North Carolina Ghosts & Legends

The Battle of the Dead

The Battle ofthe Dead In 1905 two hunters witnessed a Civil War battle fought forty years earlier 0ne ofthe most fascinating possibilities which grips the human mind is the reoccurrence ofscenes from the past. There have been stories of midnight rides, romantic trysts and duels re-enacted. Those who claim to have seen these things can describe the appearance and action ofthe participants with amazing detail. Most of the attempts to explain these strange phenomena have been based on the theory ofexact duplication of atmospheric conditions. This freak of nature may occur so rarely as to be glimpsed by few mortals. But none has yet ventured to say whether these stories are in the realm ofthe scientific or supernatural. Jim Weaver who lived near Smithfield in the early 1900s, never forgot the terrifying events of the night he visited the past. Weaver made no effort to explain it. He simply knew that it had happened. He was there, he saw it, and he told the story for the rest of his life. The Battle of the Dead 115 A man ofmedium height and somewhat slight build, Jim Weaver was a farmer and a miller. Smithfield folk called him the "Blue Man." He was subjectto a mildform ofepilepsy and the nitrate ofsilverremedy ofthose days turned its users a bluish color. Although he worked long and hard, Weaver and his family seemed always in the throes of poverty. He was a quiet, serious fellow and his only boastwas that he had never told a lie. Jim's weakness was his love for hunting. Many a night he and his dogwent after the wary possum in the woods of Bentonville near his home. Late one Saturdaynight in March, he and an Englishman namedJoe Lewis were walkingalongthrough pinetrees and thickets. When the staccato barks of Weaver's hound rent the night air, the two men knew the dog had treed a possum. . Jim'1 Weaver had always felt a man ought not to hunt on Sunday. He glanced now at the moon sinking lower and lower in the sky. He was aware that it was probably already midnight. But there was surely a possum in that tree and he had to get it. In order to do so he decided to chop down the small tree where the hound had stationed himself. Grasping his ax he drew back and struck a resounding blow. As he did so there came a blinding flash oflight from the top ofthe pine. Badly startled, Jim let his ax drop from his hand and stood paralyzed with fear while one flash after another erupted in the surrounding trees. They illuminated the woods about him. And he could see shadowy, uniformed figures running to and fro, dodging behindtrees and stumps. Each carried an old-fashionedrifle. 116 Bentonville All at once from behind Weaver came the rush of horses. Gray-clad riders-a ghost cavalry-thundered past. There was the hum ofbullets and the crackle of musketry. Men in blue uniforms were running, shouting, shooting from behind the trees and dying in horribly grotesque positions. From nearby rifle pits heavy shot tore through the branches of the trees and ricocheted from their trunks with a vicious snap. Still the two men stood rooted to the spot. Their knees felt weak and their foreheads were beaded with cold perspiration. The woods all around them were full ofthe sound and fury of battle. Bullets hissed past them like hail and peppered trees and soldiers alike. Then about ten yards away from them, Jim saw a desperate encounter take place. A Yankee soldier was attempting to wrest the flag ofan advancing Confederate unit from its flag bearer. Asecondgray-cladfigure came up to help defend the standard. The Yankee turned and with a lunge pierced him through with his bayonet. Now the Yankee and the young Confederate soldier with the flag under his arm struggled together. Finally, hatless, his face streaked with the enemy's blood, the flag bearer suffered a knife thrust to his shoulder and fell to the ground. Only a few minutes had probably elapsed before Jim Weaver and Joe Lewis began to run. Fear spurred them on while their hearts thudded wildly and their throats ached. They passed the old Harper House in their flight. But they did not pause to watch the balls offire illuminating the dark sky behind it nor to marvel at the strange light streaming...