Thompson Island was once a thriving cotton gin during the civil war that raveged, and displaced millions lives. Now, abandoned, and delapitated, the gin still sits on the tiny island surrounded by the clear, cool waters of the San Marcos river. large, ancient sypress trees, with their long, shaggy moss, seem like scraggly witches' hair that sways eerily in the wind, and especialy in the dark moonlite.
Thompson Island is said to be haunted by two restless spirits. One a young Confederate soldier who was ordered to guard the bridge, and thus died in doing so. The other, a young, heartbroken woman, with three small children.
The soldier, with orders to hold the bridge, dedicated himself onto his duties. He fought bravely, against the oncomming onslught of the Union army, but sadly his life ended when a stray bullet caught him above the left eye. A short scream, and it was over, the war for him, was finaly over...
The young woman was married to a calvery officer who went off to war. He left her with the promise of one day returning to her, and building a new life for themselves from the ashes of their war-torn country. He kissed her, and their three little ones, then mounted his steed, and rode off along with the rest of his troop.
Weeks, and months went by, no letter from her officer husband. The young lady became troubled. Her heart wrenched with sadness, and dispair. Finaly, the worst came, a messenger had been dispatched to deliver the sad news, telling the poor young lady she had now become a widow. Heartbroken, and desperate, no means of income, or support for herself, and her little ones. Her spirit crushed, her mind troubled, and wraught with dispair and madness. One night, she walked her children to the edge of the riverside, there she decided the sad fate of her children, where she drowned each one, while sobbing and whailing uncontrolably. Sobbs grew into shreiks, and whails of heartbroken screams.
For generations after that, Stories had been told, and retold of "La Lorrona" "The sobbing, or crying woman". The stories tell of the spirit of a sobbing woman desperatley searching for her drowned babies along the rivers and creeks of South Texas. The still nite air is shattered with bone chilling shrieks and wails of this tortured spirit, who is punished by God, and is not able to rest, nor enter heaven, until she finds her babies. And so, she is punished to search forever and all time...
The ghost of the long dead Confederate soldier has been spotted for ages along the road that runs through Thompson Island. Nightly travelers have often been lone witnesses to the apparition that stands near the bridge where he died. forever vigilant, dressed in his grey uniform, and cloak, and cap. Holding a long rifle, and peering endlessly into the beyond. The poor spirit of this young lad still co-exists with the living in this world. Maybe one day he may be relieved from his duties by the power of the all mighty. But until then, he still carries out his orders to hold the bridge...
These stories are True Texas Ghost Stories. I thought it would be nice to share them with you, and I hope that it brought some reading pleasure to a few of you out there. Sir William Ashtinghouse
