It happened to me...at the Carnton Mansion

[Lady of the Woods]

My family used to live in Franklin TN and one of the best historic locations to visit is the Carnton Mansion. It is notorious for the fact that the bodies of 5 generals were laid out on the porch. The McGavock's family home was commissioned as a Confederate hospital and Mrs. McGavock was said to have had blood soaked through her petticoats above her knees as she tended the many injured and dying soldiers. Obviously the setting for many a ghost story.

My story starts while my family and I were touring the mansion around noon on a blazing hot August day. The mansion is not air conditioned and was beyond sweltering hot. The tour guide talked very graphically about the gore and blood that filled the foyer, even showing a bloodstain inches off the floor. My brother, who was about 10 at the time and is known for having a weak stomach, tried to grab my arm as he fainted and fell on the floor. My mom and stepdad carried him to the music room (just off the foyer) and laid him on a couch. After a few minutes he recovered enough for my parents to return to the tour. Being hot and having been through the tour more than once I opted to stay with my brother while the rest of the group of 10 or so went on about the tour. While my brother and I sat in the music room we talked about what it must have been like for the family, especially the McGavock children, during the height of the trauma that took place there. I began to feel a *****ly sensation and heat on my neck that made me think I was going to faint. My brother turned pale and said something to me, I didn't hear what he said because it was like being in a tunnel, black around me with a light at the end. The light or focus of my attention was the child's piano across the room from where we were sitting. I heard a child's laughter and then just as suddenly the heat dissapated and I no longer felt faint. Strange as it sounds the exact same feeling had come over my brother and he saw exactly the same thing I did. He had felt the same way just before he passed out before, but didn't remember seeing or hearing anything in particular.

The tour group came down the stairs and my stepdad and uncle walked into the room to tell us to come outside to finish the tour. We were both freaked out and trying to tell them what happened. They were brushing it off as a reaction to the heat and teased us. Suddenly the sheet music and the wooden holder flew off the piano and landed near our feet a distance well over 6 to 8 feet. We all four looked at each other and now no one was laughing. The sheet music was scattered around the floor an the music holder was laying on the floor right in front of me and my brother. The tour guide came in when she heard the crash, my stepdad and uncle were about the color of paper and didn't seem to think it was so funny anymore.
The tour guide told us that several (3?) of the McGavock's children had each died under the age of 10 and that the piano had belonged to one of the daughters who had been known as a prankster.
It was a very strange occurance and none of the four of us who saw it could possibly explain how that music holder that appeared to have been a part of the piano could just fly across the room that way. I don't think it can be explained. It just happened.

Another unusual experience happened to me while I lived there but it was non-civil war related and I've typed enough for one day.
Lady

[custersluck13]

Dear Lady of the woods

Thank you for sharing your story. I was recently driving through Franklin in my rig, and actually was wondering where that famous house is. I always believed that must be hallowed ground, and your story certainly seems to confirm that. Custersluck

[ole]

The McGavock House and Cemetery are just south and east of town, between I-65 and the Columbia Pike (US-31, I think).

Ole

[custersluck13]

Ole

Thank you. I was headed down 65 at the time...You know, the most rewarding thing about being a OTR trucker is Ive, at one time or another, been past battlefields from the Revolution, to almost all civil war sites, to Wa****a...it is also the most frustrating! I cant stop and tour them!

[EricJacobson]

The only problem with this story is that there has never been sheet music on the piano as long as I have been here and the piano was not even owned by the McGavock family. Moreover, the house has been air-conditioned for over a decade so I'm guessing this happened to you years ago.

[larry_cockerham]

The only problem with this story is that there has never been sheet music on the piano as long as I have been here and the piano was not even owned by the McGavock family. Moreover, the house has been air-conditioned for over a decade so I'm guessing this happened to you years ago.

You're mixing facts with fiction. (Somehow, I bet you knew that.)

[EricJacobson]

Very perceptive, Larry.