Two tombstones are the only reminder of what once was here. The mules, the tents, the soldiers, and the wounded were all a part of this now cow pasture. "Camp Number One of Instruction" (http://history-sites.com/~kjones/ALcamps.html) better known as Camp Watts was the stuff of legend, making men of boys and sending them to their untimely graves.
Camp Watts was one of the many training grounds in Lee County Alabama for young men during the Civil War. It had temporary buildings for two to three thousand men along with wall tents, a railroad and station, a grand cemetery, and a hospital (www.leecountyhistoricalsociety.org/watts.php). The most famous of the buildings on site was the hospital, because after General Lovell Rousseau came through, it was the only building left standing.
Rousseau came through Alabama in 1864 with about twenty three hundred men from the Union Armed Forces and his sole mission was to cripple the West Point Railroad. During this mission, known commonly as “Rousseau’s Raid”, he and his troops burned cities by the dozens all the way from Montgomery and up towards Atlanta Georgia. Some of the cities burned were Notasulga, Loachapoka, Beauregard, Opelika, Auburn, Chehaw, Decatur, Greensport, and Ten Island Ford (which as far as I can tell, is not even in existence now). (http://www.cartweb.geography.ua.edu/) During his raid, Rousseau met opposition at Chehaw and was forced to retreat to Camp Watts with wounded soldiers. It was at this time, he burned the camp, the well, the railroad station, and the barracks. He spared the hospital, but left them with little supplies and no well. (www.leecountyhistoricalsociety.org/watts.php) Journals of personnel stationed at Watts talked of high water, so water may have not been an issue (http://www.history-sites.com/).
If you try to find Camp Watts today, you will only find a pasture. It is almost impossible to find where the camp would have been on the acreage. You can see where an old dirt trail would have possible led to a general store or the depot, but how far back, no one knows. Needless to say, the hospital may have been down wind from the general barracks, and the cemetery near the hospital. Other than that, very little evidence has surfaced on where the camp was exactly. The majority of records are in the library of the University of Texas, Austin in the Samuel H. Stout collection. These were detailed medical records over 22 linear feet of paper, with no index hand written by Stout, the medical Director of the Confederate hospitals (Samuel Hollingsworth Stout Papers, 1837 (1860-1865) 1902, Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.) Any records in the town of Notasulga were burned in a fire years later that engulfed the town. At one time, the land was riddled with grave markers, buckets, horseshoes, and other litter, but as the years went by and the three hundred and twenty acres was turned into farm land, the markers were removed, the fields cleared, and the Legend became all but a ghost.
Camp Watts was added to the Alabama Registry of Military Heritage in May 1, 1979 (www.leecountyhistoricalsociety.org/watts.php), but was long before in the hearts and stories of those in Lee County. While traveling down the road you can almost feel the air change as you approach the field. If you did not know its history you would blow it off as indigestion. But knowing the history, knowing the fright, the fight, the bravery, and the deathly call the land suffered; even a Northern Sympathizer would stop, turn off their car, and say a prayer for the thousands that died at the hands of a gripping war; laid to rest here at Camp Watts, Notasulga, Alabama, trodden on by cattle and long since forgotten.
Showing posts with label alabama paranormal research team. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alabama paranormal research team. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Spring Villa Mansion and the Ghosts that Walk Among It
Spring Villa, a mid 19th century home build by Horace King. King was the former slave of John Godwin, father-in-law to home owner William Penn C. Younge. King was a prominent bridge builder and architect who took it upon himself to take in Godwin’s family as his own due to his fondness for his old master and friend. (Incidentally, King also was attributed to building parts of Bryce Mental Institution in Tuscaloosa, AL under the contracts of Robert Jemison, Jr. who the Jemison Center at Bryce was named after). The home has incurred its own legendary status, surpassing the true beauty of the home and the Genius of King’s masterpieces.
The legend of Spring Villa states that Penn Younge was a cruel slave owner and one night a slave hid in the niche of the staircase and decapitated Younge on the 13th step. (Strangely enough, Alabama Paranormal Research Team has caught recorded sounds of something rolling down the stairs.) Younge is said to haunt the mansion to this very day. In a book about Horace King there is a mention of this legend and states it is false and that Younge died of old age eleven years after the supposed incident; although, the mansion does seem to be haunted. Alabama Paranormal Research Team has extensive recordings of a little child’s voice stating such things as “I want my mommy.” as well as a male’s voice with unsavory and belligerent tones. (APRT would like to express no one has ever been harmed in the home and stands firmly that the home should not be feared by any visitor.)
