The aftermath of the Battle of Franklin, which took place during the night of November 30, 1864, left a total of nearly 9,500 soldiers, Union and Confederate dead, wounded, captured or missing.

When Franklin residents awoke on the morning of December 1, their concern was how to bury thousands of soldiers and care for the wounded.

Colonel John and Carrie McGavock's plantation house, Carnton, was situated less than one mile (1.6 km) from the center of the action on the Union eastern flank at Franklin.

Due to its geographical proximity, Carnton served as the largest field hospital in the area for hundreds of wounded and dying Confederate soldiers.

Carrie Winder McGavock led the efforts, supervising the logistics, and ordering her enslaved African-American workers to assist.

Most of the Confederate (and Union dead) were buried by soldiers and enslaved workers "near and along the length of the Federal breastworks, which spanned the southern edge of what was then Franklin.".

[1] Union dead were placed by twos in shallow graves in long rows by their comrades without marking the identities.

The remains of Union soldiers from Franklin and other battlefields were reinterred here from 1865 to 1867 by the 11th United States Colored Troops.

They placed makeshift wooden markers at the head of the graves to identify individuals by name, rank, regiment, and company.

Citizens of Franklin began raising funds to exhume and re-bury nearly 1,500 Confederate soldiers to the field just northwest of the Carnton house.

The fence was added with the assistance of Georgia author Mary Ann Harris Gay, whose brother had died in the battle.

In 1896, the "John McEweb Bivouac" veterans organization raised funds to replace the wooden headboards with granite markers.

Today 780 Confederate soldiers’ identities are positively identified, leaving some 558 as officially listed as unknown.