A Midwinter Night’ s Tale
~ by Mark Blackwell
Well, here we are in that time of the year when the sun sets early and the evenings are long. Now-a-days, folks come home, eat some supper and spend the long, dark evening by the cheery glow of their TV sets.
But there was a time before TV. It was a time before streetlights or electric lights. It was a time with long, dark, dreary evenings that called for some sort of diversion. Folks then gathered in their parlors by the woodstove or the fireplace and told stories. And favorite subjects for stories were ghosts, goblins, haints, and the unexplained.
I remember a tale that was told to me back in the mid-part of the last century about a dead boy, a grieving mother, and a ghost that may still haunt the backroads and woods, not too far from here.
Back in the time of the Civil War, there was a country doctor, his wife and their teenage son living just south of Brown County. The doctor was well- to-do and they lived in a two-story brick house set on a fair amount of acreage. At that time passions ran high and most men felt the call of duty to enlist in the army. The doctor’ s son felt a great need to join but his father forbade it. He knew the horrors of war and could not bear for his son to take a path that would likely lead to his death.
The many quarrels between the doctor and the boy, finally escalated to the point that the son ran away and joined the 22 nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The 22 nd fought many battles, including the one at Perryville, Kentucky, on October 8, 1862, where 65 % of the regiment was wiped out, including the doctor’ s son.
The doctor sent out agents to find the boy but before they could report back, he was notified by the army that his son had been slain in battle. This news broke the doctor’ s heart but his grief did not begin to match the wretched sorrow his wife felt. She screamed and wailed into the night. Neighbors more than a half mile distant heard her mournful laments.
The doctor tried to console his wife but to no avail. Meanwhile, he sent word to a colleague in Kentucky to try to recover his son’ s body. Luckily, the boy was found, embalmed sent back home by train.
When the son’ s body arrived at the railroad station, the doctor and a hired man drove a buckboard to get him. They loaded the son’ s body on the wagon and drove back home. The coffin was placed in the parlor lit by candles.
50 Our Brown County • Jan./ Feb. 2020