349: Moore's Creek Battlefield

All right. So, Matt, I was watching this documentary the other day, and they were talking about different types of armor. And they were saying that leather armor is perfect for sneaking around. Because it's literally made out of hide. I wanted that to be better. Yeah, me too. We get what we get. Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the Graveyard. Thank you for joining us tonight. My name is Adam. And my name's Matt. Now, pull up a tombstone or settle into your casket and get comfortable, because this is Graveyard Tales. all right everybody here we are again matt how you doing brother i'm doing good man good good good um another one of those weeks where we're recording on a different day no it's man and i was off at the very that was off on monday yeah so it feels like it feels like a wednesday to me so tomorrow being friday is gonna it's gonna blow my mind yeah well you're gonna wake up and have the best morning in your life because you forgot it was friday and it's i know it's kind of what i'm counting on so well real quick we want to say go over to patreon.com slash graveyard tales you can sign up to become a patron we've got three different levels one five and 10 all the levels we think are a great deal for your money um and all of them get a bonus episode a week so it's a shorter graveyard tales episode basically where we talk about um haunted stuff and things like that that are too short don't have enough information for a full episode or we find an article that pertains to the genre that we are in and we talk about it. 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I think we just need to have a raffle and pick a random listener and just have them on and just talk to them well i might cut that out because i don't need i don't need to deal with that i just throw that turd out there yeah just just throw that out there in the ether and we'll see what happens but in all in all seriousness to tonight we are after this show we are going to be recording a killer side quest this is one i've been working on for a while and Adam's going to love it. I think y'all will too. And our Patreon episode tonight is an actual mini episode of Graveyard Tales. It's going to be something that we would totally do a show about. There just wasn't enough information on it. So we're going to do a small mini Graveyard Tales on the Patreon tonight. So you need to go check it out. Yep. Go to check it out and sign up, become a patron. You can get all of that. And whatever level you pick, we appreciate your support. It means the world to me and Matt. 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So tonight, we're going to head to a place that's quiet. it's maybe a little too quiet you know the kind of quiet where the birds stop chirping and the wind stops blowing you know and then you're kind of wondering did i just hear someone say something did i hear somebody ask for some more musket balls you know we're talking about moore's creek national battlefield in north carolina it's it's a revolutionary war site that has quietly built a reputation for phantom soldiers and ghostly screams and shadow figures and it may be one of the most haunted creeks in the american south you know we're talking about hospitals and asylums and hotels tonight we're going to talk about a haunted creek i'd give it that yeah yeah and unlike some of those places where we talk about that nothing really happened here people were shot people drowned commanders were toppled i mean it just so much happened that led up to this and when many people die that violently you know folklore says sometimes they don't leave so adam let's dig into the history of moore's creek national battlefield All right. So as we always say, go check our sources down in the bottom of the show notes. You can find where we found all the information. If we talk about it, it's sourced and referenced down in the show notes. So check it out. Now, Moores Creek National Battlefield is a small but historically pivotal U.S. National Park Service site in Pender County, southeastern North Carolina. it's about an hour or so northwest of wilmington and it preserves the scene of the battle of morris creek bridge fought on february 27th 1776 between american patriots and loyalist leaning scottish highlander militia so that's a lot of words but we'll talk we'll talk more about it here in a minute i was just looking looking at it printed out going man that's long it's a long description um and it marks one of the first clear patriot victories of the american revolution so it's roughly one mile southwest of curry north carolina in pender county and it's about 88 acres including parts of the original 1776 colonial road the creek and the surrounding pine forest Now, the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge was a short, brutal clash on February 27th, 1776, in what is now Southern Pender County, North Carolina, between American Patriots or the Whig Militia, W-H-I-G, and Loyalist-leaning Scottish Highlander Militia. Like I said, it was February 27th, 1776, early in the morning, and just upstream from the confluence on Morris Creek and the Cape Fear River near the present-day Curry, North Carolina. There was, we need to look at the forces here. I told you there's two parties that were battling it out here. It was the Patriot Whigs. So that was about a thousand militia from the North Carolina Provincial Congress commanded by Colonel Richard Caswell and Colonel James