There is a famous story from the Carter house where the son was in the confederate army and was shot near his home and then died in it soon after.
Very true Sir ..
Capt. Tod Carter received special permission on Nov. 28 to go ahead of the regiment, now encamped in Spring Hill under Gen. Hood’s command.
At 24 years of age, Capt. Carter prepared his steed, Rosencrantz, for the journey back home to his family in Franklin.
He made the arduous ride, reaching Winstead Hill on the evening of Nov. 29, and decided to stay the night at the home of family friend Green Neeley.
Nov. 30, 1864
While Gen. Hood’s army retired for the night in Spring Hill, Gen. Schofield’s army managed to maneuver past the enemy encampment without being spotted.
The army of 24,000 federal soldiers successfully arrived in Franklin as the sun reached for the horizon on Nov. 30.
Schofield’s plans to move onward to Nashville were stymied when troops found that the swollen Harpeth River’s main bridge through town had been destroyed.
While Schofield’s troops attempted to rebuild the river crossing, Gen. Jacob Cox’s Union troops prepared for a stand in Franklin.
Gen. Cox, believing that the Carter family farm and the Carter Hill, “was the key to a strong defense,” took command of Fountain Carter’s home at 4:30 a.m.
The troops dug a 60-foot trench just south of the family’s home, destroying four barns and part of the Carter cotton gin to create head logs for the trenches.
That same morning Capt. Carter prepared to finish his journey toward home.
Slipping through the Union lines, he made it to the edge of the Carter garden, where he began to enter through the gate. As he lifted the latch, one of his relatives motioned for him “to go back.”
After a stretch of frosts and snow, the late autumn day was warm and sunny, but the weather did nothing to lift the spirits of the Carter family or the young Captain who could not reunite with his family.
Angered by the sight of breastworks across his father’s farm and soldiers in his home, Tod headed back to Winstead Hill ready to wage battle while his family prepared for the inevitable conflict.
Although Capt. Carter’s duties as assistant quartermaster and aide to Gen. Thomas Benton Smith exempted him from engaging in battle, he vowed, “No power on earth could keep him out of the fight.”
So it would be. At 5 p.m., he mounted Rosencrantz, drew his sword, extended his arm and led the charge shouting, “I am almost home! Come with me boys!”
Just 525 feet from his home, his horse went down and a volley of nine bullets fell the young captain.
Meanwhile, his father, Fountain, his brother, Moscow, and his four young children, as well as the four Carter sisters, numerous other family members, two African American servants, a boy named Oscar and five members of the Lotz family were huddled in the basement listening to the chaos and carnage unfolding above them and worrying about the fate of Tod.
Around midnight, the family emerged and thanked God for keeping them safe. Moments later a Confederate soldier appeared with the news that Tod was wounded.
Moscow was searching for his brother when Gen. Thomas Benton Smith arrived at the Carter home informing Fountain of Tod’s exact location.
Smith then led Tod’s father and three of his sisters through the smoke filled darkness, as the torches of townspeople looking for wounded cast a hazy light across the dreary night.
When they found the young captain, he was “delirious” and kept calling out to Sgt. Cooper, the man, who had tried to warn Tod not to go forward too soon just moments before he was shot.
Capt. Carter was carried to his boyhood home and taken inside to a room, littered with the debris left behind by occupying federal soldiers.
His sisters stayed by his side whispering; “Brother’s come home at last,” with hope he would awaken.
Dr. Deering Roberts, the regimental surgeon, extracted the fatal bullet that had struck him in the head, while his two young nieces assisted.
On December 2, 1864, 24-year old Capt. Tod Carter, the “brilliant young lawyer” died in the room just across from the one where he was born.