As the story goes, a couple had recently moved to Charleston shortly after the Civil War. They moved to an area where they were the last home on a dead-end street. The woman of the house was repeatedly awakened in the middle of the night, at the stroke of midnight, by the sound of heavy rumbling wheels passing by their home. This was very unusual since the road ended just past their home. Her husband would awaken as well; however, when she tried to get out of bed to look at the window, her husband would stop her. He told her to leave well enough alone.
The lady was a laundress and worked with other women nearby. One day she told a lady working beside her of the strange sounds at the stroke of midnight. The woman told her that she was hearing the Army of the Dead. She went on to explain that the rumbling wheels were that of Confederate soldiers that had died in the hospital and did not know the war was over. She said that they would rise from their grave and go to the aid of General Lee in Virginia to give them more manpower to weaken the Southern troops.
The next evening, the lady quietly snuck out of bed to watch the Army of the Dead pass her home. She stood in the window and watched as a gray fog rolled past. In the fog, she could distinguish the forms of horses and could hear the voices of the men and the rumble from the cannons being pulled through the street. She could even make out the sounds of the marching feet of the soldiers. She watched in horror as before her eyes foot soldiers, ambulances, horsemen, wagons and cannons passed by all in gray. After several hours of being glued to the window she heard a bulge past in the distance and then all became silent.
Once she realized what she had seen, one of her arms was totally paralyzed. From that day forward, one of her arms remained paralyzed.