Moore. Then there was the Loyalist Highlanders. So there's roughly 700 to 800 mainly Scottish Gaelic speaking militia recruited by Royal Governor Josiah Martin and led by Brigadier General Donald McDonald. I'm just pausing for a second. Donald McDonald. Yeah, that is proof right there that parents need to think about their last name. Yeah. You can't just say, oh, I love the name Donald. And it's like, well, isn't your last name McDonald? Yeah, but I love the name Donald. Well, yeah, you do. And it's already in your last name. Don't give it to the poor kid as his first name. you know something you can't have like frank frankfurter yeah you know we can't do that it it it makes it sounds too close to ronald mcdonald i mean you know it's like maybe that was like fast food chain in scotland you know it's like the golden bagpipes you know early on Donald McDonald. The big haggis. Yeah, right. You want a quarter pound haggis or a half pound haggis? Double quarter pounder haggis? I'd like the dollar menu haggis fries, please. Yeah. But it was led by Brigadier General Donald McDonald and Lieutenant Colonel Alexander McLeod. or Alex Alexander, as I'm going to call him, just because we need Donald McDonald and Alex Alexander. Now, by late 1775, North Carolina was divided between the Patriots, the Whigs, or the Loyalists, and the Loyalists, or the Tories, with many Highlanders in the backcountry still loyal to the crown. Governor Josiah Martin planned to link up with a British fleet and army that was expected to land near Brunswick town on the coast in early 1776. Highland-leaning loyalists gathered at Cross Creek, which is modern Fayettesville, and they began to march toward the coast, hoping to escort the British into the colony. Patriot leaders, learning of that march, sent forces to block the loyalists at the bridge over Moores Creek, the only passable crossing for miles along that route. So let's look at the night march and the setup for this battle. So Brigadier General Donald MacDonald assembled about 700 to 1600 Highland-leaning Loyalists at Cross Creek, and they marched toward the coast to meet the British fleet at Brunswick Town. On the afternoon of February 24th, the Loyalists discovered that the Patriots had already reached a key river crossing, and they burned the ferry, forcing the Loyalists to detour. Patriot Colonel Richard Caswell first blocked one river crossing, forcing MacDonald to cross the Cape Fear elsewhere and then push toward Morris Creek. Well, the Loyalist column pushed through cold swampy backcountry on the night of February 26, heading toward the bridge, hoping to surround and trap the Patriots that camped on the West Bank. Well, Patriot commanders Caswell and Alexander Lillington withdrew toward the bridge, constructed earthen works on the east bank and removed or greased planks on the bridge so the Loyalists could only come over in a narrow exposed line. So we would call that a killing funnel. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So they knew it. They were like, look, they got a lot of people. How are we going to do this? So they just created themselves a killing funnel. I like the fact that greasing some planks worked. Yeah. They greased the planks enough where they wouldn't walk on them. I'm trying to picture how that worked to actually, because, I mean, I don't know how big this bridge was. Mm-hmm. And taking out the planks and things. So I have a picture of a bridge in my head. And taking out planks, to me, it wouldn't make them walk in a single file. It would make them kind of hopscotch over. Can you imagine they're marching along and then all of a sudden they're hopping from plank to plank And you trying to sit there and it like shooting frogs or something Get them as them as they coming down get them as i wish i could kind of see it how it would work i understand what they did but i'm just kind of like i would love to see how that worked but it also reminds me of that scene in the movie 300 you know where they've they've only got that number and they're fighting that entire persian army and they're like we're gonna bring them into the what they call it, the hot gates or whatever, where it forced them to narrow down to attack. And it gave them that advantage because they didn't have to fight them all at once. Yep. That's the way you got to do it. If you got a smaller force or a force that isn't as well armed, then you got to bring them down into something like that in order to even the odds more. So you don't have a line of troops that's twice as long as your line is. Yeah. Okay. I'm, I'm looking at a, of course, this is not the bridge they crossed, you know? No. Cause they, they took up planks. They screwed it up. Yeah. But I see the little, the little, uh, I don't know whether that's not a monument, but, uh, whatever you call this thing, the little stone thing that tells you the story of the battle. Yeah. That's in there. So I see where it was. Yeah. Well, they tore up some of the planks and they greased them. Um, so, uh, and then they built that, um, earthwork redoubt there on the East bank. And then they positioned two small swivel cannons in those earth and work and they massed roughly a thousand Patriot militia men just behind it. So they had themselves a, they had cover and were putting the Loyalist into a small grouping where they could just take them out. Now, the actual fighting lasted only a few minutes, but in the grand scheme of things it was decisive yeah in the pre-dawn mist a lead company of loyalist gales about 50 men approached the bridge from the west bank a patriot sentry called out for identification well scottish captain alexander mclean responded in gaelic with a royal challenge Hearing no counter-challenge, McLean ordered his men to open fire, beginning a short exchange of musket shots across the bridge. