Soldier Remains Found In Franklin
By Gregory L. Wade
(June 2009 Civil War News)

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Workers uncovered a partial skeleton at a Franklin construction site as a machine operator removed dirt in a trenching operation.

The recovery was made roughly 50 feet from the Columbia Pike about a mile from the town square. This corridor was traveled constantly by soldiers of both armies and was the main artery of the Confederate attack in the Nov. 30, 1864, Battle of Franklin.

Union uniform eagle buttons, a leg bone, jaw bone with teeth and several bone fragments were recovered after Franklin police were called to the site.  Detective David Dixon said, “It was evident this was not a crime scene but an archeological finding.” The remains were turned over to the Tennessee Division of Archeology which issued a “stop work” order at the site.

 “These are most likely the remains of a Union soldier who might have died during the December 1864 retreat action from Nashville,” said local historian Eric Jacobson.

There was some spirited fighting along this area when the remnants of Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood’s army and its rear guard resisted the pursuit of Union Gen. John Wilson’s cavalry forces.

As soon as the machine operator noted the remains, work was stopped as police surveyed the scene and collected the remains.

J.T. Thompson, owner of the Lotz House, a local battlefield museum, arrived at the scene with a 34-star Union flag that was laid respectfully at the site.

“Unless there is other evidence to the contrary, this was a Union soldier from the war period. To see the flag and the way it was folded by the police officers was moving,” Jacobson noted.