Ghosts?

[Highfly]

I admit it... I believe in ghosts, or spirit energies, or whatever you want to call them. Everyone in my family just tells me I have an overactive imagination...

My first encounter came in my house. I am a collector of Civil War antiques ~ mostly photographs and swords. Several times I've come home and thought I saw a soldier looking out our bay window, but there's no one there. He is dressed as a Confederate cavalryman, though I've never been able to distinguish much else. I've also heard footsteps when no one's around and felt like someone's watching me. Not to mention there are certain areas in our basement (several near my collection) where my dogs refuse to go.

A few days ago, we came home to find my brother sitting outside on the front steps. Mind you, he is one of those who doesn't believe in ghosts in any way... He told me he had been downstairs and heard footsteps walking around above him. He ignored them, but they continued to get closer and come down the stairs. He turned to see who it was, and swears he saw a Civil War soldier come down to the foot of the stairs and disappear. That's when he ran outside and refused to go back in...

My second encounter came this summer when I visited Gettysburg with my mother. She is the most grounded, scientifically-minded person I've ever met, and the last person I'd expect to tell me what she did. Much to her dislike, I suggested we walk "Pickett's Charge." While we walked, I wandered away, while she kept heading towards the Angle. I found her about halfway there, standing in the field, and looking perplexed.

She swears to me that while she was walking, she watched a soldier, covered in blood, appear out of the field as though he had fallen and gotten up. He staggered forward another ten yards and collapsed again into the field. At first she thought he was a reenactor, but when he didn't get up, she got worried and walked over. There was no one there. We looked around and couldn't find any reenactors, or any sign of her soldier.

We still can't explain either encounter...

~ Highfly

[dawna]

Highfly:

Thanks for sharing these interesting stories. I tend to be like your Mother - dealing in logic and wanting scientific explanations for everything 'unknown.' But I have a good friend who believes in and claims that she's had encounters with ghosts/spirit energies, and I remain fascinated by such things.

I would imagine that many people who have visited Gettysburg share similar stories/experiences as the one which you've described from your visit.

Dawna

[johan_steele]

I'm the wrong person to talk to about ghosts as I have a couple of times had fun at a believers expense. I have experianced what I consider an over active imagination on my own... That said I have encountered what I can only call a ghost and it has bothered me for most of 15 years. I know it was no prank because I was the only person in the building in that wing and maybe the only person in the building. I sometimes blame the memory on my hard drinking that weekend then recall that I didn't start drinking until after the incident.

THere were a lot of other battlefields, it has always fascinated me thjat there are so many ghost stories from there... almost like people expect to see them there.

[Highfly]

Originally Posted by johan_steele

I'm the wrong person to talk to about ghosts as I have a couple of times had fun at a believers expense....

THere were a lot of other battlefields, it has always fascinated me thjat there are so many ghost stories from there... almost like people expect to see them there.

Indeed, people have fun at my expense all the time. Especially when I have one of my "moments" as my mother puts it. "I see dead people" is another one I get quite often...

I felt nothing "ghostly" about Gettysburg while there, which is what surprised me about my mother's story (and she doesn't have a sense of humor at all). That sense of spirits (or a presence or something along those lines) struck me more at Antietam and Chickamauga than anything else. All I felt at Gettysburg was something sleepy and peaceful.

Just dismiss me as nuts, it's okay...

~ Highfly

[Brandklipparen]

Oh how interesting!
I belive in ghosts and it is very ficinating to hear people tell about their en counters.

[larry_cockerham]

See the film and tour the battlefield at Shiloh. Then go walk through the gate at the cemetery. You tell me what you feel at that point.

[larry_cockerham]

Stop in Franklin, Tennessee at Winstead Hill where General Hood stood viewing the assembly of his troops before sending them to their death at the battle on the evening of November 30, 1864. Walk up the stairs to the shelter at the overlook and tell me what you feel.

[larry_cockerham]

Lean against the rocks at the Devil's Den and look up the hill..... the list can go on. I don't believe in ghosts either, but.......

[scone]

I cant say I have ever seen anything that I thought was a Ghost on any of my numerous visits to Civil War sites. But I am a believer.. i always tell the lingering spirits that i am there to pay my repects to those that fought & died there or are buried there . I have never gotten a answer but do get a feeling that they (the lingering sprits) are thankfull ..

Go to Carnton - the confederate cemetery in franklin and and walk amoung the nearly 1500 bodies buried their & then sit for a while. and look back on that battle and what those men and boys went through and tell me what you feel. and then look at the grand ole white house that was once used as hopital and then think of the ll the suffering from those that lived only a few hrs to those that died months later that are all buried there.

You can feel their spirits their or at least I think I can .. Perhaps I'm just to in tuned and emotional about the battle and its all just in my mind. I like to think its not and that they are thankfull to have visitors and they are not forgotten.

Steven

[Highfly]

Some photos taken on a supposed "ghost tour" of Gettysburg... I highlighted what could be orbs... Believe what you will...