[2] Carnton was situated less than one mile (1.6 km) from the location of the 1864 battle's Union Army eastern flank, and it became the principal temporary field hospital for tending the wounded.

[3] The life of Carrie McGavock, who lived at Carnton during the civil war, was the subject of a best-selling novel in 2005 by Robert Hicks, entitled The Widow of the South.

[4] The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and became a museum managed by The Battle of Franklin Trust, a non-profit organization.

Built on a raised limestone foundation, the southern facing entrance façade is a two-story, five-bay block with a side-facing gabled roof, covered in tin, with two dormer windows, and slightly projecting end chimneys.

The two-story portico contains four, square Ionic columns with beveled recessed panels, and a simple vase shape balustrade on each level.

Decorative corbels and scrollwork are found on the fascia above the first level, and the columns at the corners of the portico are matched by pilasters on the front façade.

[5] The interior has Greek Revival touches due to the remodeling done by John McGavock in 1847, including then-fashionable wallpapers, faux-painting and carpets in most every room.

The working clock on the parlor mantel and the 200-piece china set in the dining room is original to the McGavock family, as well as a rocking chair given by President Andrew Jackson.

The heaviest stains are found in one of the southern facing bedrooms which was used as an operating room, as a result of the blood soaking through the carpets and seeping into the wood floors.

In preparation for his marriage in 1847 to Carrie Winder, John McGavock created a 1-acre (0.40 ha) garden to the west of the house based on the writings of Andrew Jackson Downing, the "father of American landscape architecture."

Donated by the McGavock family as a permanent burial ground for the soldiers killed in the Battle of Franklin, the cemetery is organized by state resulting in thirteen sections separated by a 14-foot (4.3 m) pathway.

Randal McGavock's daughter, Elizabeth, married William Giles Harding of Belle Meade Plantation that became an internationally renowned thoroughbred farm.

When Federal troops took control of Middle Tennessee, and learned of the McGavocks' efforts to aid the South, they took thousands of dollars worth of grain, horses, cattle and timber from the plantation.

Carrie McGavock donated food, clothing and supplies to care for the wounded and dying, and witnesses say her dress was blood soaked at the bottom.

feeble knees she lifted up, for the many hearts she comforted, the needy ones she supplied, the sick she ministered unto, and the boys she found in abject want and mothered and reared into worthy manhood.

Today she is not, because thou hast taken her; and we are left to sorrow for the Good Samaritan of Williamson County, a name richly merited by her.The McGavock's son, Winder, inherited the home on the death of his mother, however he died only two years later in 1907.

[5] Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, Carnton has never received any funding or support from local, state or the Federal government.

Today, Carnton receives visitors from all over the world as many people visit to learn the true story of the Widow of the South, Carrie McGavock.