Battle of Franklin 145 years reenactment

On Saturday, November 28th, we attended the Blue and Gray Days and Carnton Plantation in Franklin, Tennessee. As a part of this day, they had a small reenactment. I wasn't certain if this was supposed to be a show of what happened in this area at the time of the Battle(somehow that didn't seem right), or just a small show for the people who came to pay their respects. Unfortunately, we happened to be standing next a group of teenagers who had very little respect. Shame to think of how many of those who died that day were the same age as these punks. And yet one hundred and forty years ago, the boys of this age fought bravely and had respect.

I hate to compare this small reenactment to the one five years ago that took place at a plantation home in Spring Hill. It was massive and quite impressive. Today there were only about 20-30 soldiers on each side, and two cannons each. Their dedication to recreating and keeping alive the memory of those who fought and those who died so many years ago does not go unnoticed by me. It is the closest those of us now can get to feeling as if we were there. And for someone like me, who reads and researches so much about this period of time, it is truly thought provoking.

I'm not much of a photographer I think, but I imagine myself as a Matthew Brady or Alexander Gardner when I watch reenactments, or visit the reenactors in their camps. I've posted just a few of my photos from Saturday here. A few of them I've done a little playing in Photoshop to see about getting a more historical look and feel to the photos.

And a big Thank You to these reenactors, for all you do.

Battle of Franklin 145 years later

It is the 145th Anniversary of the Battle of Franklin. This past Saturday we attended the Blue and Gray Days at Carnton Plantation in Franklin. They had a small reenactment and a luminary lighting.

This post will be about the luminaries. There were 10,000 of them, for all the casualties of this horrific battle in 1864. We arrived at Carnton at about 1:30pm. Sunset came around 5pm. As the sky grew darker, the sight of so many lights was stunning. I stood across the Confederate Cemetery from them, and I couldn't help think about the lights that were taken away so many years ago, and lay under the ground here before me.

I hope these photos can give some sense of the amazing sight of so many candles.

Just when you think

you are out of the woods. And JUST when we had finished paying off the broken wrist that my daughter managed back in April-she breaks it again. Yes, on a lovely early November trip to the Smokies, on a beautiful day that I will get to spend with my mother and my husband. Daughter is going with my sister and nephew to a Boy Scouts cavern trip, and before they even leave the parking lot, she falls while racing around and breaks it again. There goes the weekend. And the Christmas money.


We have had a bit of time to visit some local places lately, and some local events, and I will be posting about those in the next few days.

Things have been crazy

I was pretty upset for awhile after July 4, as can be seen in the post below.

The rest of the summer was a mixed bag.

Our air conditioner went out, it was rough for a few days. And then my daughter and I were told to go spend a few weeks with my mom in Sevierville. I felt bad for my husband having to stay at home in the heat-but at least he wasn't home all day in it like we would have been.

So we spent a couple of weeks near the Smokies. I got out to visit quite a few places that I had been wanting to see for a long time. John Sevier's home, Sam Houston's schoolhouse, several cemeteries and other historical places. And I got to spend time with family.

I'd like to say I will post photos, but I won't lie-I've been playing a LOT of World of Warcraft lately and I just can't seem to bring myself to work on my website-as much as part of me REALLY wants to get it done. C'est le vie. :(

And now school has started, and the kiddo has already brought home a cold that she shook off in one weekend-but has stuck with me for just over a week now.

And the car has so many things wrong with it that I fear driving it around during the day-and the AC on the truck doesn't work. So I sit at home...and play.

Well, at least we were lucky enough to get out for a Titans game(hubby's boss gave him the tickets), and I got to take loads of photos at that.

Sigh.

Memorial at LP Field

Fitting that today is July 9th. We went to the memorial for Steve McNair at the Titans playing field, LP Field, today. We went early to avoid the crowds. And I couldn't bring myself to go to the actual funeral home and viewing. I wanted to remember Steve where he made us happy.

There was a photo board, notebooks to sign, and a video playing on the jumbotron. I don't recall much of what I wrote on the notebook, I could barely see what I was writing, I just couldn't stop crying.

