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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. At times, headless figures have suddenly materialized to accompany unwitting persons strolling the creek banks. On one occasion, a man rode his horse to the spot where the barrels of coins were said to have been rolled into the creek. Without warning, something jumped on the animal behind the rider. The man and his mount were so frightened that they ran in terror. In the midst of their flight, the ghostly form vanished into thin air. No other plausible explanation being available, that phantom is said to have been the ghost of a sentry assigned to protect Cornwallis’s cache.

During the Civil War, an unusual confrontation took place along the road near the existing bridge. A local man on foot came upon a stranger who refused to identify himself or to step aside so that the man could pass. Vexed by the stranger’s discourteous behavior and suspicious of his intentions, the man swung a heavy hammer at him, only to see it pass completely through the body of the intended victim. The stranger then cast a horrifying glare and displayed an ominous grin before vanishing before the eyes of the stunned fellow.

Many of the reports of supernatural happenings at Abbotts Creek have come from local opossum hunters. On occasion, woodsmen have become hopelessly lost during night hunts in the forests bordering the creek and have not been able to find their way out until the light of day. Few of these hunters have ever been willing to venture into the forests again because of the ghosts they witnessed. Expensive, well-trained opossum dogs have led these hunters to trees and barked furiously to signal that the prey was located. Alas, when the men climbed the trees, nothing was to be found. Time after time, trusted, faithful hunting dogs have thus chased the phantoms of Abbotts Creek.

One of the community’s most reputable citizens witnessed the terror experienced by his reliable opossum dogs, Cash and Means. As he rode toward his father’s home one evening, the young man followed his dogs as they were attracted to a persimmon tree near the creek. With a full moon providing light on the pitch-black night, the hunter saw what he perceived to be a plump, meaty opossum on a high tree limb. He tied his horse and quickly made his way up the tree, where he spied what he thought was a grinning opossum. But when he shook the “animal” from the limb, Cash and Means were stricken with fright. For the duration of the night, the normally fearless dogs refused to leave the sight of their owner. Once again, the ghosts of Abbotts Creek had deceived both man and animal.

Eerie noises have been heard here, too. Generations of area residents have been disturbed by the unmistakable sound of a barrel rolling down the bank and splashing into Abbotts Creek. These strange sounds have been heard at all hours of the day but are most often experienced at night. A well-known and much-respected local justice of the peace once hurried to the creek after he heard a barrel of coins rolling through the woods and bumping over rocks and stumps as it made its way toward the water. Rushing to the water’s edge, he expected to witness a splash or at least the resulting ripples. He saw neither. The venerable jurist noted that the strange occurrence caused his white hair to stand on end.

It has been surmised that the sounds of the phantom barrels are intended to frighten away those who would discover the treasure. On at least one occasion, the bizarre sounds accomplished their purpose. One summer day, a group of men who were either unaware of the ghosts or who did not believe the stories decided to go swimming au naturel in the creek near the site of the Revolutionary War crossing. No sooner had the bathers begun enjoying the cool, refreshing water than the ghosts started their mischief. Phantom barrel after phantom barrel came rolling down the hill with a thunderous roar. But none of the swimmers could see the source of the mysterious disturbance. So terrified were they that they scrambled from the creek, put on scant clothing, and fled from the area, never to return.

When Cornwallis crossed Abbotts Creek during the first week of February 1781, he surrendered to its waters the riches of his army in the vain hope of conquering the enemy. As fate would have it, he himself was subdued eight months later and surrendered his sword to a triumphant American army. In time, the general and his defeated soldiers sailed home to Great Britain.

Nonetheless, should you have occasion to visit the historic crossing at Abbotts Creek, beware of the ghosts of the men Cornwallis left behind. Even after the passage of so many years, these dutiful ghostly guardians continue to perform their assigned task. The king’s treasure thus continues to lie undisturbed in its eighteenth-century hiding place.