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander McLeod and Captain John Campbell led a hand-picked assault party of 50-60 sword-armed Highlanders across the slick, partially dismantled bridge. so they were dressed in traditional highland garb many with broadsword claymores expecting to overrun a thin patriot line in a classic close quarters charge as the loyalists came within about 30 paces of the patriot earthenworks the militiamen unleashed a massed a mass of musket and cannon volley into the confined bridgehead. McLeod and Campbell went down almost instantly. McLeod was reportedly hit by about 20 musket balls, and the entire front of the charge collapsed in an instant. Some of the wounded men tumbled into the creek, which in places was about five feet deep, and they either drowned or they were dragged off by their comrades. The surviving Highlanders on the bridge recoiled. The charge disintegrated and the larger Loyalist force behind them began to break and retreat in confusion. Patriot leaders reported one Patriot killed and one wounded. Loyalist losses are estimated at 30 killed or wounded on the field and total casualties possibly around 50 counting those swept away in the creek or later captured. Patriots quickly replaced the bridge planks and poured across. One company led by a lieutenant of Caswell's forded the creek above the bridge, swinging around to flank the retreating loyalists and capturing more men and supplies. Colonel Moore arrived on the scene a few hours later and reported that many loyalists were arrested in the following days, effectively crushing recruiting in the region. so the there's historians and military analysts that highlight several key tactical features of this attack and it was the ambush style setup so the patriots using the bridge and the earthworks to narrow the loyalist front forcing them into that killing zone um so they could be just pummeled with fire and then the removing of the planks and greasing the bridge slowed the sword charged highlanders to a single file crawl making them easy targets for a massed volley so my here's my thought when they approach this bridge the loyalists and they noticed that hey there's grease on this bridge and they've taken out planks why did none of them go it's a trap yeah you would think they would have i mean it but it seemed like it was obvious that it was a trap and they went on anyway i i think what it was is it was hubris they thought they were the larger force and the patriots were just this small contingency that weren't going to do anything and they thought oh the best they got is Greece. Look at us. Well, yeah. I mean, I could see that. So I think that again, like you and I have talked about hubris many times in our almost a decade of doing this show. Hubris gets you in trouble. Hubris is a problem. Um, but also the psychological shock of this battle, um, said the The charge began as a ritualistic Highland broadsword assault full of noise, bravado, but it ended in instant carnage. And the sight of McLeod and Campbell cut down so quickly, shattered morale and triggered a near panic. And the combination of surprise, massed fire, and the loss of leadership in under three minutes turned the Loyalist column into a fleeing mob. So, the aftermath. The survivors described the bridge and creek bank littered with bodies, discarded weapons, and Highland gear as the Loyalists fled so fast they left a lot of their stuff behind. And some wounded Loyalists were dragged off by comrades, but others apparently drowned in the Creek, adding to the uncertainty of exact casualty figures. And the battle shattered organized loyalist power in the colony. Many captured Highlanders were imprisoned and recruited for the crown in the backcountry, never properly recovered. And British commander Charles Cornwallis later found the memory of Moores Creek so toxic that local loyalists were reluctant to rally when he marched through the area in 1781. So you gotta think, not only for this area, you know, being haunted. Think, not only was there such mass carnage in such a short time, but the psychological shock that it had on the surrounding areas, the people that were there and at the battle that survived and the people that were around the area that knew what happened. Yeah. And a motion like that is going to leave a mark on an area. So that's a perfect lead-in, talking about why this battle would have created a haunting. And not just it's a spooky bridge. I mean, this is a full on haunted area with a lot of activity. And when those soldiers had to come across that bridge in single file and just get picked off like ducks in a shooting gallery. And think about this. They talk about the soldiers that drowned. they were wearing those heavy wool uniforms so when those things got wet when they fell in the water if you were wounded and not yet dead that was sucking you down if you couldn't stand up and and swim at five feet deep i mean you you were probably struggling to keep your head above water plus you're bleeding yeah you know it's like wearing waders and fishing yeah if you go down in waders yeah you can't get out yeah you better you