I took a few photos. Just a few. It was a beautiful Columbia Blue sky. I remember as a kid, back in Houston we always said that God was an Oilers fan, that was why the sky was Columbia Blue. I thought about that today.
This poster was just outside the gates. Someone had placed some candles near the base of the pillar.
The photos of Steve.
Flower arrangements and mementos.
Video of Steve's life on the jumbotron.
Steve's name on the "Ring of Honor".

Thanks for the memories Steve.

Remembering a Titan

There are times when life is shown to be bigger than a game. Yesterday was one of those days.

I live near Nashville. I moved to Tennessee the same year that the Oilers moved from Houston to Tennessee. If I'd gotten a dollar for every time someone asked me "are you following the Oilers?", well it probably would have paid for the U-haul truck. But no, I was following my mom and just starting over in my life. But the Oilers had recently given me a reason to be happy that I was moving to the same place that they were. It was Steve McNair. He really hadn't played very much by the time I left late in 1996(he was drafted in 1995), but we knew he was going to be good.

And good he was. Even great at times. He was everything I loved about football and he was what I expect out of people. He loved life. He gave back. He never complained. He never wanted the credit for the good but always took credit for the bad. He played no matter what. His heart was as big as Nashville and his smile was as wide as Tennessee. Yes, I cursed him when he defected to our hated rivals in his final years, but I still loved him.

Yes, I met him once. We went to one training camp practice day back in 1999. It was a very hot August day, but Steve, out of all of those that came over to the fans, stayed and signed for everyone that was there. I still have that card. And the two jerseys(Oilers and Titans), the bobblehead, the action figures. And I was excited to know that after retiring, he was coming back to Nashville to live. And I am shocked that it is over so soon.

So many people I find lately who think it is all about them at all times. I mean, the jerks who obviously don't care about anyone but themself and continue to shoot fireworks until late in the night-do they think everyone else in the neighborhood cannot hear them? But they don't care about anyone else. And the people in game who think their fun is more important than MY fun. Really? Would you block off all of the other checkout lanes in the grocery store so everyone else can't check out because you think it's funny? No, whether it is the internet or being in a vehicle, people just think they can get away with whatever they want to do, regardless of the consequences-because usually there are no consequences. And for some reason, so many people in this world have gotten in their heads that it really doesn't matter how what they are doing affects other people, so they will just do what they want. It's all me, me, me. Sometimes I feel like I am the only person left with a conscience.

Sorry for that ramble, but Steve was not one of those people. And with all of the celebrity deaths in the past week, I am saddened by this one the most. Because Steve wasn't really a "celebrity", regardless of how many people knew who he was and the stage he played on. Steve was Superman and Clark Kent at the same time. Steve was a true hero when most sports figures really should not be.

I'm going to miss you Steve. I still can't believe this has happened. I had hoped to wake up this morning to find it all a bad dream. But it wasn't. And I will be sad for a long time.

The Unlucky photographer

That's me.

I've been perusing quite a lot of Flickr lately. I've noticed that many of the best photos(or at least from the photographers I like the most), get the best shots with the right light. Whether it be bright, sunny, no clouds in the sky days, or the perfect light of sunrise or sunset. And I hear that some won't even post photos from days that was cloudy.

And then there's me. I wish I was a photographer I guess. I have taken thousands and thousands of photos since I bought that first Pentax back in 1984. But me, I have got to be the worst or unluckiest at getting shots.

I can't buy sunny days to save my life. If there is a great day to be out taking photos, well that's a day that I can't get out to take some for whatever reason. And if I can get out, by the time I get to what I want to photograph, the clouds have shown up and ruined the day.

The things I want to photograph always seem to:
Face north when it's winter
Face east in the evening and west in the morning
Look terrible without foliage and I find them in the winter or I find them in the summer and you can't see them at all because of all of the foliage
Or of course, nobody feels good and we don't feel like stopping at every single place just to take a photo, so I take it from the car and it's 1.blurry 2.cut off half 3.crooked 4.shows all the dirt on the windows or parts of the frame.

