Local ‘battle’ took place 159 years ago in Mount Pleasant community

General Thomas John Lucas

Yesterday (Thursday) marked the 159^th anniversary of the “Battle of Mount Pleasant,” which occurred on April 11, 1865 during the War Between the States.

Union forces entering South Monroe County on that day consisted of about 3,500 cavalrymen under the command of General Thomas John Lucas, while Confederate fighters on that day consisted of about 130 mounted militiamen from Monroe and Baldwin counties.

Confederate casualties from the battle were five killed and six wounded. Federal casualties were three killed and nine wounded, including one officer of the 1st Louisiana Cavalry.

According to men who fought in the battle, a young man last named Holland from Conecuh County was killed, and the Federals buried him alongside the road at Mount Pleasant. As of 1915, it was believed that he was still buried there.

Years later, in the early 1990s, Monroe Journal columnist (and ghost hunter) George Singleton related a ghost story connected with the battle. Singleton said that General Lucas gave order to bury the dead rebels in a mass grave and no effort was made to identify the battle dead. Among those killed in the skirmish was Corporal Ezekiel Watkins.

Witnesses told his wife, Mary, that he’d been killed and buried in a trench. In the days that followed, family members of the dead retrieved the bodies of their loved ones for reburial elsewhere. Each time the trench was opened, Mary was there looking for her dead husband’s remains, but he was never found.

Weeks turned into months, and the cold winter evenings would find Mary, wrapped in an old army overcoat, looking around and through the high weeds for the remains of her beloved husband. Even during the nights of the full moon, the light of a lantern could be seen as Mary searched late into the night for her lost husband. And, as the early morning light gradually crept across the open field where the battle took place, one could find freshly dug holes where Mary had sought to recover her husband’s remains.

Then, one cold winter evening, Mary was found dead as she was preparing to dig yet another hole in the continued search for her husband. Beside her still body lay her shovel and the old lantern which provided the pale light for her as she searched in vain.

“Many years have passed since Mary Watkins walked the field where this Civil War battle was fought,” Singleton said. “The field has been plowed over many, many times. But there are those who say, if you look closely when passing down the road nearby during the hours of darkness, you might see the dim, pale light from Mary’s lantern as she searches ever onward for the body of Ezekiel Watkins, her beloved husband.”

Another unusual story connected with the cavalry raid involves a young man named Thomas S. Stacey. Stacey, who lived off what is now the Shiloh Road below Frisco City, had been severely wounded during fighting in Nashville and was recovering at home when Federals under Lucas raided his small farm. Bedridden due to his wounds, the family could only watch as the soldiers raided the house.

One of the soldiers dumped a small chest out in the yard, and a pistol and Masonic apron fell out at the feet of the commanding Federal officer. Seeing the Masonic apron, the officer ordered his men to stop what they were doing and for them to put back everything they’d taken back from the house.

Thomas recovered from his battle wounds and lived to the ripe, old age of 87 before passing away in 1925 at Perdue Hill. He has numerous descendants still living in Monroe County today, including his fourth-great-grandson who wrote the words you are reading right now.