THE WOUNDED PIANO
My name is Bobby Turman, and I work at Cannonsburgh Village. One of the passions I get to enjoy is researching some of the artifacts and donations we have here.
An item of curiosity I have run across in the C. N. Haynes Museum is a tabletop grand piano with no signage or indication of the donor. I wondered if there might be some historical significance to it, so I began to dig around.
Many of you have heard of Belle Meade Mansion in Nashville, the pride of William Harding. Less well known is William’s first cousin, Giles Harding who lived in Murfreesboro near where The Avenue is on Medical Center Parkway.
Giles had begun to build a home he felt would rival or exceed his cousin’s famous dwelling. Enter the Battle of Stone’s River on Dec. 30, 1862, and the 19th Illinois that moved into the area almost on top of Harding’s home.
During the course of the battle, the Union forces used the Harding House as a hospital and at one point had four wounded men in the parlor laying in a row near the Harding’s piano.
As fate would have it, a cannonball blasted through the wall and struck the wounded soldiers, killing all and destroying two of the legs on the Hardings’ piano.
It was restored, and in subsequent years, this piano came to be known as “The Wounded Piano” and quite the celebrity. Postcards were made of it and private collector’s sought to acquire it.
Eventually, it disappeared from common knowledge and its whereabouts today are unknown.
Or is it?
The piano in the Cannonsburgh museum looks incredibly like the one in a 1907 postcard of the restored Harding piano.
However, it was a very popular style during the late 1800s and the one in the museum could be any one of countless similar pianos.
Someone thought enough of this piano to put it in our museum. We just don’t know who at this time.
Perhaps you, dear reader, might have a clue for us. If you know of anyone who may have donated a tabletop grand piano (not a “pump” or “parlor” organ) to the Haynes Museum at Cannonsburgh please let us know.
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Artifacts Recovered at Harding House
