Jim Miles - Civil War Ghosts of North Georgia

Published by Haunted America

A Division of The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2013 by Jim Miles

All rights reserved

All photos by author unless otherwise noted.

First published 2013

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.642.6

Library of Congress CIP data applied for.

print edition ISBN 978.1.62619.184.6

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

For the latest members of the Miles family: Jeremy, Xavier and Emmett Barker.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

Over the past twenty-five years, I have spent a great deal of time prowling all the major, and most of the minor, Civil War battlefields in this country, all the while writing a multiple-volume historical tour guide series. I hate the crowds that swarm over the popular battlefields in the middle of the day, so I am often out at dawn and dusk, alone except for my wife, Earline, and she often sits in the car and reads while I traipse off into the fields and woods. (Another battlefield, she once said. I knew it. I saw the boring glow on the horizon.)

I find particular pleasure in lingering at the most storied sites in Americas Civil War: the Hornets Nest at Shiloh; Little Round Top, where my Alabama ancestors were sacrificed; The Angle at Gettysburg; Chickamaugas Snodgrass Hill; the Sunken Road at Antietam; the Railroad Cut at Second Manassas; Cheatham Hill at Kennesaw Mountain; the site of Jacksons flank attack at Chancellorsville; Spotsylvanias Mule Shoe; the Mine at Petersburg; and Surrender Field at Appomattox.

After reading all the accounts of ghosts inhabiting so many battlefields and interacting with so many witnesses, I paused to take stock. Had I ever encountered anything eerie? With regret, I concluded that I have never personally witnessed anything out of the ordinary. I wondered if perhaps I was not on a battlefield on the right day but was forced to reject that idea. I have been at Vicksburg, Shiloh, Chickamauga, Atlanta, Lookout Mountain, Stones River, Antietam, Gettysburg and Manassas, as well as other places, on the anniversaries of those battles. I have also spent many sunrises and sunsets at national and Confederate cemeteries but never felt uneasy. I fear I do not have the appropriate psychic makeup to witness such manifestations, and I suppose that is fortunate.

However, I am not finished with my Civil War work. There is still the chance of being challenged by a ghostly sentry, smelling the gun smoke and stench of death or watching an otherworldly reenactment. Maybe I will see Old Green Eyes at Chickamauga or James Longstreets ghost in Gainesville. You never know.

So, what strange things have transpired at Georgias Civil War sites? The phenomena seem to take two forms. The first are traditional ghosts, the alleged spirits of the dead that continue to haunt the places where they died, often suddenly and violently. These entities cannot accept the fact that they are dead and attempt to continue living their lives as they were at the time of death. Others seem to be searching for something, a loved one separated by death, a body part lost in combat, the answer to a question or perhaps forgiveness for a long-ago act.

The second type of paranormal experience seems to be a psychic recording of moments in a life already lived or a traumatic event. These movies out of time may be triggered by a date (often an anniversary), unusual atmospheric conditions, a time of day or night or simply by someone sensitive enough to accept the experience. These recordings are often accompanied by audio (usually muffled) and by scent (the smell of gun smoke and the cloying odor of death).

Predictably, Georgias Civil War haunts correspond to significant military activity. Chickamauga, second only to Gettysburg in casualties, abounds with the strangest assortment of ghostly activity. The Atlanta Campaign features at several prominent psychically infested areas. A paranormal reenactment at the Hell Hole at New Hope Church was seen and smelled by two recognized Civil War experts. Antebellum houses in Athens retain their wartime residents. The old Augusta Arsenal, now Regents State University, hosts a plethora of ghosts. Georgias greatest Civil War general, James Longstreet, haunts his rediscovered home in Gainesville. Other Civil War spirits remain in smaller cities and towns throughout northern Georgia. New sightings of wartime ghosts are regularly reported.

You may have visited the battle sites and read of Georgias Civil War history. It is now time to discover the paranormal activity that regularly occurs at those storied places in north Georgia.

PART I

THE GHOSTS OF CHICKAMAUGA

THE RIVER OF DEATH

CHICKAMAUGA BATTLEFIELD

During the summer of 1863, William Rosecranss Union Army of the Cumberland outflanked Braxton Braggs Confederate Army of Tennessee and sent the Southerners reeling from central Tennessee into northern Georgia. Bragg stopped there and set a trap, reinforced by a corps from the Army of Northern Virginia under James Longstreet. The two-day struggle at Chickamauga resulted in the second-bloodiest battle of the Civil War and a tremendous Confederate victory that left Rosecrans staggering back to Chattanooga. In the Cherokee language, Chickamauga means river of death, a terribly appropriate name.

This large battlefield has spawned many ghost stories. Although usually serene during the day, all psychic hell breaks loose after dark. At night, visitors and park rangers alike hear shots, screams and sounds of phantom men running and cavalry charging; have feelings of being watched; and see spectral figures fighting through the thick vegetation. Old Green Eyes prowls for more cadavers, and the Lady in White searches for her fianc.

The Original Chickamauga Ghost Story

Did you ever see a ghost? he asked. They used to see them on the Chickamauga battlefield just after the war. This first reported ghost from the battlefield was sighted in 1876, as related by Jim Carlock, an early citizen of the Post Oak community, in Susie Blaylock McDaniels The Official History of Catoosa County. Following a centennial celebration in Chattanooga, Carlock and several other men were riding in a wagon, while a man identified only as Mr. Shields rode alongside on a horse. That portion of the battlefield was deserted, with no houses, and they spotted a figure that measured ten feet in height and had a big white head. For some unknown reason, Shields rode up to the apparition and hit it, which caused a baby to cry. The ghost, described as a black woman with a load of clothes balanced on her head, shouted, Let me alone!

Old Green Eyes, phantom infantry and spectral cavalry can be seen among Chickamaugas fields and woods each night as a mist settles across the battlefield.

Wild Phantom Cavalry