weighed adding another shot of whiskey to my coffee against my ability to drive home and decided against it. “I know it’s got me disturbed.”
“Be thankful it’s me telling this and not my grandfather. Now he could tell a tale. He’d get in trouble for it, too. I’ll never forget the time he told all us grandchildren and some of our friends the story and later got an earful from all our mothers. He claimed he was improving our vocabularies by teaching us words like viscera and gangrene.”
I had to laugh at that.
Julia continued her story. “Anyway, they helped as many as they could. The ones they couldn’t save, the ones that were already dead, were buried in a clearing in the woods. Grandpa told us they buried the amputated limbs there too.”
I grimaced.
“It didn’t take long for everyone to clear out, until there were just a few soldiers left. All except for one were too injured to be any trouble. That one made up for the rest.”
“We’re about to get to it, aren’t we?”
Julia nodded. “Yes. Apparently this one particular soldier was not as injured as he led everyone to believe. The exact details are not known. Susan didn’t go into much detail when she wrote about it in her letters to John. The story that was passed down in the family is that this soldier killed the others and then he went after one of the female slaves. Her name was Ester and she was more or less Susan’s right hand in running the house. I was an adult before I was told that he tried to rape Ester. Susan stopped the attack, with a gun. She killed him, supposedly shot him in the head. They buried him with the rest in the clearing.”
She leaned across the table. “Here’s where it gets into the kind of thing you’re probably looking for. There were stories that his ghost haunted the house, tormenting any woman in the house. There were also stories that Susan and Ester took care of the matter.” She gave me a significant look.
“Are you telling me they used some form of witchcraft to bring the ghost under control?”
“I don’t know what you’d call what they did, and I certainly don’t have any more detail than that. But there was always talk that Ester knew a lot of folk medicine.”
“If she knew folk medicine there’s a good chance she knew some folk magic too.”
“I suppose she may have shared that knowledge with Susan. What I don’t understand is, why now? After all this time, why would this soldier’s ghost suddenly begin to act out?”
“That is a good question,” I agreed. “Has anything happened in the house or on the property that was out of the ordinary? Any deaths, even if they were natural causes?”
“No, nothing like that. No flooding either, being on a hill. Some tree limbs down but that was it. We had some evacuees but nothing happened I would call out of the ordinary while they were in the house.”
“As near as you can pinpoint, when did the haunting start?”
She thought for a moment. “Sometime in May, I guess. Middle of the month, perhaps. I really can’t say for sure. At first things seemed very…explainable.”
After the flood. Maybe there was something to the strange spirit activity in Nashville. “I want to do some more research, Julia. I need to be able to be in that house at least somewhat safe from attack in order to do anything, so I’m going to work on that. I’ll call you later today, tomorrow at the latest, and we’ll talk about what to do next. Okay?”
She began to clear away the dishes. “You need any more information about the house, just let me know. If I don’t have it there are people I can call.” A soft chuckle escaped. “I should really introduce you to my granddaughter. I daresay she knows more than I do about all the old ghost stories about the house. She even did a project on it for school.”
I’d gotten information from worse sources, and it might be a good opportunity to sound the girl out and see if she was aware of having any
“Be thankful it’s me telling this and not my grandfather. Now he could tell a tale. He’d get in trouble for it, too. I’ll never forget the time he told all us grandchildren and some of our friends the story and later got an earful from all our mothers. He claimed he was improving our vocabularies by teaching us words like viscera and gangrene.”
I had to laugh at that.
Julia continued her story. “Anyway, they helped as many as they could. The ones they couldn’t save, the ones that were already dead, were buried in a clearing in the woods. Grandpa told us they buried the amputated limbs there too.”
I grimaced.
“It didn’t take long for everyone to clear out, until there were just a few soldiers left. All except for one were too injured to be any trouble. That one made up for the rest.”
“We’re about to get to it, aren’t we?”
Julia nodded. “Yes. Apparently this one particular soldier was not as injured as he led everyone to believe. The exact details are not known. Susan didn’t go into much detail when she wrote about it in her letters to John. The story that was passed down in the family is that this soldier killed the others and then he went after one of the female slaves. Her name was Ester and she was more or less Susan’s right hand in running the house. I was an adult before I was told that he tried to rape Ester. Susan stopped the attack, with a gun. She killed him, supposedly shot him in the head. They buried him with the rest in the clearing.”
She leaned across the table. “Here’s where it gets into the kind of thing you’re probably looking for. There were stories that his ghost haunted the house, tormenting any woman in the house. There were also stories that Susan and Ester took care of the matter.” She gave me a significant look.
“Are you telling me they used some form of witchcraft to bring the ghost under control?”
“I don’t know what you’d call what they did, and I certainly don’t have any more detail than that. But there was always talk that Ester knew a lot of folk medicine.”
“If she knew folk medicine there’s a good chance she knew some folk magic too.”
“I suppose she may have shared that knowledge with Susan. What I don’t understand is, why now? After all this time, why would this soldier’s ghost suddenly begin to act out?”
“That is a good question,” I agreed. “Has anything happened in the house or on the property that was out of the ordinary? Any deaths, even if they were natural causes?”
“No, nothing like that. No flooding either, being on a hill. Some tree limbs down but that was it. We had some evacuees but nothing happened I would call out of the ordinary while they were in the house.”
“As near as you can pinpoint, when did the haunting start?”
She thought for a moment. “Sometime in May, I guess. Middle of the month, perhaps. I really can’t say for sure. At first things seemed very…explainable.”
After the flood. Maybe there was something to the strange spirit activity in Nashville. “I want to do some more research, Julia. I need to be able to be in that house at least somewhat safe from attack in order to do anything, so I’m going to work on that. I’ll call you later today, tomorrow at the latest, and we’ll talk about what to do next. Okay?”
She began to clear away the dishes. “You need any more information about the house, just let me know. If I don’t have it there are people I can call.” A soft chuckle escaped. “I should really introduce you to my granddaughter. I daresay she knows more than I do about all the old ghost stories about the house. She even did a project on it for school.”
I’d gotten information from worse sources, and it might be a good opportunity to sound the girl out and see if she was aware of having any
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