OUR CONFEDERATE GHOST
by Christine S. Camp in Fate magazine
On the first date I had with my future husband we went to his parents' home in Warner Robins, Georgia. The house has a long hallway from the sitting room where Ashley and I were together. Night had begun to fall so the hall was dim. I was on my way to the kitchen when, at the end of the hall, I saw a large-boned man in a gray uniform, slant hat, and a belt with a large brass buckle on it. My first thought was that we were not alone in the home and of course I was right! But the third person there was a spirit.
I asked Ashley if he had any kin in the Civil War and he answered not that he knew of. But I felt sure someone in his family had been in the Civil War fighting for the Confederate cause because thereafter every time I went to his parents' home the gray-uniformed man appeared; it was as if he were trying to tell me something.
Shortly after that day, seven years ago, Ashley and I were married. I found out that Ashley has a very strong love for the Confederate cause. He owns over 300 books on the Civil War and has collected many relics. We decided to look into his family tree and to review pictures in family almanacs to see if I could pick out his great-grandfather, John Augustus Cox, who we were told had fought in the Civil War. After learning about his great-grandfather I could call my spirit by name.
"Johnny" followed us whenever we moved, as if he were haunting us for some reason. Ashley originally came from Americus, Georgia. The Coxes' old family home is in Plains, Georgia. We had come to a dead end after long hours searching the Georgia archives, and decided to call at Hugh Carter's antique shop in Plains to speak to his father, Alton Carter. When the Carter family first came to Plains, Mr. Carter had roomed with Johnny Cox and his wife Sarah Missouri. Mr. Carter told us of the days he spent with Johnny (he called him Gus) and Sarah Missouri, and told us that Miss Sarah "was the best cook in five counties." Then he told us how Gus would talk about the war . . . the Civil War! Mr. Carter told us Johnny was in the cavalry but he had no other information. We were very thankful for even that much.
One time Johnny appeared to two friends of ours who were visiting us after we moved here to Saint Simons Island. Both Janice and Laura said he had a very sad and puzzled look on his face. It seemed we had to try to give him peace at last. He stood at the top of the stairs and looked down at our guests on a number of occasions. We went back to the archives and narrowed our search down to three John A. Coxes but we didn't know which one was Ashley's great-grandfather. That night I dreamed of a gravestone with the name John A. Cox on it and his battalion number. But the number wasn't clear enough to read. The stone was leaning against a garage in the country. I had never seen the place before.
When I awoke I told Ashley my dream and described the house and garage and he told me it sounded like his Uncle Jack's home in Americus. Uncle Jack was Johnny's grandson and knew all the family history but he had removed himself from all family ties; he was a loner. We tried to call him and ask for information but he wouldn't talk to us. He had had the gravestone for many years but wouldn't put it on Johnny's grave! Maybe that was what troubled our ghost.
We finally drove to Uncle Jack's home when we knew he wasn't there, and just as I had seen it in my dream, there was the gravestone, with all the information we had needed for so long. We couldn't have been happier. We went home and ordered Johnny a gravestone just like the traditional one that goes on every Confederate soldier's grave. We awaited the truck that delivered the gravestone to us. And so did Johnny!
He seemed to appear more in those few weeks than he had at any other time during the five long years. It finally arrived and we took pictures of Ashley in a Confederate uniform with the gravestone and as we were snapping the pictures I could see Johnny looking out the upstairs library window. He now had a smile on his face. We put the gravestone in the car and drove to Johnny's resting place in the Plains of Lebanon Cemetery in Plains, Georgia, and dragged it to the grave site.
In the blazing heat of May we dug a large hole in the red Georgia clay and placed the gravestone where it should have been for over 80 years. We also planted a Confederate flag at the foot of the grave. Johnny finally is at peace: we have never seen him again. Sometimes I think I still feel his presence but I know that he has finally joined all the other proud Confederates and, most of all, his true love Sarah Missouri. I am certain fate brought Ashley and me together and fate gave Ashley the Confederate family ties he so longed for. Ashley is now a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans: he is a Brigade commander for the Army of Georgia, and best of all he is a Civil War writer, nationally published. He and Great-grandfather Johnny have finally found their places, but it took a Yankee woman to content the Confederates.
