Haunted Purgatory Mountain has Civil War connection

Purgatory Mountain in North Carolina’s Piedmont Crescent region occupies a special chapter in the Old North State’s weighty Civil War tome. 

Located within the Uwharrie Mountains in Randolph County, Purgatory Mountain is about 935 feet above sea level. The mountain is haunted by the ghost of Peter Garner, who was known simply as “The Hunter.” 

Charles Jeffery Haithcock of the NC History Center on the Civil War, Emancipation & Reconstruction said Garner’s primary role during The War Between the States was as a “Confederate conscriptionist.” 

The Confederacy required “compulsory military service” for all men old enough to fight. Those who chose not to comply or deserted from the Confederate army were targets of “The Hunter” and his detachments, Haithcock said. 

Storyteller Cassie Clark said: “‘The Hunter’ was a big, blackhearted scoundrel with black eyes and a black beard. He was paid by the head for every draft dodger and deserter he captured.”

 

North Carolina was split between pro-Unionists and pro-Confederates, and Randolph County was especially “on the fence,” stated historian William T. Auman. He wrote extensively about Randolph County’s “Inner Civil War.” 

Randolph County was “primarily a rustic yeoman and artisan society that stood in marked contrast – socially, culturally and economically – to the slave-owning, planter-dominated society of the eastern coastal plains,” Auman said. 

Fewer than 10% of Randolph County’s population was enslaved – one of the lowest in the state. At the same time, Randolph County was the heart of North Carolina’s “Quaker Belt.” Randolph County had at least 16 active Religious Society of Friends meetings, the most of any county in North Carolina.

 

Historian Doris McLean Bates said that the Quakers opposed war and violence, “and they did not want to fight to preserve slavery.” 

There are variations on the legend of “The Hunter,” but as Clark tells it: “The Quakers in prayer were easy prey.” 

On a Sunday morning, “The Hunter” kicked in the doors of the meeting house in a Quaker settlement near Asheboro, Clark said. “His men followed with rifles raised. Twenty-two young men of the congregation were captured and marched out of town at gunpoint.” 

In Wilmington, the young Quakers would be exchanged for cash. They traveled for days on end. One evening, the group made camp on a small farm…and after “The Hunter” and his men were well-oiled with whiskey…the 22 Quakers made a dramatic escape, taking the sleeping men’s rifles with them. 

“Traveling back to Randolph County, it took a month for them to reach the safety of the Uwharries,” hiding in the dense forests, mountain caves and abandoned mines, Clark said. 

They knew “The Hunter” would pursue them. He did, and in a billowing voice that echoed from the ridges to the valleys, he vowed to kill every Quaker in the county, 

“Facing an impossible choice, the young men held a meeting that evening,” Clark said. “Though it went against their core beliefs, they decided ‘The Hunter’ was too dangerous to live. Straws were drawn, and the three who drew the shortest left camp, headed down the hill with their Confederate rifles.” 

“Just as the dawn broke over the mountain, three shots rang out. The Hunter was shot and killed. All 22 Quakers swore to never reveal the identities of those who pulled the trigger. It was a pledge they kept to their dying day.” 

Still, on Purgatory Mountain, the ghost of a big man with black eyes and a black beard roams in the darkness. “The Hunter” is stalking through the woods, constantly looking for the young Quaker lads.