noon
Needless precaution ; we could not have spoken if we had tried , for our hearts were in our throats . But fools are God 's peculiar care , arid one of his protective methods is the stupidity of other fools . By daybreak our last man and last wagon had passed the fateful spot unchallenged , and our first were entering Franklin , ten miles away . Despite spirited cavalry attacks on trains and rear-guard , all were in Franklin by noon and such of the men as could be kept awake were throwing up a slight line of defense , inclosing the town . Franklin lies -- or at that time did lie ; I know not what exploration might now disclose -- on the south bank of a small river , the Harpeth by name . For two miles southward was a nearly flat , open plain , extending to a range of low hills through which passed the turnpike by which we had come . From some bluffs on the precipitous north bank of the river was a commanding overlook of all this open ground , which , although more than a mile away , seemed almost at one 's feet .