Friday, September 28, 2007

Confederate Soldier

For four years Albemarle, like much of the rest of the South, suffered through the deprivations caused by the Civil War. In those four years, one quarter of Stanly County’s population either died from famine and disease or fled the county. Starvation was rampant, and the town granary was mobbed in late 1864 by a group of hungry citizens. In March or early April of 1865 Confederate General Joseph Wheeler arrived in Albemarle, possibly on his way to assist General Joseph Johnston near Fayetteville who was facing down Union General Sherman’s Army from Atlanta. Wheeler halted his cavalry on Second Street, near the site of the present Lutheran Church, and headed across the street to the Marshall Hotel; a two story Georgian building with a large columned porch. Here, the cavalrymen intended to refresh themselves with what food was available and water from the town well, located near the intersection of Main and Second Streets. As one trooper dismounted and headed across the street, his rifle somehow slipped from its holster alongside the horse’s saddle. Either it discharged when it hit the ground, or the horse stepped on it—either way the rifle discharged into the soldier’s back and killed him. Wheeler’s cavalry left town shortly thereafter, probably unfed but at least watered. If the name of the soldier was taken down, history has forgotten it. He was taken to the town cemetery on Pee Dee Avenue and buried, where he still rests today.



In the years after the war, it was reported that a man dressed in gray would wander up the middle of Second Street, from the Church towards the Square. He never made eye contact with anyone, nor ever spoke, but just walked until midway through his journey he would dissipate into the air.


*Ghost Stories from Albemarle, collected and written by Jonathan Underwood and Christopher Lambert

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