A Civil War ghost tale

By John on Teams

St. Joseph’s in Gaston County is the oldest standing Catholic church in North Carolina. It was the first Catholic church west of Raleigh and was funded by William Gaston, N.C. Supreme Court justice and author of our state song “The Old North State.”

Twenty years ago, the late Fr. Carl was restoring the church, stabilizing the structure, when a 90-year-old woman from north Georgia came to visit ancestral graves and said she had always wanted to visit the church where her great-grandfather had been saved from Union troops by a ghost army. Fr. Carl, coincidentally, was a transplant from Syracuse and recalled hearing a story from his great-grandfather, a Union veteran, who said his troop had been captured by Confederates after he fell off his horse in fear of a ghost army at a church in North Carolina.

As the story goes, the 20-some remaining members (mostly women and children) had gathered early one foggy morning to bury a son of the parish, John Cox, who had died defending Richmond from Union assault and whose body had just been sent home after the surrender at Appomattox. Unbeknownst to them, Union cavalry were heading to Charlotte from the west to destroy the Confederate Naval Yard and were harassed all the way by ragtag militia and backwoods men. Due to the fog, they missed their crossing of the Catawba and had to cross at Thompson’s Ford near St. Joseph’s.

A certain injured Sgt. Cahill was in attendance and sensed the approaching cavalry and asked all the women to hide inside the church while the elderly men and boys would hide behind the churchyard wall and fire, but they only had enough bullets for one round. They fired, and the Union cavalry suddenly panicked and dispersed all helter-skelter, and retreated right into and were captured by a small Confederate force led by Gen. Robert Johnston.

Upon questioning, the Union lieutenant said they had retreated because a force of 60 men wearing all white and surrounding a church had fired on them. Gen. Johnston investigated and only found a handful of elderly men and boys and Sgt. Cahill. Thus, the tale of the Ghost Army of St Joseph’s was born, and the stories of the two great-grandchildren were verified by one another from opposite sides.