better unhook your waders and swim out of them yeah so you got you got that sudden violent death confusion men screaming in gaelic you know commanders dying in the middle of the charge you got bodies falling into dark water and a battlefield that was pretty much done in minutes i mean i just i mean so much energy right there It is prime haunting fuel. And so if ghosts do exist, this is how you make them. Okay. Right. One of the most commonly reported phenomena is visitors and local residents, they talk about hearing faint bagpipe music in the woods, especially near the reconstructed bridge, which bagpipe music is kind of haunting anyway. It really is. You know, and in modern day North Carolina, bagpipe music is not something you would expect to hear in the woods. OK, the only time you would hear it, in my opinion, in modern North Carolina is probably the same as modern Texas. When somebody's having a funeral and they're playing taps. Yeah. On the bagpipes. But Adam mentioned earlier the loud bravado of this ritualistic Highlander attack. they marched into battle with bagpipes yeah so i mean they played those bagpipes that was part of their of their their routine so imagine you're walking that trail it's it's you know it's kind of dark outside you know you're alone and suddenly you hear faint bagpipes i i'm out i'm i'm out this ain't right i don't i shouldn't be hearing this you know it doesn't matter if it's a ghost or a reenactor or someone practicing for a scottish wedding i'm i'm leaving you know i'm not gonna hang out here if i'm hearing bagpipes i don't need to run into a scottish wedding party it'd be a weird place to do it yeah but sorry sorry um i didn't mean to crash your scottish wedding the reports say that the sound will often fade in and out like it's moving through the trees and sometimes it's described as drums accompanying the pipes just like the loyalist charge would have been you know it's either it's either paranormal or it's you know the most committed ghost band ever i mean now there have been some apparitions that have seen that have been seen on the bridge and the the reconstructed bridge at moore's creek is considered to be the center of all of this activity witnesses claim to have seen shadow figures crossing the bridge a man in colonial clothing, a soldier standing in the water, and then other figures that will disappear when you approach them. So you walk up and you think, oh, there's another visitor, and they disappear as you get close. One park visitor describes seeing what looked like a soldier stepping carefully across the beams and then vanishing halfway. Hmm. That is exactly how the real soldiers would have crossed. Carefully slowly trying not to fall Yep And that pretty unsettling because it suggests a residual haunting like this moment is replaying itself over and over again in time like you know almost like a ghost stuck in a loop it's that stone tape that we've discussed so many times and let's talk about the soldiers that drowned now some of the creepiest stories that come out of moors creek involve voices near the creek itself and remember we've talked about this the moving water you know it creates an energy that can hold on to that and now visitors have described splashing sounds in the creek when no one's there heavy footsteps in shallow water And we know what that sounds like groans or moaning and someone calling for help. Now, someone calling for help around water, that's going to, you're going to catch that. You're going to realize because immediately you think, oh, somebody's fallen in, they're drowning or whatever. The splashing and stuff, I kind of can play off because, you know, frogs jumping in and out, stuff like that. They make that noise. But heavy footsteps in water, I mean, you could make that out and be like, that's not an animal getting in the water or out of the water. That's something repetitive. It sounds like somebody running. Yeah. They're running through the creek. And you got to remember, many of the wounded fell into the creek and drowned. and some historians say that the water was deep enough that the wounded men wouldn't have been able to escape in heavy gear like i mentioned earlier those heavy wool uniforms yep and then some guy dragging bagpipes along with him right just i mean you try to drag a bagpipe full of water yeah that's heavy man yeah nine pounds per gallon that bagpipe has to hold like what four or five gallons of water i mean yeah fall in with bagpipes you're done so just i mean imagine you're out there and you're hearing splashing but it's slow and deliberate like someone trying to get their footing and stand up yep i mean you know you'd be able to to discern that um and this one this one is this one's one of my favorites the headless highlander this is one of the more specific legends associated with morse creek now there is local lore about a highlander ghost that's seen walking the battlefield sometimes described as headless and sometimes described as wounded do you know there can only Maybe one headless Highlander. That's right. Only one. But, you know, because he's a Highlander, it reminds me of the Sleepy Hollow story. But he was a Hessian. But, you know, Hessian, Highlander, whatever. Yeah, same thing. It goes along with the headless, you know. Yeah. You get that nice alliteration when you say it. Alliteration is key. That's it. When you have a headless ghost. Now, the witness, well, the story says he was one of the first to fall, and the