As a description of this battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864, I insert an extract from the Park Marshall address delivered forty-eight years afterward:
“I was born at Franklin, and as a small boy I visited this battle field when the smoke had scarcely disappeared, and the impression of that morning is still in my memory. Without exaggeration I may say that the severest battle of modern history was fought on these plains. In the forefront of that battle there were not over 20,000 Union troops, not over 15,000 Confederates, yet the killed on one side was greater in two or three hours than occurred on any one day on one side in any other battle of the Civil War, except Antietam.
BEN ADLER.
“All the generals objected to the charge. Forrest, the best cavalry leader in the South, begged Hood to change his murderous plan, saying, ‘I know every hog-path in this county, and I can show you a route which will give us a chance.’
“The lesser generals entered their protest along with the great generals. Men of world-wide fame, and privates too, had their opinion, but not the right to speak.
“To send soldiers against such a position was suicidal. Every man in the South available for service was in the field. When these men were killed the Confederacy was destroyed. Oh, for a Johnston before the fatal word was given! Against every protest Hood ordered the advance. What were Cleburne’s last words to his noble warrior boys?