Blackwater Line--Franklin

UT-20

A major Blackwater River crossing was located here at Franklin during the Civil War. Confederate forces guarded the crossing from 1862 to the end of the war as part of the Blackwater defensive line. Several skirmishes were fought around the pontoon bridge here in 1862 and 1863. During the morning of 11 April 1863, Confederate Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood's division crossed the river on the bridge on its way to aid Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's siege of Suffolk. Hood's division recrossed here on 4 May 1863 after the end of the siege.

Department of Historic Resources, 2000

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Steve A. Cormier, The Siege of Suffolk: The Forgotten Campaign, April 11–May 4, 1863 (Lynchburg: H. E. Howard, 1989), 67, 88, 252, 284; The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Prepared Under the Direction of the Secretary of War by Robert N. Scott, 129 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880–1901), 4:933, 18:15-18, 35-37, 200-201, 27, part 2, 789-790, 27, part 3, 901, and 29, part 1, 135-136.