Monument for Unknown Soldier
erected at Rest Haven Cemetery
Like a jigsaw puzzle with so many pieces, preparations for the Oct. 8-10 ceremony surrounding the reburial of a Civil War-era soldier discovered in May on a Columbia Avenue construction site are continuing.
Tuesday, crews assembled what will become the monument at the final resting place of Franklin’s Unknown Soldier in the city’s Rest Haven Cemetery. Pieces of the original columns of the Tennessee State Capitol, which have been resting in a reliquary behind the old Tennessee State Prison, organizers told aldermen a few weeks ago.
Three sections of the Tennessee limestone columns were arranged and then cap pieces added to create the monument, under the direction of Robin Hood, a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer who lives in Franklin and serves on the city’s Battlefield Task Force.
“William Strickland did not know the Tennessee limestone columns were not as impervious to weather and would not have known 100 years later they would need to be replaced,” Hood said Tuesday, referring to a 1955 restoration of the Capitol in which all the columns were replaced with Indiana limestone.
The pieces were hand selected by Hood and other members of the task force, who take seriously the charge of giving Franklin’s Unknown Soldier a proper burial, one that is expected to attract national media attention.
The Oct. 10 burial will be the final event in a three-day ceremony being planned by the city’s Battlefield Preservation Task Force and a subcommittee created for ensuring the proper reburial of the remains, discovered May 14 on a construction site on Columbia Avenue.
The initial discovery May 14 of bones and buttons related to a Union soldier, further excavation led to the discovery of the soldier’s entire skeleton, a makeshift casket and a minie ball in the pocket of a coat.
While first labeled as a Union soldier, historians have since backed off, describing the soldier instead as “Franklin’s Unknown” due to the fact of markers from both sides of the conflict.
Also completed has been a handmade coffin to house the soldier’s remains, built by Van Baron, a self-employed handyman. He used the Internet to research the “toe pincher” coffin design, which tapers at the foot and is made of spruce.
“It took about six hours,” Baron said of the project, which has now been turned over to task force members. Wolfe Fields Development Co., owners of the former Through the Green site where the remains were found, is paying all costs associated with reinterment, including the purchase of the vault and materials for the coffin. Williamson Memorial Funeral Home has agreed to dig the grave at no cost, according to organizers.
The three-day ceremony for the reinternment begins by the soldier lying in state at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Oct. 8-9 before a 10 a.m. ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 10. His casket will be borne from the church by Union and Confederate uniformed pallbearers by a horse-drawn caisson through a processional along Franklin’s Main Street to Rest Haven Cemetery.
“This ceremony we are planning is not a Confederate event. It is not a Union event. It is an American event,” Hood told aldermen last month.
“I think it is going to be significant, not just for people who are interested in history or reenactors,” Hood said. “I think it will be a significant event for Franklin and all of Tennessee. I think the long-range return for our investment in this event, it is immeasurable. It will be a catalyst for future events and recognition of Franklin as a historic tourism destination.”
Crews from the city’s Streets and Parks departments have been working with Battlefield Task Force members on plans for the monument and were on hand to guide the columns into place as a huge crane from McCord Equipment moved them.
“The unknown soldier has really brought the entire community of Franklin together. So many people have donated their time or money to make the October ceremony possible,” said Milissa Reierson, city communications manager. “The Board of Mayor and Aldermen and entire city staff are working together also to make this event successful and create a suitable resting place for this soldier.”
Rest Haven is the final resting place of many Civil War-era veterans — Union and Confederate — and at least onesoldier who died during the Nov. 30, 1864, Battle of Franklin — Capt. Tod Carter, who died a few days after the battle at his family’s home on Columbia Avenue.
For the Oct. 10 processional, West Main Street from Seventh Avenue to Five Points and Main Street from Five Points to Second Avenue will be closed from midnight to noon on Oct. 10. Third Avenue from the Square to North Margin and North Margin from Fifth to Second Avenue will be closed from 11 a.m. until noon Oct. 10. The Five Points intersection will be closed to all traffic from approximately 10:45 a.m. until 11:15 a.m. Oct. 10 while the processional occurs.
