what happened at these sites, the more people will become intrested and start there own research.