family was quite poor. Her uncle eked out a meager existence by growing sugarcane on the dark, fertile bottom land along the river.
On a nearby plantation was a handsome young overseer of slaves. Freeman, as he was named, was the son of aristocratic parents with whom he had a broken relationship. Louisa and Freeman met and soon began to see each other on a regular basis. Louisa’s uncle disapproved of the courtship and warned his niece to stay away from “Free,” as she called him, because the boy was no good. Unfortunately, the admonition came too late, for Louisa was already deeply in love with him.
As twilight drew the curtain on a splendid afternoon, the two lovers decided to take a walk along the river. In the course of their romantic stroll, the sweet Louisa informed Free that she was with child. She insisted that they make immediate plans for a wedding in order to avoid public disgrace. Free was shocked at the news but was willing to marry her.
But fate cruelly intervened the next morning. Free’s father called on him at the plantation where the young man worked. The forgiving patriarch invited his prodigal son to return home to the lavish lifestyle he had enjoyed prior to their family disagreement. Elated by the sudden change in his fortune, Free planned to make the long trip home the following day. But before he departed, there was a problem he had to address.
Once again, Free and Louisa met at the river and walked the path where they had spent many an enchanted evening. Free apparently informed her of his reconciliation with his parents and his plan to return home, because the young woman was heard by a passerby to exclaim, “But you wouldn’t come back. If you refuse, I shall go to your father and tell him the truth tonight. I can’t face Uncle.”
At first light the next day, Free and his parents left Fayetteville without telling anyone their destination. When the time came for Louisa to arise, her uncle was dismayed to discover her bed empty. He went to the plantation to find Free in the vain hope that Louisa might be with him. Upon learning that Free had left for parts unknown, the worried man made a desperate but unsuccessful attempt to locate him.
Three days later, the uncle’s greatest fears were realized. Some men found Louisa’s body floating against a log in the dark waters of the Cape Fear. Her corpse was tangled in yellow jessamine and honeysuckle vines. When authorities examined the corpse, they discovered a long, dark bruise across her forehead. She had died from blunt-force trauma.
Louisa was buried in a small family cemetery near the bank of the river where she had loved to walk with her dear Free. Following her burial, her uncle initiated a relentless search for her elusive lover. He successfully located the family’s large plantation in South Carolina. According to Free’s father, the young man had gone to Texas.
Because of limited resources, the uncle was forced to return to Fayetteville. Then the War Between the States ensued, rendering a trip to Texas impossible. Once the conflict was over, Louisa’s uncle did indeed visit the Lone Star State in his quest to bring Free to justice. There, he was given the news: Free had fought gallantly and died nobly as a soldier in the army of the Confederate States of America. In Texas, he left behind a lonely widow and a tiny son.
And what of Louisa and the unborn child she carried? Not long after her death, reports began to circulate that the apparition of a pretty young woman tangled in vines could be seen along the bank of the Cape Fear. To this day, the ghost of Louisa floats about the lane where she and her beau strolled in the twilight of antebellum days. Should you walk that ancient lovers’ lane as the light of the afternoon greets the gray of the evening, do not be alarmed if you hear the heartbroken voice of a melancholy ghost cry out, “Free! Oh, Free!”
DAVIDSON COUNTY
Guardians of the King’s Treasure
Your lot is with the ghosts of soldiers dead.
Siegfried Sassoon
Abbotts Creek, a scenic and historic waterway, rises in northeastern Davidson County and flows diagonally through the county until it widens dramatically before emptying into the Yadkin River. A bridge spans the creek two miles east of Lexington, the seat of Davidson, at a place called Crotts Crossing. For more than two hundred years, ghostly creatures and supernatural occurrences have been reported at the creek in the vicinity of this ancient crossing.
For as long as anyone can remember, the eerie sights and sounds of Abbotts Creek have been attributed to a visit by Lord Charles Cornwallis and his red-coated army during the winter of 1781 in his quest to catch and destroy Major General Nathanael Greene and the battered American army of the South. Although Cornwallis camped alongside Abbotts Creek for but a brief period before he resumed his chase, it is said that the ghosts of several of his soldiers linger here to patrol the creek.
In the last week of January 1781, the famous British general formalized his plan to pursue General Greene and his beleaguered band of Americans while the Redcoats were encamped in Lincoln County at Ramsour’s Mill, the site of a significant Patriot victory seven months earlier. During his brief sojourn at that battlefield, Cornwallis made one of the most fateful decisions of his campaign in the Carolinas. In direct contravention to standard European military practice, he directed that all of his army’s expendable baggage—including large quantities of rum—be burned. Many of his wagons—beginning with his own—were torched. Only those carrying salt, medicine, ammunition, and gold and silver were spared. Cornwallis reasoned that he must lighten his army to hasten the pursuit of the Americans.
When a courier delivered the news of Cornwallis’s decision to Nathanael Greene, the American general proclaimed words that would prove prophetic: “Then he is ours!” Then providence—or nature, at least—intervened on the side of the Americans. After Cornwallis moved his soldiers east from Lincoln County, he was twice delayed when heavy rains gorged the Catawba and the Yadkin Rivers and rendered them temporarily impassable. Greene and his ragged troops fled for their lives, narrowly escaping the clutches of the lightened British army over the several weeks that followed.
When Cornwallis was finally able to move his troops across the Yadkin, he camped at Abbotts Creek in the early days of February 1781. Upon learning that Greene had recently bivouacked nearby, the British commander sensed that he was now within reach of his prey. Should he be able to annihilate or capture Greene’s forces, the rebellion in the South would be extinguished, and the American Revolution would be over. His Majesty, King George III, would once again reign over the insurgent colonies.
Driven by the expectation that complete victory was within his grasp, Cornwallis decided to further lighten his load while his army rested here along the creek. To move his warriors with all due speed toward a showdown with Greene, heavy barrels of gold and silver coins from the king’s treasury were pulled from the British wagon train under cover of darkness and rolled into the dark waters of Abbotts Creek.
As far as anyone knows, the treasure has never been recovered. Since an apparent wealth of gold and silver awaits discovery, it is curious that the creek has not been besieged by fortune hunters over the years. Area residents, however, can readily explain why the king’s treasure remains safely hidden more than two centuries after it was dropped into the water for safekeeping: ghosts roam the creek and its banks as guardians of the British riches.
From the time that Cornwallis departed the area to the present day, the ghosts of Abbotts Creek have been seen and heard by countless persons. They appear as strange lights that float along the still, shimmering water of the creek, up its banks, and into the adjacent forests at the very point where the Redcoats crossed the waterway. Local legend has it that no treasure seeker has ever been bold enough to confront the ghosts.
The residents of Crotts Crossing have been reared on spine-chilling tales of encounters with unknown entities from the near and distant past.
