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"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and,
under a just God, can not long retain it." --Abraham Lincoln
Mary McCoy and her boyfriend head on up McCoy Mountain to film the ghost of Civil War abolitionist Johnny Ranger McCoy for Mary's Sundance documentary, and they end up finding out firsthand if Johnny's Gold 45 Revolver really does fire lightning in the hands of heroes willing to give that "last, full-measure of devotion." |
One of three known photos of Johnny Ranger McCoy--pictured standing in the center.
The cabin towards the top of McCoy Mountain.
| Once a year, when the ghost of Johnny Ranger McCoy returns, the blues song In The Pines/Where Did You Sleep Last Night can be heard blown upon the wind around the base of McCoy Mountain. Wikipedia reports, "In the Pines," also known as "Black Girl" and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night," is a traditional American folk song which dates back to at least the 1870s, and is believed to be Southern Appalachian in origin. The identity of the song's author is unknown, but it has been recorded by many artists in numerous genres." |
The Town With No Name at the base of McCoy Mountain.
The Battle of Glorieta Pass, fought from March 26 to 28, 1862 in
northern New Mexico Territory, was the decisive battle of the New Mexico
Campaign during the American Civil War. Dubbed the "Gettysburg of the
West" by some historians, it was intended as the killer blow by
Confederate forces to break the Union possession of the West along the
base of the Rocky Mountains. It was fought at Glorieta Pass in the
Sangre de Cristo Mountains in what is now New Mexico, and was an
important event in the history of the New Mexico Territory in the
American Civil War.--wikipedia
Johnny Ranger McCoy singlehandedly tipped the battle in favor of the
Union, while giving that last, full measure of devotion.
 Legend of McCoy Mountain--from wikibin The Legend of McCoy Mountain may or may not be a true story that took place in the background of the Battle of Glorieta Pass in New Mexico, which was known as the "Gettysburg of the West" during the Civil War. The way the legend goes is that three Confederate soldiers were sent to kill three Union lookout sentries at key points along the rugged terrain, to facilitate a Confederate ambush the next day. Two of the Confederate soldiers killed the Union sentries, but the third, Johnny "Ranger" McCoy, an abolitionist at heart, crossed lines and alerted the Union sentry of the Confederate's position and plans. The Union thwarted the ambush at sunrise and demolished the Confederate forces, supposedly resulting in a resounding defeat the Confederacy never recovered from. McCoy had heard Abraham Lincoln speak, and Lincoln's words had exalted his deeper soul. Local folklore has it that this Confederate defeat at Glorietta Pass was the "tipping point" of the Civil War, and many historians agree. Upon discovering McCoy's betrayal, supposedly the Confederacy sent a posse out to his cabin to hang him, but it was too late.-they found his wife and two of his three children hanging atop "McCoy Mountain." Did a Union patrol already hang him, believing him to be the enemy? Did the Confederacy hang him as a traitor? Did McCoy hang himself, having seen all his fellow countrymen die upon his betrayal of the Confederacy? They never found his third child, but all around the mountain were the corpses of dead Union soldiers--one man could never have killed them all, "Unless it was McCoy and that Gold 45 Revolver." Nobody quite knows which mountain peak around Glorietta Pass is "McCoy Mountain." But the legend has it old McCoy appears once a year in the area--some say begging forgiveness for his betrayal to the Confederacy, and others say seeking vengeance. If asked, supposedly he'll tell the story of the hangings, as well as the final resting place of a golden 45 revolver, but nobody who hears ever lives to retell his tale. Over the years, mysterious hangings, disappearances, shootings, and suicides have oft occurred in the area. |
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"We have, as all will agree, a free Government, where every man has a
right to
be equal with every other man. In this great struggle, this form of
Government
and every form of human right is endangered if our enemies succeed."
--Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 22, 1864 - Speech to the One Hundred Sixty-sixth Ohio
Regiment
"I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from ... the Declaration of Independence ... that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence ... I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it." --Abraham Lincoln
McCoy Mountain got its name from the famous Confederate abolitionist--Johnny "Ranger" McCoy. The town at its base never got a name--it's simply known as The Town With No Name. And I, Mary McCoy, am heading on up that mountain this spring. I've got a date with the ghost of my great-great-great grandfather. On March 26th, 1862, it was raining on McCoy Mountain. The next day The Battle of Glorietta Pass, known as the "Gettysburg of the West," would be fought--the tipping point of the Civil War. A Union patrol was marching South, unaware of the 300 Confederates planning an ambush on the Union's campsite, come sunrise. That night, Confederate scouts reported that three Union sentries had been posted on three nearby peaks. Three of the toughest Confederate soldiers were sent forth in the thundering downpour to dispatch the three Union sentries--quickly and silently. Two of them completed their task. One of them didn't. Johnny "Ranger" McCoy, an abolitionist at heart, turned himself in, and disclosed the Confederate's plans. The alerted Union troops silently flanked the Confederates before sunrise, resulting in a massacre whence the majority of the 300 Confederates were killed.
