What happened
The Charlotte Daily Observer account, quoted in Mansfield's report, describes a very red light that rose over the mountain, wavered and went out in under a minute. It was smaller than the full moon but larger than any star. Sterrett blamed locomotive headlights. Locals rejected that when lights were seen after a 1916 flood stopped the trains. Mansfield returned in 1922 and attributed the lights he plotted to automobile headlights (47%), locomotive headlights (33%), house and other fixed lights (10%) and brush fires (10%).