The land itself is filled with its own history. Native Americans were known to frequent lands filled with high natural minerals and we know the land Spring Villa was built on was used by the Uchee Creeks as a home (before it was settled on by Younge) due to its high energy fields generated by the quartz crystal that fills the land. Across from the home and about 800 yards to the west are mounds left behind by the Creek. Incidentally, APRT's very own John Mark Poe is credited with the discovery of the mounds 800 yards west of the land. Interesting tidbit: Lee County Creeks were the ones who named the town Opelika meaning “Little Swamp”. APRT has gotten evp’s (electronic voice phenomenon) close to Younge’s gravesite, which is across from the house about 100 yards in the wood line. Even in the house EVP's could have been Native American. One sounded like a woman, mimicking the voice of our Co-Founder Cassie Clark saying “Umaneech’ho” (roughly). Since the Uchee language is all but dead, only spoken by a minute few and never written, it is impossible to translate. The closest we have been able to discern is Ome’Nuce’ which is “we sleep here.” Rarely do all members of APRT visit the mounds. For many reasons, such as feelings of dread, strange occurrences after visiting, and the un-explainable events of no birds, frogs, or even bugs being heard around the mounds. Call it superstition, but even professionals can get the "heebie geebies"!
On the land is a where the swimming pool is now, used to be old slave quarters. About 50 yards away is an old “cooler” they used possibly to store meat and other products, cooled by the underground spring that still flows freely there. There, APRT has recorded more Native American Voices and received many readings on the Tri-Field meter. A Tri-Field is a meter that shows electromagnetic fields, and once man-made fields, such as power lines are ruled out, any reading you receive may be paranormal.
Most recently, APRT has discovered documents showing the untimely death of young girls where a lake once was on the land. The girls were dressed in their Sunday best and were traveling from one side of the pond to the other when their boat sank and the girls drown. This explains the constant voices of children upstairs at the house.
This land is an enigma, layers upon layers of past energy, stored in the minerals that lay upon the ground. Any emotion left by slaves, campers, masters, children, visitors-a-plenty seems to stay imprinted somehow. The home a masterpiece of an architectural genius is slowly dwindling to its demise. Yet, the land stays lively, playing back the past, but very much intelligent and interactive at the same time. APRT would like to ask you to help us keep this place alive. A place once buzzing with the laughter of campers and children is slowly becoming a broken down place forgotten by those of the living but relished by those of the dead. Help the living save this land for generations to come.
The legend of Spring Villa states that Penn Younge was a cruel slave owner and one night a slave hid in the niche of the staircase and decapitated Younge on the 13th step. (Strangely enough, Alabama Paranormal Research Team has caught recorded sounds of something rolling down the stairs.) Younge is said to haunt the mansion to this very day. In a book about Horace King there is a mention of this legend and states it is false and that Younge died of old age eleven years after the supposed incident; although, the mansion does seem to be haunted. Alabama Paranormal Research Team has extensive recordings of a little child’s voice stating such things as “I want my mommy.” as well as a male’s voice with unsavory and belligerent tones. (APRT would like to express no one has ever been harmed in the home and stands firmly that the home should not be feared by any visitor.)
The land itself is filled with its own history. Native Americans were known to frequent lands filled with high natural minerals and we know the land Spring Villa was built on was used by the Uchee Creeks as a home (before it was settled on by Younge) due to its high energy fields generated by the quartz crystal that fills the land. Across from the home and about 800 yards to the west are mounds left behind by the Creek. Incidentally, APRT's very own John Mark Poe is credited with the discovery of the mounds 800 yards west of the land. Interesting tidbit: Lee County Creeks were the ones who named the town Opelika meaning “Little Swamp”. APRT has gotten evp’s (electronic voice phenomenon) close to Younge’s gravesite, which is across from the house about 100 yards in the wood line. Even in the house EVP's could have been Native American. One sounded like a woman, mimicking the voice of our Co-Founder Cassie Clark saying “Umaneech’ho” (roughly). Since the Uchee language is all but dead, only spoken by a minute few and never written, it is impossible to translate. The closest we have been able to discern is Ome’Nuce’ which is “we sleep here.” Rarely do all members of APRT visit the mounds. For many reasons, such as feelings of dread, strange occurrences after visiting, and the un-explainable events of no birds, frogs, or even bugs being heard around the mounds. Call it superstition, but even professionals can get the "heebie geebies"!
On the land is a where the swimming pool is now, used to be old slave quarters. About 50 yards away is an old “cooler” they used possibly to store meat and other products, cooled by the underground spring that still flows freely there. There, APRT has recorded more Native American Voices and received many readings on the Tri-Field meter. A Tri-Field is a meter that shows electromagnetic fields, and once man-made fields, such as power lines are ruled out, any reading you receive may be paranormal.
Most recently, APRT has discovered documents showing the untimely death of young girls where a lake once was on the land. The girls were dressed in their Sunday best and were traveling from one side of the pond to the other when their boat sank and the girls drown. This explains the constant voices of children upstairs at the house.
This land is an enigma, layers upon layers of past energy, stored in the minerals that lay upon the ground. Any emotion left by slaves, campers, masters, children, visitors-a-plenty seems to stay imprinted somehow. The home a masterpiece of an architectural genius is slowly dwindling to its demise. Yet, the land stays lively, playing back the past, but very much intelligent and interactive at the same time. APRT would like to ask you to help us keep this place alive. A place once buzzing with the laughter of campers and children is slowly becoming a broken down place forgotten by those of the living but relished by those of the dead. Help the living save this land for generations to come.
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