The next day, Johnny Ranger McCoy was found hanging
atop the
mountain.
Some say the Confederates hung him as a traitor. Some say the Union
hung him as a Confederate. And others say he hung himself, after
seeing all his fellow countrymen die. And so it goes. Legend has it the ghost appears once a year at the very top of that mountain, and if you ask him, old Johnny will tell his tale. But none who have ever heard it have lived to repeat the words. The Town With No Name burned to the ground in 1892. A prolonged drought made it a dustbowl during the gold rush--no gold was ever found. Bootleggers claimed it during the prohibition, and anonymous vigilante law enforcement came down hard, hanging the moonshiners. The town went bankrupt in the Great Depression, and another fire devastated it in the fifties. A commune moved in in the sixties--some say the redneck cops hung the hippies, others say it was a cult who hung themselves, but nobody was left to say for sure. In the seventies five documentarians set off up the mountain to document the ghost. Four never made it back. One was found wandering the Town With No Name, incoherent, singing this song over and over. They never spoke another word. And I, Mary McCoy, am headed up that mountain to film my great-great-great grandfather's tale & share it with the world, so that his perturbed spirit might finally rest in peace. I'm headed up the mountain, and the documentary is headed to Sundance.
Mary McCoy is a graduate of Princeton University and the USC Film School. She currently lives in LA where she performs standup comedy and writes for a couple popular sitcoms. The Legend of McCoy Mountain is her first feature-length documentary, and it is dedicated to Abraham Lincoln--our Great Poet President, and Johnny Ranger McCoy. No sleep 'til Sundance. The old song In The Pines can sometimes be heard blown upon the wind as dusk settles over The Town With No Name. Some of Abraham Lincoln's Poetry, featured in The Legend of McCoy Mountain "There is more involved in this contest than is realized by every one. There is involved in this struggle the question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed." --Abraham Lincoln "I have never studied the art of paying compliments to women; but I must say that if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of women were applied to the women of America, it would not do them justice for their conduct during this war. I will close by saying, God bless the women of America!" --Abraham Lincoln "In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book." Abraham Lincoln Source: September 7, 1864 - Reply to Loyal Colored People of Baltimore upon Presentation of a Bible "That I am not a member of any Christian Church, is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures; and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or any denomination of Christians in particular." Abraham Lincoln Source: July 31, 1846 - Handbill Replying to Charges of Infidelity "I do not think I could myself, be brought to support a man for office, whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion." Abraham Lincoln Source: July 31, 1846 - Handbill Replying to Charges of Infidelity "I am much indebted to the good Christian people of the country for their constant prayers and consolations; and to no one of them, more than to yourself." Abraham Lincoln Source: September 4, 1864 - Letter to Eliza Gurney "And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons." Abraham Lincoln Source:January 1, 1863 - Final Emancipation Proclamation
"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." Abraham Lincoln Source: February 27, 1860 - Cooper Union Address "I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free." Abraham Lincoln Source: August 22, 1862 - Letter to Horace Greeley "Towering genius distains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored." Abraham Lincoln Source: January 27, 1838 - Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity. Abraham Lincoln Source: February 22, 1842 - Temperance Address of Springfield, Illinois "The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong." Abraham Lincoln Source: September 1862 - Meditation on the Divine Will |
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"If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God." Abraham Lincoln Source: April 4, 1864 - Letter to Albert Hodges "We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this; but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom and our own error therein." Abraham Lincoln Source:September 4, 1864 - Letter to Eliza Gurney "Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully." Abraham Lincoln Source: March 4, 1865 - Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address "Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others." Abraham Lincoln Source: January 27, 1838 - Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois "Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap -- let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs; -- let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars." Abraham Lincoln Source: January 27, 1838 - Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." Abraham Lincoln Source: March 4, 1865 - Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address "The philosophy of the classroom today will be the philosophy of government tomorrow." Abraham Lincoln
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
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| "The 1966 Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly refers obliquely to the Battle of Glorietta Pass, setting one scene at Johnson's Ranch where the Confederates appear to be guarding their supply wagons around the time of the battle." --wikipedia.org |