Contributed by: The Reaper

Let me start by revealing a little history of the location of this experience.

The place is called "Buckhead Church", an abandoned church building that has been around for years. During the Civil War, Union General Sherman is said to have used it as a headquarters while on his campaign through Georgia. It is also rumored that the Union Calvary used the church as a stable for their horses. Several skirmishes between Confederate and Union troops happened near this locale, and when Sherman's men finally pulled out of the area, the General ordered that the pews from the church be used to make a bridge to assist the troops in crossing a nearby creek. The tops of these pews can still be seen today, just breaking the water's surface. Since the war, it has long been rumored that the church and surrounding areas, including a graveyard in a nearby wood, are haunted.

This particular experience was one of the first major happenings that I have experienced near this ground. My cousin and I had both heard the stories about Buckhead, and we had even been out to the church a few times ourselves. While we are both believers in the paranormal, I am a Civil War Re-enactor, so the church also holds a historical importance for me. This particular trip, however, was one we would not soon forget. It started out as normal as ever, a friendly chat while driving to the spooky church that we so loved to visit. When we arrived, we entered the church, and walked around as usual, I glanced around, and I don't recall seeing anything out of normal at the time. I distinctly remember looking at the pew closest to the door (which was to the left of a person entering the church), and seeing nothing. We stood around, and talked for a few minutes, then grew bored and agreed to leave. My cousin led the way out the door, and as I prepared to exit the room, for some strange reason I looked at the closest pew again, and saw the most amazing sight….a sword lying on the bare wood of the aging pew. I called my cousin back in, and we both looked at the sword. It was old…rusted and corroded, and by all appearances, a vintage sword from the War Between the States. I timidly took the sword from the pew, and held it, blade pointed towards the ground, in my hand. I immediately felt a rush of power flood over me. I felt like I could rule the world, young, handsome, invincible…..like a Union Officer. I swelled with pride as I held the sword, and reluctantly, I placed it back on the pew. Suddenly, I was myself again, no more brash arrogance, no more feeling of extreme power. I thought for a moment, then realized that I had to show this sword to my older brother, who is also a Civil War Re-enactor. Thinking that someone might come along and take the sword before I could get my brother to come back with me, I grabbed it, and placed it under the pew, out of sight. My cousin and I again headed for the car, but then something came over me. It was as if the sword was calling out to me, urging me to take it with us. I stopped short of the car, and looked back towards the church, then walked back inside. I reached under the pew, and removed the weapon from its dark hiding place, and held it in both hands, admiring it. Again, the power rush hit me like a wave. It was then that I noticed that my cousin had followed me back into the building. "What's wrong?" he asked. "We should take this with us." I said. I consider myself an honest person, and would never attempt to steal anything that wasn't mine, so this was completely out of character for me. My cousin didn't say anything, and something inside me attempted to appeal to his weaknesses. "Do you know how much this is worth?" I asked, trying to trigger the human greed that is in all of us. "Take it or leave it," he told me. "It's your choice….but I think you should leave it." I scoffed at his remark, and left the church, sword in hand, which I placed in my car's trunk. My mindset was, if we somehow had a wreck, the sword couldn't accidentally (or otherwise) impale either of us if it was locked up in the trunk. We both got in the car, and took off down the road towards home. I was driving at a fairly high rate of speed, due to the fact that I was extremely nervous for some reason, and I tried to calm myself and my cousin down. Now that I was no longer holding the sword, I was thinking clearly again. "We aren't stealing it." I assured him. "We'll take it to my brother, let him see it, and then bring it back." My cousin nodded his agreement, but he looked as nervous as I was. Suddenly, the steering wheel of the car jerked sharply to the right, as if an unseen hand had pulled it from my grip. The car ran off the road, into the tall grass that bordered the tree line. In panic, I jerked the wheel to the left, and barely saved us from colliding with a pine tree. The rest of the trip home was uneventful, and when we arrived at my house, my brother was nowhere to be found. My mother saw me holding the sword, and asked where I had found it. Although a dozen lies about finding it somewhere in the woods sprang to my mind, I told her the truth. She didn't seem angry, she seemed worried. She too knew the stories about the church. She made up some excuse about the police finding out we took the sword, but she knew as well as we, the church was out in the middle of the country, there were no police that patrolled that area. It is my opinion that she was afraid of the sword because of it's place of discovery. My cousin and I were told to take the sword back to the church, and we walked back out to my car. As I stood by the open trunk of my car, I held the sword again, and again the feeling of great power came to me. I held the sword, and looked at my cousin. For a moment, the image of myself striking him down, of splitting him open with the sword sprang into my mind, but I shook it away and quickly tossed the sword into the trunk. When we arrived back at the church, we quickly delivered the sword back to the pew and left. A few nights later, we went back to the church and saw another car parked there. When we pulled in the driveway, the car's owners ran out of the church, and jumped into their car. In the darkness I couldn't tell if they were holding anything or not, but they left rather quickly, and when we entered the church the sword was no where to be found. If the car's drivers had taken the sword, I can only hope that they are both still safe, and that the sword is somewhere where it can do no harm.