Sigh. I can't win. Makes me wonder if I should even keep taking photos. But I know I want to because I just love doing it. Even if I am the only person(as it always appears) that likes looking at my photos. They are a record of what I've seen. My memory can't always recall all of these things. Plus they help record things that will be gone(are gone now) before they are gone.

I just wish I had better luck actually getting the photos taken. :(

YaY Penguins!!

Pittsburgh Penguins are Stanley Cup Champions! Hooray! I've been a Pens fan for a long time, my third fave team behind the Preds and Bruins, so I was a happy camper last night! I think I'll be wearing my old Jagr jersey around all summer. :)

Almost as important, the Wings lost. I can't fricken stand them. And their lovely fans sitting up in the stands booing the whole time after the game. Nice. Losers. I will always root for the Lions and Tigers, the Wings can rot for all I care.

My website

isn't working for some reason. The service page says there are no problems, but the pages won't come up. I hate when it does this. So I log out of Warcraft to work on adding some pages and it's not working. Does that mean I should go back to playing Warcraft?? I guess so. Or spend hours reading other blogs and staring at photos on Flickr. I'm always worried that I screwed something up to make it not work. But it should be fine-I can log into my account, everything is up-to-date, it doesn't list any outages and says 'no problems reported', I can log into my ftp(not sure if I can upload anything though), but that page just takes forever to load and then only shows a white page. :(

Or I could search Google maps and street view trying to figure out where this house is located. I think it is near Springfield, TN, as the photos around in the original photos folder show the Robertson County Courthouse right before this-but I have looked all around Google maps in that area and cannot find it!
Windmill House somewhere near Sprinfield, Robertson County, Tennessee


update: went to the library, come back and now the website works just fine. Just a kink for awhile I suppose. Sigh.

Road trip

It's the little things that make me happy. Really, all I need is my husband and daughter in the car headed someplace I've never been(or even someplace I've haven't been since I got my new camera). After sitting in our den for a week, missing my kid at camp, feeling like I've never felt before, we got out Saturday to get some Vitamin D from that big shiny thing in the sky.

Our trip took us down I-24 towards Chattanooga. We exited in Manchester and picked up State Route 41 South. This is the Dixie Highway and was the north/south route prior to the Interstate coming through. Along this little stretch, near the small towns of Hillsboro and Pelham, I got photos of 2 "See Rock City" barns. The road then climbed up onto the Cumberland Plateau and we were in Monteagle. We drove east a bit, but then backtracked towards Monteagle and points west.

Just past Monteagle is a town called Sewanee. Located here is the University of the South. We stopped and walked around and took tons of photos of one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The gothic architecture, the towers, the stained glass windows, it was amazing. And then we got hungry. There isn't much in Sewanee(not that we could find anyway), so we headed down the road. The road meanders down the mountains towards the west. The first town you come to is Cowan. They have a nice little Railroad Museum(we didn't have time to go in, but we stopped and I got several photos of the train and downtown area). But no fast food here either. Finally, a few more miles down the road we come to Winchester, county seat of Franklin County, and a Burger King(which thrilled the kid, she got Pokemon cards).

Unforunately after that hubby's back started to ache and my stomach started to ache, so we headed up towards Tullahoma to catch I-24 home. And I spent the rest of the day on the couch in pain watching D-Day shows on the History Channel.

Hopefully will post some photos soon.

Lonely, I'm so lonely

My baby is at camp this week. I've never really been away from her for this long. Oh sure she spent a week with Grandma when she was about 5, but she was with Grandma! She is 10 now and she is spending a week over 2 hours away with nobody I know!! I know she will be having so much fun, she won't even miss me. But I worry. She is going to be doing things I wish I could watch her do. Swimming, canoeing, archery, ping pong, arts and crafts. And I am thinking about her with nearly every waking moment. It's been a day and a half and I feel sick to my stomach most of the time and I had trouble sleeping last night.

I am sure she will be fine, but is it so wrong that I jump every time the phone rings? I know it's quiet, really REALLY quiet around the house-just the way I like it-but I just can't wait until Friday gets here!

Civil War bones found in Franklin

While I am extremely interested in this story, I'm scratching my head over the news stories I've read so far.