witnesses describe a dark figure in period clothing, standing near the earthworks, and then disappearing suddenly. One report claims that the figure appeared just before sunrise, which is interesting because the battle occurred in the early morning. so this could be another residual haunting you know or it's just you know a ghost that just couldn't couldn't wake up you know he's just he's just keeps hitting the snooze button he's just got good timing yeah you know but that you know it's it's interesting because of the clothing that these these uh reports say that they're seeing on these figures you know it's it's not just a it's not just a blurry shadow it's not i mean people are seeing these things and they're thinking that's another person over there they're making out details of what these folks are wearing and when they describe it it all goes back to what these people would have been wearing during this battle i mean those I mean, those uniforms. Now, look, I don't know exactly what these guys were wearing, but I have seen those Highlander battle uniforms in pictures. And they are not easily mistaken for anything else. So, I mean, if you can pick out those kind of details, you know, that's a pretty intense haunting. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. now um uh colonel um how do you say this name adam is it is it macleod mcleod is it mcleod okay yeah okay i couldn't remember how you pronounced it but that was certainly not how i read it and you know i'm showing my southern stupidity here i can't you know pronounce these these scottish names but okay so lieutenant mcleod the scots will forgive you i have i have faith Yeah, he was one of the commanders that was killed during the charge. Now, some of these paranormal stories claim that his spirit specifically still roams the battlefield. And it's often described as a taller, officer-like figure. Witnesses say that he appears to be watching the bridge. He stands still for long periods of time, and then he fades away. Much like what a leader would do. Observe, not moving around, he's not charging or anything, he's observing what would be going on. And in this case, he's observing his men getting killed right before he gets taken out. Yeah. it's like you know he's this is what i think is like maybe he's looking going okay so maybe we don't cross this greased up bridge yeah maybe this isn't a good idea fellas i mean i just can't i can't imagine that some of these guys didn't go this looks fishy you know let's maybe maybe we let's hang out right here for a minute let's look around and make sure that there's not a bunch of these militia men hiding in the woods. There probably was a couple, but they probably were laughed at by the other guys. Oh, you're paranoid. They're a small group. I think, again, it had to come down to, like you said, the hubris, the overconfidence that they were, it didn't matter. I mean, this was just a silly ploy, and we're going to easily take, what's that swivel cannon doing over there? Right. has that always been there yeah you remember that is that one of ours no you know not one of ours so i mean you know it's it's only a flesh wound it all of that combined to make this battle what it was now one of the most common things that's that is experienced at the battlefield is phantom gunfire okay that's that's weird when you hear you hear that at gettysburg too and that's weird a lot a lot of bah haunted battlefields have that distant gunfire okay you know especially some of the the civil the american civil war sites that's a common occurrence and it is here too i've seen some ghost hunters too that go to these sites and as part of their trigger objects They will either use a musket fired off or a cannon fired off. And they say when they do that, it usually like sparks some activity. Almost like a response. Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. So I would, if somebody was able to try that at this Moores Creek, you'd have to get, obviously get permission from all the people involved. Right. Because it's a national monument, so you can't just go out there shooting off muskets and cannons. Yeah. But if you could do that and do it at this place, I want to know if it elicits a response. And, you know, if it does, that would suggest a more intelligent haunting. Yeah. You know, if you get a response, that is not something that's residual, that's just replaying. You know, if something happens after you do something, it's responding to your action. So that's more intelligent there. But it's funny. People report hearing distant musket shots. And I, you know, the sound of a musket is, it's more unique. You know it's not a handgun or anything. Yeah. Cannon booms, which is unmistakable. echoing cracks that sound like a volley and then silence you know like shots going back and forth and then everything goes quiet and it's not a reenactment there's no event going on nothing just this ghostly pop pop pop and but here's the creepy part the battle only lasted for a few minutes and so it's mostly a single devastating volley so hearing one quick burst of of those shots fits perfectly with how the battle actually occurred so it just again everything ties back to this battle it's not like you know the goat man bridge or something like that or and there's It's not like a bunch of extra spirits. It didn't draw in other hauntings. There's not a demon under the bridge or anything like that. Everything is tied to that battle. Yeah. Now, some visitors report