Preservationists Hopeful In Franklin, Expect To Meet $2.5M Goal
By Gregory L. Wade
December 2004

FRANKLIN, Tenn. - "We owe it to our ancestors to make this happen. A tribute to the thousands who made the ultimate sacrifice will be a part of our landscape for generations who follow. It will happen," predicted Robert Hicks, leader of the Franklin's Charge coalition.

He was speaking at the Save the Franklin Battlefield's (STFB) annual membership meeting about the effort to raise $2.5 million to be matched by the City of Franklin to purchase 112 acres of the bloody November 1864 battlefield.

The land, now occupied by the Country Club of Franklin golf course, will likely be eventually developed into home sites if the effort fails. It is located on the Confederate right flank. The Franklin board of aldermen recently agreed to commit up to $2.5 million in matching funds if the sale goes through by the end of November 2005.

The Franklin's Charge coalition is evidence of the seriousness of the effort among Williamson County preservation groups. Hicks said: "This is a grass roots widespread effort. The work will be tough but we will be successful. We will be successful because of efforts like STFB, the Carnton Mansion, the Carter House and many other groups and individuals involved."

Franklin, situated in the rolling farm lands of Middle Tennessee, is a thriving bedroom community south of Nashville. Consequently, development pressures have wiped out much of the battlefield where the Army of Tennessee was effectively destroyed.

Hicks discussed how the preservation picture was very bleak until a major breakthrough occurred. He related how a couple of years ago it occurred to him that the golf course property could "serve as a catalyst in piecing still surviving plots of land into a cohesive park."

He was in Washington, D.C., visiting his friends Rod and Kay Heller "when the first big break took place." J. Roderick Heller III, founding chairman of the Civil War Trust (now Civil War Preservation Trust), is a direct descendant of the McGavock family who owned Carnton, which is adjacent to the golf course property, at the time of the battle.

The Hellers purchased the Country Club for $5 million to hold it until preservation groups could buy the property for the proposed battlefield park. That was Hicks's challenge and how Franklin's Charge was born.

Hicks related that last year about 37,000 people visited Franklin battle sites while almost 200,000 visited nearby Stones River National Battlefield. "People want to see the battlefield, not just markers and small plots. It is obvious what a true battlefield park in Franklin would do for tourism in the area," he said.

The effort to raise the $2.5 million is well on its way to fruition with about $1 million already collected or pledged. The Civil War Preservation Trust has promised $250,000 of that.

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