This one from ?Columbus, Ohio? actually says...

About 2,000 soldiers died in the 1864 Battle of Franklin. Nearly all who died were Union soldiers.

Uh, what? Let's try 10,000 casualties*-7,300 were Confederate! Nice try yankee.

Then there is this one from Fox News 17 in Nashville(you'd think they get the facts straight) that says this:

Historians believe the body belongs to a Union soldier, who may have been killed around November 30, 1864.

That's when the Union Army was pursuing Confederate soldiers as they retreated from the Battle of Nashville.

Yes, the Battle of Franklin was November 30, 1864. But the Battle of Nashville was December 15-16, 1864. And if they meant "Battle of Franklin" from the date, well this guy was found at the base of Winstead Hill, which is where the Confederate higher-ups(namely Hood) watched the slaughter unfold. It is just over a mile south of the Union's line of defense.

So this soldier could have died as the Union made their way north from Spring Hill and was quickly buried where he fell(most likely of an old wound or disease) before the trenches were built near the Carter House. Or he died on the way South after December 16.

Or is it possible that this soldier was killed during a cavalry skirmish that occurred on April 10, 1863 when Confederate troops moved north from Spring Hill just to scout whether the Union held Franklin or not. Forrest was one of the cavalry leaders here and he was moving north along the Lewisburg Pike, which is just east of this site. There were Union pickets in the area and there were roughly 100 casualties on both sides.


I'm not an archaeologist or a certified historian or anything. My guesses on when this soldier died are just that, guesses. But they are educated guesses. How do these news sources get away without any fact-checking? Oh wait, they do that every day, why should I be surprised?


As to the site where the remains were found, I am ambivalent. On one hand, yeah they are going to stop the construction and do more searching, and yeah another golf course built on battleground bites the dust. But for what...more townhouses and shops. I'm already disgusted at the site of that Target sitting next door. And not to mention the Pizza Hut that was allowed to be built on top of a known mass grave. What a sad thing to see. To see the difference between such historic places like Gettysburg and Franklin. Yes, yes, we lost. That's no excuse to forget what happened and act like it never did happen. What a shame, Franklin, what a shame.


*want to clear up "casualties": "casualties" are listed as dead/wounded/captured. For Franklin, Union had 189 killed, 1033 wounded and 1104 captured. Confederates had 1750 died(or died from wounds within a few days), 3800 wounded and 702 captured. There were more Confederates killed in this 5 hour battle than the whole 2 days at Shiloh(often called the Bloodiest Battle of the Civil War).

Too much rain

We just haven't had the chance to get out lately-it seems like it is always raining. The cemetery that I stopped at a few months ago on Old Hickory-the one I could barely see the headstones from the overgrowth. It was mostly lots and lots of dead bushes and bushes with massive pickers on them. I could see the headstones, just not get close enough to read them. Drove by it on Saturday and it looked like a jungle. The green growth was so thick you couldn't even see the fence around the cemetery. I'd wager many graveyards look like that about now. Just no time for anyone to cut the grass and weeds.

We did go see "Star Trek" Saturday-a good indoor thing while it rained. The movie was awesome! And I loved Karl Urban. He was fabulous as Bones.

The kiddo's cast comes off in 2 more weeks. Just in time for camp!

Working on my website a bit more. Found a good new look for the new pages-need to get more motivated to "git 'er done"!

Bad days

Posting from my husband's computer. My computer died this morning. But that isn't the worst thing. My daughter fell from a swing at recess yesterday and broke her wrist. I'm feeling lower than dirt right now. I'm so numb I can't even cry. I don't even know what to do now.

EF 4 Tornado

That is what the National Weather Service has deemed this tornado. Wow. They have also added EIGHT more miles of damage to the length of the tornado making it a 23 mile path. It also puts some other cemeteries in our county in the path. Most notably the Rocky Glade(Downing) Cemetery. I will wait a few weeks before getting out to check on these places(more bad weather forecast for this weekend).

One of the homes near Medical Center Parkway.

