Battle of Franklin, Eastern Flank: McGavock Slaves and the Civil War

Mariah Otey Reddick was born into slavery in 1838 and, at about ten, was given to Carrie Winder as a wedding gift when she married John McGavock in 1848. Carnton itself had gone up in 1826 on enslaved labor. Before Union troops reached Franklin, McGavock sent most of the people he held to Alabama and Louisiana, and Reddick was taken to Montgomery. She came back free after the war, stayed in Franklin, and died in 1922. She is buried in Toussaint L'Ouverture Cemetery. A photograph from about 1888 shows her holding a child, Carrie Cowan.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carnton — steps away
  The McGavock farm in Franklin, worked by 44 enslaved people in 1860, that became the largest field hospital of the Battle of Franklin.
• Fort Negley — 17 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.
• National Museum of African American Music — 18 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.
• Ryman Auditorium — 18 mi
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.

More markers nearby

• Civil War Franklin: The African-American Experience — steps away
• Civil War Franklin: Women's Experience — steps away
• Battle Ground Academy — 1.0 mi
• Carter House — 1.1 mi