Winstead Hill Park

Tony and I enjoy hiking around different parks. Now I call it hiking, even if there are no caves, waterfalls or mountains involved… it’s basically a word I use for just plain walking around sometimes. Like here… at Winstead Park… we didn’t actually hike we parked our car and took a very nice walk.
We first went over and read the signs about the history of the park and the military that was there. Then we walked out the paved path. It was very nice walk among the trees and the pathway winds along the pathway of the grounds. There are a few benches in the park. There is no picnic tables in this section of the park.
It is a nice area. You can walk, jog, walk your doggies or even bike if you want to. It is really nice and sort of level, with just a little up and down grades, nothing very major. You can easily take your children here and have a great time.
Back at the parking lot area there is the public bathrooms for your use and they are very clean.
To the left of the restrooms the path winds up hill a little bit with some steps where you will find the cannons and monuments. It is a very nice park with great over view of Franklin. A very important battle was fought here during the Civil War. It is a nice park to visit especially if you are into the historical facts of area or following the parks and facts about the Civil War.
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If you can go here, please do… if you know anything about me, you know I enjoy FREE and of course this lovely park is absolutely FREE to enjoy… can you believe that???
Enjoy!!!

Winstead Hill Park is actually divided into two parts: a memorial to the various units of Confederate soldiers who fought and died in the surrounding area, and a small green way and picnic area.
If one is a neo-​Federalist or uncomfortable with Southern heritage I would skip the small Confederate memorial. However, if one is at all interested in the American Civil War or simply wants to reflect on the horrors of war, this memorial is a great spot. At the bottom of the gravel parking lots begins a path that solemnly winds up the hill. The path will lead one past various memorials to those who fought for the Confederacy including various Southern regiments, commanders, and generals. At the top of the hill is a large three dimensional map describing the movements of the battle that took place in the surrounding area.
Next to the Confederate memorial is a paved parking lot with picnic tables and a restroom area. From the parking lot one can connect on to the nearly one-​mile paved green way. The green way is great for small children to bike on, rollerblading, running, or even a quick walk during lunch. The green way winds through a small wooded area, over a few little creeks, and through a large grassed area. The park was turned into a blue bird sanctuary by a local Boy Scout, so if one hits the park at the right time of the year many blue birds can be seen. Occasionally the local dear population will pay the park a visit as well.
Overall this is a great little park that might be unknown to many in the Franklin area. For those who work or live in the area or those easily offended by memorials to important events in Southern history, it’s a great spot for eating lunch and taking a quick walk. For those with an interest to explore Franklin’s rich history and further understand the experiences that shaped the modern Southern culture and people it is a great starting point to any Franklin historical tour.

So history buffs and neo-​Confederates know this as the location where the largest Napoleonic charge in American history took place.
In late 1864 after being defeated around Atlanta and sealing the fate of the Confederacy, Southern general John Bell Hood struck north in a particularly futile attempt to retake Nashville. After failing to destroy a small Federal Army under John Schofield at Spring Hill, he cornered the Federals at Franklin.
Here Hood made a fatal error; he ordered his battered army to make a suicidal charge 2 miles along the Columbia Pike from Winstead Hill here to the entrenched Union line at the Carter House. 5 hours later, after some of the most ferocious fighting in the American Civil War, the Confederate Army was fatally wounded; some 7000 Confederate bodies draped along the length of the Columbia Pike, and six of some of the best Southern commanders lay dead. That night the Union Army packed up and fled to Nashville. Though Hood technically «won», this Pyrrhic victory effectively doomed the Southern Army to destruction at Nashville two weeks later.
The park is nice enough; there is amble parking, and a short walk up to a cannon and an observation point where Hood watched the destruction of his army. A large marker there details the action of the day, allowing you to attempt to picture the conflict that occurred on these hollowed grounds now covered in strip malls and residential housing.
However, I do find it somewhat disturbing that this place has a very real feeling of a Confederate shrine: the six slain Confederate leaders have tombstones arranged in a little cemetery-​like setting, with more markers commemorating Southern valor, courtesy of the local Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group that hedges a bit to closely to neo-​Confederate thinking. While the Battle of Franklin perhaps draws parallels to Culloden Moor, the fact is that no other country would allow defeated rebels to erect monuments to their own in that country’s soil.
Winstead Hill is an interesting place to visit, especially after viewing the climatic point of action at the Carter House, but it is quite awkward. I would be more favorable if some of those Southern monuments were either removed or toned down.