ROUTED BY A GHOST.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVII, Issue 124, 27 May 1893, Page 2

ROUTED BY A GHOST.

The best-authenticated and altogether one of the moat interesting ghost stories of 1892 ootnes from tha neighbourhood of Sweetwater, Term , says the New York Morning Advertiser. A lovely grave, a ghost, an abandoned cobin, and a frightened neighbourhood of ignorant people are the leading failures of thia orthodox narrative. The uuusual circumstance about it is the number of honest, if superstitious, people who vouch for its truth, The story was at first treated inoredulously, but in the course of a few weeks has come to an established truth. Men are ofteu hanged on onehundredth part of the evidence whioh sibBtantiates this mystsry. The history of the lonely grave comeß firat in chronological order. It is briefly this: — John Dunoan, a desperate and unprincipled oharactjr, was a "bushwhacker" in this vioioity duriug the 1 ;tj war. The repeated efforts of the Confederate authori* ties to conscript him inflated Duncan's miud against che Smthern cause, and the outlaw soon became the terror of Loudon county. On one oocasion a mau named 11. Robinson, still living near Sweetwater, saw Duncan riding through the oou'.ty with a prisoner. The latter was in tho uniform of a Confederate Lieusenuit of Cavalry, nnd wjß also mounted, Dutcm keepiug him '• covered " with the long Kentucky rifle in oommon use then in that section. A')outan hour afterward Duncan wis seen riding bick t> the same point, leading his own horse und riding th it which his prisoner had just bsen riding. Nothing further was ever seen or heard of the Confederate offioer, and murd-rs and mysterious disappearances wero too frequent in those diys to oall tor more than passing notice. Duncan had surprisad and captured his man, takon him ho a lone y spot in the woods, and there deliberat ly murdered and r jbbed him.

A portion of the land in this vicinity was oleared soon afterward by John Sherold, who still lives there. List spring his soa was mirried, and erected a smill house near his father's home. In "-* oleiring" his new premises of undergrowth youDg Sherold discovered a sunken grave. He dug into ib, and after working only a few minutes, un« earthed a humnn skeleton. Several '0.6 A." button* were found, aiso a belt buckle with tho same letters, with other marked bits of brass and steel , showing that the skeli t>u was that of a Confederate civalry offioer. The remains Avere oarefully r«interred, a neat mould formed over it, and the spot held sacred by tha neighbour?, as the grave of any human biing would bo. Shortly after the d soj very of the grave, as young Sherold and hii wife were sitting by the stove one evening about 8 o'ciook, they were almost paralysed with foar on beholding the f- rm of a soldt-ir conn ig through the door. The form was gre.y and shadowy, but tho features were distinctly outlined. The ghostly soldier wore the faded grey uniform of a Ojnf<:d3rat-2 c ivalry officer. Mr and Mra Sherho'd neither moved nor spoke, nud iv awestru k silence watched tlio soldier's form dissolve a .d gradually disappear. Bjth ngree that the apptri'i.in must have be*sn phiuly visible for fully five miuut* s.

Both husband nnd wife decided not to mention this occu: rence to their neighbours. They also agreed finally to remain in tbe house, trusting that they would never ogiin be molested by the unearthly visitor. Within six months, however, the same shadowy form appeared and dissolved no leas than a sore of times. Once the muffl.d sound of a shot was plainly heird, coming from the direction of the soldier's grave, and once the sound of a body falling and struggling upon the ground. One after another tho neighbours had been oallel in by tha S'iero:d a , and the story spread. Dozns of thoroughly reliablp, weU to do people in Loudon county are ready to swear to-day that they have seen this shadowy figure in Confederate cavalry uniform stalk into the Sherold cabin, movicg slowly and noiselessly, aud then molt away and disappear.? The c<bin is vacant now. The Sherolds remained there nearly six mouths after the first appearance of the gho3tly figure, ar.d then, wh3n they eiuld slaid it no longer, moved away. The place is offered for reut at a bargain, but no tenants offer. The Confederate ghost has u-.d sputed possession of the abandoned premises.