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sume command of both divisions of the Twenty-third Corps ,and, as soon as day should dawn, intrench them upon thebest line which could be made right and left of the knoll onwhich the Carter house stood, to cover the crossing of thetrains and the rest of the army. He himself, with MajorTwining, his Chief Engineer, began immediately to plansuch improvements of the river crossings as should enablehim to get the trains and the artillery upon the north sideof the Harpeth at the earliest possible hour.
The village of Franklin is upon the south side of the river,which partly encloses it in a deep curve to the northeast.The northern bank is here considerably higher than theother, and, upon a hill commanding the railway and wagon-road bridges, an earthwork called Fort Granger had beenbuilt more than a year before. The railway approaches thetown from the south, parallel to the Columbia turnpike, andabout five hundred yards east of it. For a thousand yardsit runs close to the bank of the river and on the easternedge of the village, then crosses without change of direction,for the river here makes a turn to the west, nearly at rightangles to its former course. Through a part of the distancelast traversed the railway is in a considerable cut, and thisas well as the bridges and the reach of the river, is com-pletely under the fire of the fort. The Carter’s Creek turn-pike runs southwest from the centre of the town.
The line selected for defence was a curve which would bevery nearly that struck wuth a radius of a thousand yardsfrom the junction of the two turnpikes in the village. Itscentre was a few rods in front of the Carter house on theColumbia road, and was upon a gentle rise of ground. Itsleft was at the railway cut close to the river, where was an-other knoll. Upon this line the Carter’s Creek turnpike isabout the same distance from the Columbia turnpike as the