seeing multiple shadow figures lined up along the tree line, not on the bridge, along the tree line, like soldiers standing, watching. and that's pretty terrifying because this implies not one ghost but dozens with a whole ghost militia yeah yeah and i mean that i mean that's really unique you imagine being by yourself and just having this ghost militia appear in front of you in the woods yeah let me tell you something about me i'm not going out to these places by myself me they're not in a place like that but um yeah i'm just i'm just thinking like if you if you were camping out there and you you told your family hey i'm gonna go for a quick walk i'll be right back yeah you go out for this walk early morning you want to catch the nice morning air crisp morning air and then you walk across this bridge seems a little slick to you for some reason you don't know why and then all of a sudden you get on the other side and there's this line of troops staring at you muskets in hand i would i i don't i would run back across the slick bridge i think just take off running sliding i don't know hey i it seems terrifying more than one ghost like if you were to run into one ghost okay uh you know we've been we've been doing this long enough one ghost ain't no thing yeah dozens staring at you with muskets i might soil me trousers and right about that time that stupid bagpipe ringtone you put on your phone goes off you thought man you thought that was so cool about a week ago didn't you now today you got the headless highlander coming at you and the bagpipes playing now there are some more classic haunting things that occur at the bridge like cold spots like these sudden cold areas on the bridge or and and along the trail leading up to it Um there that of course that sensation of feeling like you being watched hair standing up and the silence The silence. You're in the woods. Okay? The woods aren't quiet. No. And I heard a guy the other day. I was listening to a show, and it wasn't about ghosts at all. It was about survival and camping and all this stuff. And he said, if you're out in the woods and all of a sudden everything goes quiet, there is something there. Yeah, bigger than you. Yeah, there is something there. And he wasn't talking about like Bigfoot or a ghost. He was just talking about there's something you need to be aware of, a predator or something. Because when things in the woods go quiet, something's off. Yep. So if you're out in these woods and you're around this bridge or around where this battle took place and everything goes quiet, you need to pay attention. You know, something's going on. And, you know, if you're out there as an investigator, you know, that is exactly the kind of stuff you're looking for. And let me say again, we've said this in many shows, get off your phone so that you'll recognize when things go quiet. Because you don't want to be walking across this slippery bridge staring down at, I don't know, TikTok or something and run into the headless Highlander or something. You could have known, but you were too busy worrying about a dumb life hack on TikTok that you didn't hear the forest go silent. Now, people claim in one specific stretch near the earthworks gets unusually cold, even in the summertime, which in North Carolina, that's suspicious. Okay. I mean. It's also a place I'm going to head to if I'm in North Carolina in the summer. Go stand in a cold spot. You'll feel better. I don't care. Go just walk back and forth a couple more times. You know, it's like when I'm swimming, you know, and the kids get in, they're like, oh, this water's so cold. Come over and stand in this warm spot for a minute. Yeah, I got a warm spot. You'll get better. Yeah. But I mean, I'm in Tennessee. North Carolina is right here. It's hot in the summertime. There are no cold spots that you just walk up. It's hot in the shade. You can't get relief from that. So if you're walking on that trail and all of a sudden you hit a spot and you're like, ugh, it's kind of chilly right here. That's weird. Okay. That shouldn't be there. You know, I mean, it feels like you're being microwaved down here. I mean, it's just the heat comes out of you. You're just like, ugh. Trust me. I know. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you know, you left the frying pan and went to the fire. Pretty much. Yeah. Now, there is a modern story from locals driving near the battlefield. A driver reported seeing a man in old military clothing standing near the road, appeared injured, but then he disappeared. So, I mean, that could be a ghost. It could be a reenactor that got lost or someone that's really committed to Halloween. you know they're just we're gonna go stand out here at this battlefield watch this you know this is gonna be great you know this is scary just spook people driving by i mean you need you you you need a part-time job if you can do that stuff yeah right but it's still creepy now paranormal investigators who have visited the area have gotten evp responses emf spikes near the bridge footsteps recorded in the woods and these unexplained whispers now this one this one really creeps me out the the unexplained whisper and that was my band in high school unexplained whisper that's kind of weird you know and it's it it actually sounds more like the title of my last album but and it really was just a bunch of whispering that didn't sing a bit that's it yeah it's unexplained i want to tell you a secret let me tell you a secret let me tell you a