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The Legend of Ol' Green Eyes

In the north Georgia town of Ft. Oglethorpe, near the foot of Lookout Mountain, lies Chickamauga Battlefield, considered by many to be one of the bloodiest battles in the Civil War. Over the course of two long days, 35,000 men lost thier lives. Naturally, as with many Civil War battle sites, supernatural phenomena occur there, including ghost soldiers, ghost lights, and gun and cannon sounds. You could almost say that Chickamauga Battlefield is a clone of just about every other Civil War site. However, Chickamauga Battlefield has one thing none of the others do.... Ol' Green Eyes.

The Ol' Green Eyes legend takes many different forms, including alien presence and demonic forces. I am just going to discuss the two most popular, to save time. The first legend says that Ol' Green Eyes is a soldier with brilliant green eyes whose head was taken off by a cannonball on the last day of the battle. According to legend, he was from the area. He fell in love with a beautiful girl in town, but her father refused to let them get married, stating that he was not man enough. He joined the war to prove he was a man, and fought for months in the Confederate army. He was fighting the last battle before he could return home when he lost his life. Legends say he searches the battlefield still for his head so he can return home to be married, but all people ever see is his glowing green eyes.

The next version of the legend strays from the ghostly and delves into cryptozoology. Reports have been coming in from this area ever since people settled it, long before the Civil War, of a creature which appears to be reptilian, but which stands on its hind legs. Hundreds of people have claimed to have seen this "lizard-man". Some say it is covered in a light layer of hair, some say shining green scales. Some say it is around three feet in height, others place it at over six feet. The two things that all of the witnesses have agreed on however is that it is far faster, and more agile than any human could be, and that it has large, glowing, almost intelligent green eyes.

Being raised on Lookout Mountain myself, I grew up hearing the legends, and thus became interested in them at an early age. I remember hearing stories from my uncle when I was just a child about him and his friends parking in the battlefield at midnight and honking the horn three times, after which Ol' Green Eyes would appear. That was a bunch of bull, by the way. I tried it. What really got me interested in it was my mother's personal story of Ol' Green Eyes.

When I was still a baby, my mom was working in Ft. Oglethorpe on night shift. On her way home from work one night at around four or five a.m., she was taking some wooded back roads near the battlefield. As she came around one particularly sharp curve she said something suddenly jumped out in front of her. As she slammed on her brakes, afraid she would hit it, she said it jumped completely over the car. As she slowed, she looked in her rear view, and saw what she described as a large, lizard-like creature, with green eyes, standing on its hind legs. She said it seemed to be carrying what appeared to be a large dog or a coyote in its mouth. It jumped suddenly into the bushes on the other side of the road and disappeared. My mom hit the gas and did about 90 all the way home.

Sitting on over 5,200 acres, with a gorgeous headquarters building and actual civil war cannons still on display, not to mention the Fuller gun collection, featuring over 350 antique guns, the battlefield is a beautiful place to visit. However, don't get caught out there at night. There is no telling what might be a"head" of you, or what might be just around the next curve, hungry for a meal.