ne story takes place on a dark, stormy
night as
Peter sat in his room in the South Building. He answered a knock at the
door and was met by a robed and hooded figure who bade him to
follow as he headed toward the woods on Piney Prospect. Here Peter
and this mysterious, robed figure dueled until Peter was slain;
his body was buried under the rock. Some say his ghost arises
from beneath this rock at midnight on the anniversary of his death,
to catch glimpses of the moon.
ome say he ran off to join the army,
enlisting
under the name of his roommate, John Buxton Williams. It was even reported
that he had been seen on the streets of Wilmington, North Carolina,
but no records have been found. Williams himself once wrote a
letter in which he declared his certainty that Peter had no differences
with anyone and that the entire story was the product of someone's
wild imagination.
till another explanation is that, despondent
over his
failure at the University, he drifted westward where he later died. It
seems that the
mystery of Peter Dromgoole's disappearance will forever remain
a Tarheel legend.