secret oh man but but these whispers actually say things like hold or fire or help you know and that's that's a pretty limited ghost vocabulary but those words would be associated with that battle yeah for sure so here's the thing and that might be patriot though because if they were saying hold in whispers true enough the patriot line yeah true enough so So I wonder that there was only one supposedly killed and one injured. But if they were part of that battle, even when they died, did they come back? Or is it a memory? Like you said, a residual memory. Residual. And you're hearing that. Yeah. I mean, I didn't consider it to be the Patriot side, but that's interesting. that they would have been whispering anyway. That it's not just you're hearing the whispers because there's not enough energy to actually hear a full vocalization. But here's the thing. This battlefield is not huge. It is small, and it's quiet, and it's remote, which really makes it a lot creepier than you would think it would be. you're not surrounded by tourists you're just there with the trees and the creek and possibly some scottish ghosts yep and one headless dude right and and so it it's a it's an important point here because i've always i've always thought that when you're a paranormal investigator and you're going to these places that they have tours and they're right in the middle of town. You know, I always think about places like Savannah, Georgia, where, you know, it's like every other building is haunted. And there's constant activity. You know, there's people shopping and drinking and walking around and everything. And you're trying to capture some type of paranormal evidence. That's part of the reason why they do all these things in the middle of the night is because it's got to be quiet enough for you to pick it up. There's too much stimulus. There's too much going on for you to hear that subtle aspect of a haunting because it's not always going to be in your face. It's going to be, did I hear what I thought I heard? And so this battlefield, being so remote and being so quiet, lends itself to capture some of this activity. And you may not be paying attention to your phone or to a conversation between multiple people. You're out there enjoying nature, and then you see someone standing on that bridge. because you're not just inundated with all this noise. And a lot of this does fit into that stone tape theory just, I mean, perfectly. Like sudden violence, emotional intensity, a very short duration, and it just being replayed over and over and over because it wasn't a long, drawn-out thing, because it was just so bam right then and it happened and it was over that it it forced such a huge surge of of energy that that running water of the creek and everything just held on to it right there and you're just seeing it replayed and replayed and people believe that that that the whole battle that charge across the bridge it's just on a ghostly loop now visitors to the park say that dusk feels heavy and quiet and uncomfortable you know that's when you're going to have that sensation of being watched which again is true for the forest in general but still i mean some people have reported hearing movement in tall grass even when there's nothing there and others say that the animals will go silent, which again, we've said is always creepy. Because when animals shut up, something weird's happening. You know, it's Bigfoot or a ghost Bigfoot or a ghost Highlander with no head, you know, something. And, you know, you just can't rule it out. Okay. And as far as haunted places go, Morris Creek isn't flashy. You know, there's not a ton of, you know, wild legends and the jilted bride and a woman in white and somebody hung themselves and all that kind of stuff. There's not a bunch of that. There's no haunted mansion. There's no creepy asylum. You know, no screaming tour guide. It's just trees and water and history and maybe ghosts, you know, and that's why I say sometimes the quiet places are the most haunted because they just never moved on. You know, the battlefield is right there. The trees have grown and the creek kept flowing and maybe those dead soldiers never left. okay so i know that we were bound to have people that um have have either visited moore's creek or live in that area so you know tell us have you ever walked that trail or crossed that bridge and just listened listened closely to see if you hear bagpipes or somebody whispering you know or or seen something move that you thought what was that you know something out of the corner of your eye you know we really want to know and the best place to let us know that is in our facebook group tell us what you think you know is moore's creek really haunted doesn't this fit that stone tape theory just like a glove you know tell us your thoughts you know our facebook group is called the graveyard we've got thousands of members in there sharing stories just like this experiences i can't even count how many members have have come out and said hey you guys talked about this place it's in my hometown or we went there last summer and here's some pictures of it we love that stuff so jump in there you know you'll love it too you know it's just people trying to share these really cool stories we got people that share jokes and everything um you know it's a really good place and when you're done there don't forget to go check out our website which is graveyardpodcast.com. 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