Hazens Brigade Monument. The tornado went right over the monument. From other photos I've seen on Daily News Journal, some tree branches ended up in the small fenced graveyard, but it didn't appear there was any damage to anything. The Stones River National Cemetery did receive damage though, a tree fell over and took out a section of the southern wall. I could also see some other trees down inside the cemetery, but I couldn't tell if any markers were damaged.

Tornadoes here in Rutherford County

It was a scary Good Friday. This is the closest any tornado has hit since we moved here in 2002. As the crow flies, the Blackman area that was hit hard is about 5-6 miles south of me. I thank God for sparing my neighborhood. I pray for the family who lost a mother with her 3 month old baby.

As the news broadcast the weather warnings live, and with the weather alert radio going off every ten minutes(seemingly), my daughter and I huddled in the bathroomt(yes, with the cat too). I could tell eventually that the worst of it would pass south of us. And then WKRN, news channel 2, showed a TDOT video of the huge tornado passing just north of Hwy 96 across Interstate 24 I breathed a small sigh of relief. For us at least. The worst was past and "big one" was at least 5 miles to the south.

And then I started figuring out what would be in its path. I knew it would cross Stones River Battlefield(and sure enough there are reports of many trees down there now). It took a diagonal path and headed towards the VA Hospital at Compton Rd and Hwy 231. There are so many homes destroyed. As much as the photographer in me wants to document this, I will heed the call of the Sheriff and PD to stay off the roads.

We had planned to travel some backroads to do some grave hunting tomorrow, but I'm not certain that will happen now. Perhaps next weekend we can get out to check on the status of any cemeteries in that path.

Oh, and now I find out that Rutherford County has had more reported tornadoes than any other county in Middle Tennessee since tornadoes began being tracked. Yikes.

Just adding in: cemeteries possibly in the path of the tornado:

Stones River National Cemetery, Old Nashville Hwy
Wade Cemetery, Thompson Lane
McFadden Cemetery, Van Cleve Ln
Mitchell Cemetery, Haynes Dr
Green Cemetery, Sulphur Springs Rd
Watkins Cemetery, Hwy 231
Rucker-Pitts Cemetery, Compton Rd
Emery Cemetery, Compton Rd

I hope to get out and check on them as soon as possible.

Weekly update

I've been working on getting the Rutherford County Tombstone page re-done and completed. So far I've completely re-listed the entire county, alphabetically(which also means numerically). Over 700 cemeteries, so it took me a few days to finish it. One thing bugged me though-there is a small cemetery in Murfreesboro that I had found a few months ago but needed to revisit when the weeds wouldn't be so bad(and threat of snakes). And from descriptions in the new Rutherford County Cemeteries and Graveyards book, I figured it could be one of 2 different cemeteries, since both descriptions showed them to be near each other(and if I found one, where was the other?)...

Note to self...read the ENTIRE cemetery description including names when thinking two are awfully close to each other in location!

One cemetery was the "Kirk"(#368) cemetery, the other was "Nisbett"(#491). We went back out to visit it on Saturday. I didn't bring the book along with me, but when I got there and started reading the names on the headstones I found both Kirk AND Nisbetts there! When I got home I checked the names for those I had found....yep, sure enough the exact same names are listed in BOTH cemeteries in the book! So there are Kirks and Nisbetts, so this will from now on be the Kirk-Nisbett Cemetery.


Wanted to get out more as Saturday was a gorgeous day, but I wasn't feeling well and we had things like yardwork that REALLY needed to get done before it rained again on Sunday.

More country music awards on Sunday night. I can never remember which are which but I love watching any of them! Especially when Brad Paisley won for Best Male Artist!! I let out a huge scream! And he's at home here in Nashville(well, Spring Hill) waiting for Kimberly to have their 2nd baby any day now. Awwwwww! So sweet! Carrie Underwood won Entertainer, which is fine by me, as long as it wasn't Kenny Chesney again. And the song that Trace Adkins sang with the military choir, my goodness I was in tears from the start of it. The opening lyrics are:

I was there in the winter of '64
When we camped in the ice
at Nashville's doors
Three hundred miles our trail had led
We barely had time to bury our dead
When the Yankees charged and the colors fell
Overton hill was a living hell
When we called retreat it was almost dark
I died with a grapeshot in my heart

Oh man that hits home. And of course anything moving like this makes me cry like a baby. I also cried when Jamey Johnson sang "In Color" even though I've heard the song a thousand times. I just love it so much. And I was sooo happy when it won "Song of the Year". It was an excellent field with some really great songs this year, but I was thrilled that it won even though it meant that Brad didn't win that one. And finally, the performance that got me off of the couch to clap and cheer at the end of it was John Rich's "Shutting Detroit Down". It says so much. I love John Rich.

