Mr. Graham was a Confederate sympathizer during the Civil War, and allowed the soldiers in gray to camp on his property often enough. This caught the attention of Colonel Kirk, who began spying on the encampment from the bluff that is behind what is now Shallow Ford Baptist Church. One night, he saw a lot of activity, so the next morning, cloaked in fog, his troops attacked the Confederates. Ever since then, there has been reports of a ghost horseman carrying his sword that crosses over the bridge that is on Mill Creek Road (this is a shallow point in the river and was used by the Confederates to cross) and on a sandbar in the Nolichucky River near the bridge.
The battle ran over to a place now called Dead Rebel Hollow, below a bluff that is behind what is now the Shallow Ford Baptist Church. So many confederate soldiers died there that it is now called Dead Rebel Hollow, and since the battle, mysterious wailing noises and screams can sometimes be heard from the bottom of the bluff. 1
