My husband and I visited the Carnton Plantation yesterday, Aug. 18, 2009. While I had read the Widow of the South, I did not look up the house prior to our visit and the only info we had besides the book that I read when it came out was the brochure.
We arrived and paid for our ticket only 5 minutes before the tour began at 3:30. We walked from the office to the house and sat down in rockers with the other tourgoers. A group came out of the house from a prior tour and our guide arrived and began his speech. He stepped to the end of the porch and spoke of the kitchen and said that you could see where it was. What I took from that was that you could see an intact room and there would be a difference in it’s appearance in comparison to the rest of the house. We then went into the house with a total of 15 visitors.
The guide walked into the office portion and directed us into the dining room. The group walked to the chained area and listened to his speech. My husband and I were standing in front of the buffet. I heard female voices talking, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. I walked around the table and looked out on the porch and saw no one and figured they were out of sight of those 2 windows. The guide then directed our group to the hallway and continued his talk. Myself and an older gentleman were in the rear of the group and couldn’t fit into the hallway so we leaned into the dining room door facing and listened. Behind us, we heard a door shut. I turned to look and he asked, “Did you just hear a door shut?” I said that I had, but didn’t know if it had been the door in the dining room or it’s mate on the same wall in the office. I assumed that it was an employee who looked out and saw the group and shut the door until we moved on and he/she could leave. I turned to see light under the doors and thought it was coming from windows in the rooms and was looking to see if a shadow would appear under the door telling me which door had shut due to someone being there.
We were directed into the formal parlor in the front of the home and the tour carried on. Again, the room was small and crowded and I got as far as the edge of the piano. I heard the floor above us creak and thought that another group were upstairs further along in their tour than us and that the guide was going long in his speech waiting for them to come downstairs and exit so that we could head upstairs. We then walked to the family parlor and no one came downstairs as we could see the foot of the stairs through the door to the hall.
We went upstairs finally and I realized that no one had been up there. I figured the noise had been the house settling. We completed the tour and were directed back out the back door and told to walk around and view the grounds and the front of the house. I walked around the garden side of the home taking pictures. I got my shots of the front of the house and was walking to the slave quarters.
Then I was shocked. When I walked to the side of the house, I saw the two door on the side of the house that led to outside now because the kitchen had been destroyed and all that was left were a pile of crumbling bricks. There was no way someone had shut one of the 2 doors behind us waiting for us to move on as they are several feet off the ground and there was no room for anyone to be standing and waiting in. I walked to the back porch to tell the guide while the other gentleman who had heard it as well was still standing there for verification.
I have no explanation.

I’ve been to Carnton many times and, while I’ve never seen anything there, I’ve heard all the usual stories. Also, a child ghost braided my friend’s hair while she was on the tour. Has anyone else heard about the young girl who has supposedly been seen sitting in the tree in the garden?
It’s worth noting that ghosts of Civil War soldiers are quite thick on the ground in Franklin; understandably so, given the role it played in the war. Most of the town proper and outskirts were, if not part of the battle site, campgrounds or hospitals.

Hello to everyone. I am researching places for me and my group to investigate, I am a case manager for a local paranormal group. If you have any places or locations that you would like for us to investigate feel free to contact me at jadedbaby1313@hotmail.com. We ask that you or the person sending us will give the ok for us to enter any places for we are very professional do not enter unless given the approval. Thank you and for Anne would we be able to get in contact with you.