Nashville Zoo

This is probably one of my all time favorite photos that I've taken!

The Nashville Zoo has new Bengal Tiger cubs, born December 2008. They are only at our zoo temporarily, but we had to take the opportunity to see them. Honestly, I could have stayed all day and watched them! They are just like any other 4 month old kitten you have ever seen. Very playful and hysterical to watch! We must have sat and watched them for half an hour, I took around 114 photos of them(well, I took over 500 total at the zoo-great subject matter!)! At this moment, one was chasing the other and suddenly her little front legs just tumbled out from under her and she did a face plant! It was so funny and I couldn't believe I managed to capture it!

Benwah and Taboo will not be at our zoo for long, so if you can you should jump at the chance to go and see these 2 adorable tigers!

Weekly update

This past week has been pretty good. My kid has been off for Spring Break and my husband got the week off from work. So we took a little trip to East Tennessee to visit my mom and see some sites.

On Sunday we took a scenic drive north of Knoxville, called by some the "Devil's Triangle". The route to the road takes you through Oakridge, site of the Manhattan Project-where the nuclear bombs from World War II were built. You can't really see much from the main road, and that is just fine with me. The "triangle", on Route 116, starts up near Frozen Head State Park and Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary . It winds northeast through the mountains before turning southeast near the town of Stainville. When it reaches the southeastern corner, the road connects with Route 330 and heads back towards Olive Springs. However, we followed Route 116 as it headed back northeast through a long valley full of coal mining towns. We passed Briceville and stopped at the cemetery to see the memorial to the fallen miners of the Cross Mountain Mine Disaster that took place December 9, 1911(84 miners lost their lives). As you continue a few miles up you pass through Fraterville, site of an even worse mine disaster, where 216 miners were killed on May 19, 1902. Another few miles takes you to the town of Lake City, where the Leach Cemetery holds the memorial for the Fraterville disaster and 89 of the deceased. Going across Interstate 75 brought us to Norris Dam, one of TVA's many projects; and then on to Hwy 441 and back to Sevierville and my mom's place.

Monday saw us take a long way home. From Sevierville we followed Hwy 411 to Maryville, and then turn south on Hwy 129. Once you get to the Little Tennessee River, the road turns east towards North Carolina. When the road leaves the river, you have entered the "Tail of the Dragon"! It is touted as 318 curves in 11 miles, and they aren't kidding. You need to take extra caution to watch your speed around corners, watch for the many motorcyclists that ride this road, and the 18-wheelers that shouldn't. Along the Little Tennessee River are 3 dams that you will see, the Chilhowee, Calderwood, and Cheoah(this one being famous for the dam scene in the movie "The Fugutive"). After leaving the Dragon(and making a pit stop at Deal's Gap store), we continued the route to Robbinsville, NC and followed the signs for Cherohala Skyway. It runs back into Tennessee for 43 miles. The highest point along the route is 5390 feet and the views are amazing! It comes down from the mountains near Tellico Plains, TN and a sideroad just before reaching the town leads you to an incredible waterfall, Bald River Falls, where the Bald River dumps itself into the Tellico River. A great site that you don't even need to leave your car to see! We then followed Highway 30 from Etowah to McMinnville and then on home.

Tuesday we visited the Nashville Zoo and the Adventure Science Center. There is so much to talk about these places that I might just leave them for another post!

Hopefully I can get around to adding photos very soon!

Graving this past weekend

It was a very nice weekend and we finally had the chance to get out and see some things.

