Hauntings of the Great RebellionEver been to the Triangular Field at Gettysburg at night? Do you know any good Civil War era ghost stories, the kind you tell your friends around the campfire? Read and post about these ghostly experiences here.
Two Gettysburg College administrators were working late one night in the early 1980s in their fourth floor offices at Pennsylvania Hall. The building is one of the oldest on the campus. During the Battle of Gettysburg, it had been used as hospital. After completing their work, the men left their offices, entered the elevator and pressed the button for the first floor. Instead of stopping on the main floor, though, the elevator continued down to the basement.
When the elevator finally stopped and the doors opened, the men looked out on a scene worthy of Dante's Inferno. What they knew as a storage area was filled with doctors and orderlies feverishly working on wounded men. In one corner lay a pile of amputated arms and legs. For a moment, the two administrators could do nothing but stare in confusion. Then they panicked and began pounding the elevator buttons. As the doors slowly closed one of the orderlies turned toward the men, his face an image of pain pleading for help.
Immediately upon reaching the main floor, the administrators hurried to the campus security office about 100 yards away. Thinking fraternity prank, the guard on duty, now chief of security at the college, ran to the building to investigate. But when he reached the basement there was nothing.
"The Blue Boy" haunts Stevens Hall on the campus of Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. About a hundred years ago, a young boy who was being abused at home sought refuge amongst the college women who lived here. One cold, snowy night, the headmistress came up to check on the girls so they hurriedly hid the boy outside on their window ledge. The headmistress took her time talking to the young women, but finally she went back to her room. The girls rushed to the window ledge only to find the boy was not there anymore! They went down & outside to see if he had fell, but there was no boy. To this day, sightings of a young boy, blue in the face as if frozen, are common among Stevens Hall residents.
I've been in the basement to Penn Hall and it's the least-scary basement you could imagine...just filed paperwork n' stuff. Nothing exciting ever happened the times I've been down there
History Channel had on a show a few years back, dealing with the hauntings of Gettysburg. There was a barn where some of the confederate dead were gathered. But unbeknowning to the Union hospital people, one of the dead was not dead. He was stuck underneath the bodies for about 3 or 4 days before being discovered. Eventually he died due to gangreene settling in, and his spirit is said to haunt the area around the barn.
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Confirmed GR GR Grandson of William Francis McNeese. Served in Grey's Company; 37th Texas Cavarly.
Gr Gr Nephew of 1st Cpl. John B. Sinclair. Co. K 28th Texas Cavarly; Walker's Texas Division. AKA The Greyhound Division.
Both of those stories are recounted in Mark Nesbitt's "Ghosts of Gettysburg" series. There is also the story of the "Lone Sentinal", a Federal infantryman who walks the perimeter of one of the cupolas on the campus. People report that he is armed with a musket and appears to be doing sentinal duty, watching the northwest area of the battlefield (1st day's field).
And, there is the CS General who has "appeared" in the campus theater on several occasions during final setup for plays. He is usually reported sitting on a chair on stage or in the first rows of the audience.
The "Blue Boy" was supposed to be a resident of the orphan's home established after the war as a result of the infamous Amos Huddleston (sp?) photo of three children. A Federal soldier was found in the are of Stratton St. (on the retreat route from the fight at Kuhn's Brickyard), and the only identification that was on him was a photo of three children, believed to be his, that he was holding at the time of his death. The photo was published by the major newspapers of the day in a frenzy of articles based on the orphans of the war and was recognized by the childrens' mother, leading to the identification of "Famous Amos". The articles caused a major movement for aid to the orphans of the war and donations made the establishment of the orphanage possible. Later, the mistress of the orphanage was accused of abuse and neglect (leading to the "Blue Boy's" escape from the orphanage and protection by the students at the college), and the orphanage was eventually shut down. The building still stands on the Baltimore pike and is another of our fabled haunted bed and breakfast roster.
Mark told me that the Penn Hall basement encounter has actually been repeated sometime after the episode made famous in his books and on the History channel. He has tracked down the two people that reportedly were involved in the second episode but they are reluctant to go on record.
The campus of Gettysburg (formerly Pennsylvania) College was the site of a large hospital for the duration of the battle and it is rumored that many remains are still buried there (limbs, etc.).
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