Former American Battlefield Trust leader honored
by Gregory L Wade Jun 30, 2023
Courtesy of Historical Publications
FRANKLIN, TN—Civil War battlefield preservation advocacy group, Franklin’s Charge, recently honored James Lighthizer, former president of the American Battlefield Trust (ABT), with an appreciation dinner at historic Leiper’s Fork outside Franklin, Tenn. Lighthizer led the ABT, formerly known as the Civil War Preservation Trust, from 1999 until he stepped down in 2020. He still serves on the organization’s board.
Left to right: Clay Perry, President of Franklin’s Charge, Bob Ravener FC board member, Mary Pearch founder and FC board member, Nelson Eddy, FC board member.
Franklin’s Charge has worked with ABT since the early 2000’s in saving or reclaiming at least fifteen battlefield properties. This work included removing numerous structures built on the grounds since the 1864 Battle of Franklin. Lighthizer is widely acknowledged as having challenged FC into action when he visited in 2003 and told them, “You have to get organized and get political.” The first major accomplishment was purchasing a golf course planned for development into a residential mixed-use project. Over those 110 acres hundreds of Confederates lost their lives attacking entrenched Federals. The local group, with help from the City of Franklin and assistance from the ABT, was successful in purchasing the property which is now fully interpreted as part of the Franklin Battlefield. The site is now known as the Eastern Flank Battlefield.
One of the Franklin’s Charge founders and longtime board member, Mary Pearce, noted, Jim was a “supportive teacher who saw we needed help if any battleground would be saved.” Many Franklin’s Charge former and current board members, ABT officials, and Franklin city leaders were in attendance as Lighthizer was recognized with a Tennessee Legislative Proclamation noting his contributions.
Former Tennessee State Representative Steve McDaniel (left) and Representative Sam Whitson read Tennessee proclamation honoring Jim Lighthizer.
The honor was presented by Tennessee State Representative Sam Whitson and retired representative Steve McDaniel, who also worked closely with the ABT in establishing Parker’s Crossroads Battlefield in West Tennessee. Another Franklin’s Charge founder, Julian Bibb, who continues working with the ABT on Franklin Battlefield projects, presented Lighthizer with a 12-pounder cannon ball recovered in the Franklin area. Bibb noted no preservation work has ever happened in the manner it has occurred in Franklin. Noting its importance, Lighthizer said in his remarks, “to be good citizens we have to know our history, the good and the bad. That is why battlefield preservation has been and will continue to be critical for our understanding of who we are.” He added that an “informed citizenry is critical” to our republican form of government and what has been done in Franklin is a “miracle.”
Julian Bibb, founder and board member of Franklin's Charge presents cannon ball to Jim Lighthizer.
Pearce noted, “we are no longer a battlefield known for pizza restaurants, a golf course, and a lost part of our history.” Bibb shared other benefits of historic preservation work. “We have gone from 4,000 tourists a year to over 200,000 who come to see our battle sites, and there is more to come.”
Franklin’s Charge is a § 501(c)(3) Tennessee nonprofit corporation organized in 2005 dedicated to preserving America’s threatened Civil War battlefields in Williamson County, Tennessee. In addition, Franklin’s Charge has actively worked to educate the public about the 1864 Schofield-Hood campaigns, the 1864 Battle of Franklin, the 1863 Battle of Thompson’s Station, the Union earthworks in Triune, and other Civil War events in Middle Tennessee. Further, Franklin’s Charge has been an active participant in heritage tourism, American Civil War history programs, and preservation efforts.
Franklin’s Charge brought together all preservation groups operating in Williamson County. Its membership consists of representatives of the African-American Heritage Society, the Carter House Association, the Civil War Preservation Trust, the Franklin-Williamson County Chamber of Commerce, the Harpeth River Watershed Association, the Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County, Historic Carnton, Inc., the Land Trust for Tennessee, Inc., Save the Franklin Battlefield Association, the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association, the Tennessee National Civil War Heritage Area, the Tennessee Preservation Trust, and the Williamson County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
This is our opportunity to make history. This will be our legacy.
The Battle of Franklin Trust and Franklin’s Charge have completed the purchase of the Lovell property, a 1.6 acre tract of land immediately south of The Carter House. The houses have been removed and the land returned to its original condition. Currently, work is underway through an archaeological dig to locate and mark the exact location of the Federal trench line across this property and future plans include placing interpretive markers and replant at least a portion of the Carter family garden as it existed on November 30, 1864. The property will soon be deeded to the City of Franklin and will become part of the larger Carter Hill Battlefield Park. Our work is certainly not finished. We will seek to purchase and preserve additional core battlefield property. A committee of Franklin’s Charge is currently involved in a project to acquire six full scale, non firing replica Civil War cannons and carriages and place them in the exact location they occupied on the cotton gin site on November 30, 1864.
The battle began at 4 p.m. with roughly 20,000 Confederate soldiers moving forward toward a similar number of Federal troops. The attack itself was far bigger than Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg. The two armies came into close contact shortly before 4:30 p.m. and the fighting soon became brutal and fiendishly savage. With the sun down shortly after the two sides fully engaged it was dark by just minutes after 5 p.m. When recollecting the battle years later one man said simply, “It was as if the devil had full possession of the earth.”
During the awful hours as the battle raged and swirled around them, the Carter family took refuge in their basement. Some two dozen men, women, and children, including Albert Lotz and his family from across the pike, waited as the horrors of war seemed to almost engulf them. Fountain Branch Carter had years earlier watched as all three of his surviving sons went off to fight for the Confederacy. The middle son, Tod, had not been home for three and a half years and was serving as an aide for General Thomas Benton Smith during the Battle of Franklin. He was mortally wounded during the fighting and his body was found the next morning and brought by his family back to the house. Surrounded by his father, one brother, sisters, and nieces and nephews, Tod died at home two days later.
At around midnight the Federal army began a careful withdrawal from the battlefield and in short order the Northern troops were en route to Nashville. Left behind was a small town and a battered Confederate army. Altogether, some 10,000 American soldiers became casualties at Franklin and about three-fourths of that number were Confederates. About 2,300 men died, some 7,000 were wounded, and roughly 1,000 were taken prisoner.
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