Barrycdog
Major
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2013
- Location
- Buford, Georgia
Expired Image Removed
It was one of dozens of rearguard actions that took place in the spring of 1864 in northern Georgia. Union General William T. Sherman's superior numbers would threaten to lap around Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's flanks, and the Southerners would be forced to retreat again. Troops were left behind to slow the Federal advance, and if lucky enough they escaped to rejoin the main body of troops. In late May two men never returned. Killed along the railroad tracks at Adairsville, their bodies were consigned to the earth there, unidentified. The graves became a local landmark, lovingly tended by residents and railroad workers, who often wondered who the men had been.
Eventually, Mrs. Alice B. Howard asked the same question in a strange setting. It was around 1939 and Mrs. Howard had joined hands with others gathered for a table-tapping séance.
"Well, it started tapping," Mrs. Howard reported many years later. "We had a way worked out for the table to spell with an alphabet, and we got the name Jack Kirby and that he was one of the soldiers buried near the tracks. He named Tice Furrow, too."
Mrs. Howard says she "didn't believe in that sort of thing, but it happened."
She later learned that a letter had been found on one of the bodies and preserved. It had been addressed to T.W. Furrow. Mrs. Howard located another letter, written by one soldier serving in Georgia to another, which revealed that "something dire happened to Jack Kirby and Tice Furrow" at Adairsville.
Mrs. Howard then contacted the National Archives, seeking information about the two soldiers. Furrow was on record, but there were so many J. Kirby's that identifying one specific individual proved impossible.
Mrs. Howard continued her research and located a relative of Furrow, Carson Furrow, in Norfolk, Virginia. They "were able to find out that Tice Furrow and Jack Kirby had been neighbors and went off to war together," Mrs. Howard said. "That's good enough for me." Both men had belonged to Company I, 4th Regiment of Volunteer Infantry.
On the basis of this evidence, the Federal government prepared an official headstone for Furrow. Mrs. Howard ordered an identical stone made for Kirby and the pair was reinterred in East View Cemetery at Adairsville on May 1, 1974. Despite a drenching thunderstorm, dozens of people, including Mrs. Howard, Georgia Secretary of State Ben Fortson, a U.S. representative and a Georgia state representative, attended near the 110th anniversary of the men's deaths. The graves are on opposite sides of a narrow road that meanders through the hilltop site. On Confederate Memorial Day tiny Confederate flags are placed at both gravestones.
This remains one of my favorite stories, primarily because it was the first weird story I wrote for profit. It was published in FATE magazine in 1975, and I received a check for forty whole dollars.
Jim Miles is the author of two Weird Georgia books and nine books about the Civil War. See Jim's books.
Tagged with: Weirdness in Georgia
http://www.brownsguides.com/blog/weird-georgia-confederate-spirit-identifies-itself/
It was one of dozens of rearguard actions that took place in the spring of 1864 in northern Georgia. Union General William T. Sherman's superior numbers would threaten to lap around Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's flanks, and the Southerners would be forced to retreat again. Troops were left behind to slow the Federal advance, and if lucky enough they escaped to rejoin the main body of troops. In late May two men never returned. Killed along the railroad tracks at Adairsville, their bodies were consigned to the earth there, unidentified. The graves became a local landmark, lovingly tended by residents and railroad workers, who often wondered who the men had been.
Eventually, Mrs. Alice B. Howard asked the same question in a strange setting. It was around 1939 and Mrs. Howard had joined hands with others gathered for a table-tapping séance.
"Well, it started tapping," Mrs. Howard reported many years later. "We had a way worked out for the table to spell with an alphabet, and we got the name Jack Kirby and that he was one of the soldiers buried near the tracks. He named Tice Furrow, too."
Mrs. Howard says she "didn't believe in that sort of thing, but it happened."
She later learned that a letter had been found on one of the bodies and preserved. It had been addressed to T.W. Furrow. Mrs. Howard located another letter, written by one soldier serving in Georgia to another, which revealed that "something dire happened to Jack Kirby and Tice Furrow" at Adairsville.
Mrs. Howard then contacted the National Archives, seeking information about the two soldiers. Furrow was on record, but there were so many J. Kirby's that identifying one specific individual proved impossible.
Mrs. Howard continued her research and located a relative of Furrow, Carson Furrow, in Norfolk, Virginia. They "were able to find out that Tice Furrow and Jack Kirby had been neighbors and went off to war together," Mrs. Howard said. "That's good enough for me." Both men had belonged to Company I, 4th Regiment of Volunteer Infantry.
On the basis of this evidence, the Federal government prepared an official headstone for Furrow. Mrs. Howard ordered an identical stone made for Kirby and the pair was reinterred in East View Cemetery at Adairsville on May 1, 1974. Despite a drenching thunderstorm, dozens of people, including Mrs. Howard, Georgia Secretary of State Ben Fortson, a U.S. representative and a Georgia state representative, attended near the 110th anniversary of the men's deaths. The graves are on opposite sides of a narrow road that meanders through the hilltop site. On Confederate Memorial Day tiny Confederate flags are placed at both gravestones.
This remains one of my favorite stories, primarily because it was the first weird story I wrote for profit. It was published in FATE magazine in 1975, and I received a check for forty whole dollars.
Jim Miles is the author of two Weird Georgia books and nine books about the Civil War. See Jim's books.
Tagged with: Weirdness in Georgia
http://www.brownsguides.com/blog/weird-georgia-confederate-spirit-identifies-itself/