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| - The story of the post-War border's most famous ghost story begins as many a ghost story does, in a cave. Cueva Herradura in the Sierra Madre Mountains about two hundred miles south of the Texas border. The legend agrees that one night in the 2160s, a band of comancheros took shelter in the cave either due to the rain or to hide out from a posse on their heels. One of the man, who most stories name Diego Seville was wearing a jacket with a patch on the shoulder, a patch of the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, the stars, and bars. Being taken to smoking marijuana, he was the farthest back in the cave, his thought being to save his comrades the odor of cannabis smoke. Suddenly he broke into screaming as he was jerked back deep into the cave, his friends heard him shrieking and fi
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| abstract
| - The story of the post-War border's most famous ghost story begins as many a ghost story does, in a cave. Cueva Herradura in the Sierra Madre Mountains about two hundred miles south of the Texas border. The legend agrees that one night in the 2160s, a band of comancheros took shelter in the cave either due to the rain or to hide out from a posse on their heels. One of the man, who most stories name Diego Seville was wearing a jacket with a patch on the shoulder, a patch of the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, the stars, and bars. Being taken to smoking marijuana, he was the farthest back in the cave, his thought being to save his comrades the odor of cannabis smoke. Suddenly he broke into screaming as he was jerked back deep into the cave, his friends heard him shrieking and fired wildly before running down to find his mangled body missing an arm without a single bullet wound. They followed the trail of blood and found Diego's arm, with the patch ripped off the jacket. They couldn't explain what happened until they heard a moaning voice and the whinnying of a horse. In the torchlight they then saw a figure in front of them, a man mounted on horseback in a gray uniform. A sword at his side and a gun on his hip, he dropped a piece of cloth on the ground, the patch bearing the battle flag. The figure spoke then spoke eerily "This ain't the one stolen from me, but for General Shelby I shall find it." And galloped through the band of comancheros and out the cave, into the cold black night. Scared to death, the comancheros searched the cave and found in it another skeleton in a tattered uniform, and deduced it to be the skeleton of the ghostly horseman. The comancheros fled the cave and the ghastly encounter along with the stories of Seville's death was spread far and wide. File:General Joseph Shelby.jpg Further sightings of this ghost popped up after the Cueva Herradura incident. Stories of caravans waylaid or ransacked and travelers accosted by this horseman and occasionally killed. His being is a mystery, according to the stories he was one of General Jo Shelby's men who fled to Mexico to escape the Yankee army after Lee's surrender at Appomattox. The ghost is allegedly a cavalry major who was disgraced after the battle flag of his unit was lost in combat near Cresta Confederada with supporters of Benito Juarez. He survived but was expelled from Shelby's unit with the loss of his colors and many of his men. It was said that he left Shelby's force and went after the flag, hoping to regain favor in the general's eyes after recovering the flag. However, he died in Cueva Herradura, leaving his quest incomplete and condemning his soul to linger on earth until he recovers the flag that he lost in bloody combat. When Seville and his comrades entered the cave, they awoke his spirit and released him in the post-War world to hunt down his lost battle flag and wreak havoc upon those who he believes stole it. His worst fury, however, is on those who bear the colors of the nation that invaded and pillaged his homeland before driving him into Mexico. It is said that any who carry or adorn themselves with that starry rag are doomed if they have an encounter with the phantom. This ghostly horseman has become a legend in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Texas, and wherever else he is spotted. While most report only being frightened by the phantom, there are plenty of stories of men being injured or even killed when El Confederado thought them to be Yankee troops or believed they had his lost flag.
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