Doc Raeburn Southern Spy


    Doc Raeburn was a southern spy during the Civil War in this section of the country. He was a terror to the Yankees because at nights when they would have meetings he and his little band of followers would break into them. It is said that he was a small man and would often dress as a women and go to the Yankee dances and in that way would often find out some of their plans and then he and his followers would break into them.
    One night he broke into them and did considerable damage. The next morning he was sitting on his horse in front of Grandfather Deals house, about ten miles north of Brownsville where the Yankees were station. He was talking to a member of the family, when all of a sudden a band of Yankees, who were hunting him appeared in sight and began shooting at him. He fell over on the side of his horse , dodging the bullets and started running. They followed him but he escaped into the woods. They thought he had been hiding at Grandfather Deal's and after they fail to capture him they came back, burned his barn and all of his feed and took all of his stock except one mule.
   Dock Raeburn died, while still a young man, shortly after the close of the war.
                                                                                                 Emmadell High

This story was told to Emmadell by her grandfather, James A. High, a Confederate Veteran. Jacob Deal was Highs Father- in- Law.

"What's Doc Doing Here?"


Just who was Doc Raeburn, and what is he doing on this Raborn web site?
I wish I could say that with out a doubt he was our family Civil War Hero or a part of our family history. This could be true ,and again it can be just a family tale like many that was of told of Jesse James and other such personalities. I can't say that I can point him out on our family tree ,or that he is not there either. I don't know.
BUT-Here is what I have been told by the older generation family members.  They claim that George Washington Raborn was the Southern Spy known as Doc . George Washington was my Great Grandfathers (David Alexander Raborn Sr.) older brother. Could this be true? Again, I don't know!
The different spelling of the name does not eliminate the possibility.  My family has found many creative ways to spell it through the years and along with the help of census takers and such, The true spelling is not known.
My Raborns  lived in Arkansas during the Civil War in the same area where Doc's  antics of antagonizing the Yankees took place. Could it of been with the help of his family that he was able to evade being captured right away? Was Great Grand Father sincere when he claimed that one of his great grand sons was a spitting image of his brother Doc? I don't know!
The stories have been there through out my life.  Sometimes they were told in a whisper, as a family secret ,( that just might be better off left untold.)    To be involved with a Southern cross dressing spy against the United States of America is not what you want   your young child's hero to be.    
       

Home