Ghostly soldier said to maintain fiance's grave in Wilcox County

George Buster Singleton

One day last week, a reader with Halloween in mind asked me what was my favorite Wilcox County ghost story. I told them that was an easy question to answer. In my mind, it’s hard to top the story of Elizabeth Dixon Smith, which is still clouded in much mystery.

Those of you familiar with this spooky old tale will know that Smith lived in Wilcox County during the Civil War, and she was engaged to a young Rebel soldier who was off fighting for the Confederacy. One day, a messenger arrived to tell her that her fiancé had been killed while fighting in Tennessee. Overwhelmed by grief, Smith went into an upstairs bedroom and hung herself.

However, as the story goes, the news about the young solider had been wrong. He was alive and well and returned home to the news of Smith’s unfortunate death. He went to the nearby cemetery where she’d been laid to rest and had a tall grave marker placed over her grave. In ongoing devotion to the woman he loved, he vowed to always take care of her grave.

Unfortunately, unbeknownst to this young man, his days were numbered. He returned to duty and was killed before the end of the war. Apparently though, his death did not keep him from fulfilling his promise to take care of Smith’s grave.

Over the years, visitors to the cemetery where Smith is buried say that if you go there, you’ll find the grass and weeds pulled up from around her tombstone and thrown in all directions away from her grave. Some visitors to the cemetery have even reported seeing a ghostly figure, dressed in a Confederate uniform, kneeling by Smith’s grave in the early morning hours, pulling up the grass and weeds.

For a number of years, I have tried to locate the cemetery where Smith is buried, but have not had any luck. I’ve searched cemetery records. I’ve examined numerous maps and strained my eyes looking at Google Earth. I’ve even scouted around the area where the cemetery is said to be located, but with no results.

Almost all of what I know about the cemetery’s location comes from the writings of the late George Buster Singleton, a ghosthunter and paranormal investigator who for decades wrote a weekly column for The Monroe Journal newspaper in Monroeville. Singleton, who died in 2007, wrote about Smith and her Confederate fiancé more than a few times over the years, but he never specifically said where she was buried other than to say it was a small cemetery in Wilcox County. However, a careful reading of Singleton’s stories does provide us with a few clues.

Singleton said the cemetery was north of Beatrice and Chestnut, on a “high and scenic hilltop” just over the Wilcox County line. He said that to reach the cemetery, you have to turn off the paved road, which I presume to be State Highway 265, and go up a narrow dirt trail. You then have to get out of your vehicle and walk up a steep, narrow trail to reach the hilltop cemetery. Smith’s grave is said to be the tallest marker in the cemetery.

In the end, this old ghost story leaves us with many questions. Who was Smith’s Confederate fiancé and where was he killed? When and where did Smith take her own life? Where is the cemetery where she was laid to rest? In the end, if anyone in the reading audience knows, please let me know because it would be nice to officially document her final resting place.