Bachelors Creek, Civil War Haunting

Johnny F-150 brings us the tale of open graves on his property, the remains of the dead moved to a local cemetery.  Did their spirits accompany them?

Johnny F-150

On May 26 1964, a deadly torpedo explosion occurred at Batchelor’s Creek, about eight miles west of New Bern.  For the Union forces stationed there, the losses were devastating.  Initial reports claimed that 40 soldiers were killed in an accident while unloading the lat four off 13 torpedoes from a train car. The torpedoes were intended to complete the blockade of the Neuse River.

When the last of the four weapons were offloaded, a log struck the cap of one and it exploded, setting of a chain reaction.  Newspaper accounts said it sounded like a thousand pieces of artillery firing and could be heard 20 miles away. Member of the 132nd New York Volunteers were waiting for mail to be unloaded at the time and took the brunt of the explosion. 

Body parts were scattered for a quarter of a mile and two buildings were destroyed. Twenty-eight soldiers and about 20 former slaves, who were working civilian jobs, were killed.  While they waited for coffins to be sent from New Bern, hardtrack boxes were used to collect body parts.  Many of the dead are buried at New Bern National Cemetary.

40 men were buried on a piece of my land by the creek. In the early 1900’s the men were exhumed and moved to the local VA cemetery. Their empty graves were left open and are still visible to this day. All the earth works are still visible, and we used to go camping there when I was a child. The last time I camped there was with friends in about 2003, and none of them ever want to camp there again.
John Doe
I didn’t even get to the “fun parts” yet. My great grandfather hunting the land in the early 1900’s would find boots on several occasions with the remains of a human foot inside them. He told my grandfather on three separate occasions found these. Also, my father before he passed got into relic hunting, and owned several metal detectors. He found thousands of artifacts from entire guns to buckles, buttons and bullets. I now own about thirty musket balls that have human teeth imprints on them, most of which were more than likely used to bite on when receiving painful medical treatment with civil war era instruments.
John Doe