AUTHOR: Karen Meekins Friel
My great-great-grandfather Benjamin Barnes was a civilian living in Kinnakeet, NC (now called Avon) during the Civil War. I believe the Outer Banks were off and on occupied by Union forces during the war. One night Benjamin was walking through the village and a Union sentry ordered him to halt, but Benjamin kept walking. I’m not sure how many times he was ordered to halt but the story goes he kept walking, and the sentry shot him dead. Well, Benjamin Barnes was deaf. He never heard the order to halt.
