Peter Garner was ambushed by deserters at Panther Creek on the side of Purgatory Mountain in late 1864 and shot deat. RE: Heritage of Randolph County, Vol. l, Page 95.
Peter Garner Grave: This grave is on land belonging to Clifford Chriscoe, across from 3151 Trinity Church Rd. Using an unkept farm road next to fence, travel 1200 feet south to a chicken house. The grave is at the end of the house.
Peter was shot and killed during the Civil War by Quaker boys whom he had conscripted and sent off to camp. They escaped and returned home and hid out on Purgatory Mt. He learned of it, and was determined to recapture them. Bill Johnson, in "Moon Over Purgatory" wrote about Peter Garner, (named Skulley in his novel) who was ruthless in his pursuit of young boys for the last days of the war effort. and the Quaker boys who were so afraid of him that they laid in wait for him. Mr. Johnson said that both the Yancy Cox descendants and the Garner family said he was shot and killed by the boys, not by the father of one of the boys, as Mr. Johnson portrays in his fictionalized version of these events.
The Randolph Co. Coroner's Report dated May 13, 1864 states that Peter was taken up and opened and that he was shot once in the head and several other times in the side of his body.
The children born after the death of Peter were all born out of wedlock...