More pictures from Tennessee!  On Monday, after our hike around the lake Sunday night, Steve and I went tot he Lane Auto Museum in Nashville.  We spent 3 hours wandering around - and later found out we missed a whole building - we could have stayed there forever!  It was a cool car museum - it had a lot of European cars, and had a lot of 'specialty' cars - one section was devoted to 3 wheel cars, and they had some cars that were the original hybrids - pedal or gas, depending on what was available.  These were manufactured directly after WWII, and gasoline was in short supply.  I'm not a huge car buff, but there was a lot of history included (especially since many were from Europe, and many were from the years surrounding the wars there) so I was quite happy to follow around after Steve as he drooled over the cars.

That afternoon, we went out to Parsons, TN - the town where Cardinal (the computer program that we use at work) had their offices.  Parsons has a population of around 7,000, and they have just put in their 2nd stop light.  When you think of the company that maintains, fixes, improves, etc. the computer program that I rely on to manage almost $1 billion in loans, you don't usually think of their offices as being in a strip mall, but that's where is is.  Calling it a strip mall is overstating it as well, but it really was much smaller than I envisioned it to be.  They have around 20 employees in the three offices of the strip that they use, and they have another facility in Des Moines, IA.  That facility houses the computer equipment.  I have met some of the people from Cardinal before, but it was nice to see their facility.  I talked Steve into trying a BBQ place for dinner that night, once we got back to Brentwood - yumm!!! 

Tuesday, we met up with Candace from the bank and she went on our explorations with us.  We went to the town of Franklin and visited the Carnton House, which was used as a field hospital after the Battle of Franklin.  It was probably used during the battle, too, but the battle only lasted 4 hours, so the majority of the work was afterwards.  For being such a pivotal battle (it kept Nashville from being retaken by the South, which would have prolonged the war) it sure was short and bloody.  Over 40,000 troops, and over 10,000 killed, wounded, or captured (and 7,500 of those were confederate soldiers).  The house was maintained 'in the family' for many years, but eventually was sold.  At one time, it was used as a barn for hay storage.  That was when it was bought by the historical society that runs it now.  They did a beautiful job restoring it using quite a bit of the family furniture, etc. that was donated (or loaned) by the remaining family.  This is the front of the house.

The original house that was built on the property butted up against the brick side of the 'big house'.  It was destroyed by a tornado - leaving the big house and the smoke house relatively untouched.  Strange!

Here's the back side of the house.

The slave quarters - these quarter were for the 'house' slaves, and were built of brick, enabling them to last longer.  The original spring house on the property was pretty well destroyed in the 2010 floods, and none of the other wooden structures on the property lasted until today.

Here you can see the smoke house, and between the two buildings, you can see the foundation of the first house that was built on the property.

The family also donated land for the cemetery for the confederate soldiers killed in the battle - over 1,700 men were buried here - and if I remember correctly, only over 1,000 were identified.  They men were originally buried in shallow graves out in the field - but.....that didn't work to well the next year - some of the graves were a bit too shallow.  The bodies were exhumed and reburied (which explains why so many couldn't be identified.).  Those that were identified were buried by state - the taller monuments denote the state.

After our visit at Carnton House, we went in to Franklin to the battle site.  The major battle was in the backyard of the Carter House, where the Confederates broke through the line of Federal troops.  This brick building was the smoke house, and you can see the bullet damage on the back of it.

This was the office building on the plantation, and it holds the dubious honor of having the most bullet holes from the civil war.

There was also a very nice kitten that came out to play with us - he was the friendliest thing!

This was the main house - lots of bullet holes here too.

The family were under house arrest by the Federal troops, and spent the time of the battle in the cellar, along with another family from across the street.  Around 25 people were in one room of the cellar during one of the bloodiest battles of the civil war.  When they emerged, not only did they find their property pretty well destroyed and bodies everywhere, but their son was wounded in the battle (they didn't know he was anywhere around the area).  He died later the next day from his wounds in the battle in the house he was born in.  Such a sad time in our history.