Ebenezer Creek

So the idea for this blog came from Willow . She left a comment on my pictures of Tybee, saying they reminded her of the movie "The Gift" with Cate Blanchett. That made me laugh, because parts of that movie were filmed right up the road from Savannah in Effingham County at Ebenezer Creek. I don't know if ya'll remember the part of the movie where the creepy fiddler is playing in the swamp, or when they are dredging for the body, but that is where those parts of the movie were filmed. Brent-Boy being the film major that he is let me in on this little secret.
Now if ya'll are ever in the area I would recommend renting some kayaks, and taking a trip down Ebenezer. I would also recommend going in the fall or winter since it's packed full of big ol' snakes, gators galore, and river otters, among other things.
The first time that we ever took a trip down Ebenezer was about two years ago in our canoe. We were in hog heaven!! Brent and I had never seen anything like it. We were both born and raised around the Atlanta, Athens area, and swamps were something that we didn't know anything about. Now I say swamp because a vast majority of Ebenezer is like a swamp, but it's also a large creek as well. It's also a great fishing hole, and Lord knows we love to do that!!
One day we decided that we wanted to canoe the whole creek. It's about seven miles long. So we started off around 2pm with a good friend of ours, who was also up for an adventure. We were determined. So we start our journey, and we kept on passing this creepy guy, because that is the only way I can describe him, who was out trying to catch some catfish. We asked him how long it was to the end, and whether or not he thought we could get through since we knew we would have to go through a lot of brush from looking at the map. Well he laughed at us, in a creepy way and kept saying "I don't know." We could never get a straight answer out of him. We've since learned that a lot of people that you meet in passing in Ebenezer are a little off. So we kept on going. Well it was starting to get dark, and we were getting into cypress trees that were in the creek that the canoe could barely fit through. We didn't know where we were, we were officially lost. So of course I am about to lose it, and Brent and our good friend Miles thought this was hilarious, which of course rubbed me the wrong way. So eventually we pulled off on the shore, and the boys had to end up dragging the canoe out, and we come upon this house out in the middle of the woods. Guess what, no one was home. And I was thinking about how this would make the perfect start to a horror movie that I did not want to star in. So they drug that canoe down a three mile dirt road, and I followed holding on for dear life to my little 22 rifle. We finally got to the end of the road, stored the canoe in the woods, and found someone who could take us back to our car. He told us that at that time of year with the water low, their was no way we could have gotten through. So that was our strange adventure on Ebenezer.
But Ebenezer has much darker history. It was December 9, 1864 and General Sherman was on his march to the sea. He was only a few miles out of Savannah. On that day 670 escaped/freed slaves men, women, and children were following Sherman on his march. The army first crossed over on pontoons, telling the slaves that they would send the pontoons back for them. The commander in charge of the crossing, BG Jefferson C. Davis cut the pontoons lose as soon as the army crossed leaving the slaves stranded on the other side. Soon the confederate army showed up, which caused many of the slaves to jump into the icy December water, many of them drowned, the remaining were shot, and the rest were taken by the confederates. It was a massive tragedy that should and could have been avoided. Several soldiers and even Sherman himself admitted to Davis's anger, hostility, and racism towards the slaves. I guess what Davis didn't realize was that his name would go down in history not as a hero, but as a villain.
I have to be honest with you, every time we visit Ebenezer, we do get a feeling of eeriness, and I for one am a firm believer that the spirits of those slaves still roam the shores and haunt the water of such a beautiful place, where such a tragedy took place.

(On a side note ya'll take a look at the map we made in the sand trying to get our bearings, and the picture of the canoe pulled up on shore with all the strange like orbs around it, I'm still not quite sure what those are!!)