First we stopped at 5 cemeteries:

• Richards Cemetery, near Hickory Hollow Mall. It has been nicely fenced, grass added and a small historical marker added recently. It doesn't mention anything about the one person I was interested in here, Guy McFadden died 1835. Possible relative? I'm not sure yet.

• Johnson-Thompson Cemetery,(thanks for the info!) near where Starwood Amphitheater used to be. Unfortunately it is behind a warehouse-type building that is currently unoccupied and it appears nobody has been around to clean this one out inside the fence in quite awhile. Despite not having to worry about snakes and whatnot, the brush was simply too thick to even get close enough to the headstones to read the names on them.

• Eskridge Cemetery, off Hobson Pike near Percy Priest Lake. This one is an enigma. Rutherford County cemetery book states these graves were moved to other places for Percy Priest Lake, and was near to an old slave cemetery. First thoughts say this is the slave cemetery then. There are many depressions that show that clearly there are still burials here. And then there are the headstones. There are quite a few fieldstones(typical of slave cemeteries). But I also found the clearly marked headstone of WB and Addie Charlton Eskridge. They are mentioned as having been removed, not only by the Rutherford County book, but also on this page of the Davidson County Cemetery Survey(it says they were moved to Merritt Cemetery-which is not listed on their site!). However THIS listing, also on the Davidson Co site, simply lists an Eskridge Cemetery with them being buried there. There are also 2 other names listed-we did not find those headstones, but we DID find the headstone of someone not listed there-John J Leigh...SO...That leads me to look elsewhere. And lo and behold I find the LEIGH CEMETERY listed in the Rutherford County book, but NOT on the Davidson County site(it is in Davidson Co). And voila! listed here are John J Leigh 1856-1875 AND (drumroll please) WB and Addie Eskridge! And it says in the book that this cemetery was surveyed by Army Corps of Engineers but NOT moved. So we solve it. It is the Leigh Cemetery, the Eskridge Cemetery was somewhere else, WB and Addie were moved HERE. There *is* a Johnie Merritt buried here, but it is listed as 'Leigh Cemetery' and not 'Merritt'. AND Davidson County does NOT have John J Leigh or Johnie Merritt listed. Though they clearly still think this is the Eskridge Cemetery and have a photo from the road of the woods it is located in. The other 15 or so names listed for Eskridge Cemetery *may* be at Mt Juliet(or somewhere else), but I've never searched for Davidson County names at Mt Juliet-I may in the future now!

• HAYS CEMETERY - or Vivrett or Eatherly Cemetery, Old Mt Juliet Rd, Mt Juliet. I didn't spend much time here, just took a few photos. This is an old cemetery with many of the graves being marked by fieldstones. There is a section surrounded by large cement bricks(which appeared to me to have been placed a number of years after the headstones inside as the names on many of them are nearly up against the edge of the wall and as such are unreadable), the names inside primarily being Vivrett. The older markers that could be read had the surnames of Hays. I wasn't certain on many others. Mt Juliet official records list this as Hays Cemetery. A quick search for Vivretts has someone listing them as being buried in a 'Vivrett-Eatherly Cemetery'. I'll go with city records right now.


• Mt Juliet Cemetery -just came here to rephotograph 2 headstones for a relative who was searching for them. Showed up just in time to get a photo of the front of the Watertown Excursion Train as it zoomed by! We actually were IN Watertown later in the day and saw the same train, already turned around and ready to head back to Nashville!

After leaving Mt Juliet, we went downtown Nashville to visit Fort Nashborough. Then we took 1st Avenue back east, as it became Hwy 70 and followed that all the way to Crossville. There were went to Cumberland Mountain State Park. From there we drove back to Sparta and then headed south and went to Rock Island State Park to take some photos of the waterfalls there. It was a good day.

Photos to be added later.

No Smokies

Too cold last weekend. No Smokies trip. Truck is broke down, no going anywhere anytime soon, except for the grocery store every Saturday morning. Stinks.

Smokies this weekend

Not sure if I will get to visit any cemeteries. Could be snowy. Not sure what we will be able to visit.

New Year's Resolutions

I am hoping to visit more cemeteries this year. And work more on my website. We'll see.