My Encounter at The Slaughter Pen at Gettysburg

Joined
Jun 12, 2008
Location
Central Pennsylvania
I'm still frightened to talk about this. This encounter was about 3 years ago in April of 2005. I was on a trip to Gettysburg with my family for the Easter weekend. We had toured the battlefield that day, starting at Cemetery Hill. We worked our way south from the hill until we got to the Devil's Den area. We stopped there to have an impromptu lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches. I finished mine quickly and went off walking alone. I worked my way over Plum Run and back into a forest, which was partially cut back recently by the Park Service. While I scrambled through the boulders by Plum Run, I had scraped by knee on a rock. I leaned against a tree and bent down to take a look at it. When I stood back up, there was a swirling black mist in front of me about 10 feet. It just swirled and swirled and turned into the form of a man, which furthermore materialized into a Confederate soldier. This soldier was barefoot with a ragged gray coat and a floppy slouch hat on, all of which was transparent, kind of the look of frosted glass. He held a musket in his hands. He was crouched behind a rock. I looked into his eyes and saw a steely-eyed stare that was shot back at me. He stared at me as if he hated me, hated me with all of his soul. Around the soldier and I, there arose the din of battle. I heard cannons, drums, and small-arms fire. I heard a shrill scream, and when I looked around to find the source, I sure found it. I looked down on the ground about 5 feet to my left and there laid a boy, maybe 15 or 16-years-old with his intestines oozing out. When I saw the macabre sight, I began to cry and I collapsed to my knees. I looked back at the soldier with the floppy hat. He was still staring at me with that hatred in him. He slowly began to shake his head in what looked like disgust and turned away and proceeded on towards Little Round Top. I then ran back over Plum Run and back to the car. I hid away from everyone else under the car. I wasn't scared of the soldier, just horrified at the sight of that wounded boy. I crawled out eventually and tried the rest of the day to act like everything was OK, as hard as it was.
 
That's scary just to read about, 3rd PA.

I'm not sure where I stand on the issue of ghosts and hauntings, even though years ago I had an experience that I've never been able to explain, which frightened me perhaps more than I've ever been frightened. It wasn't related to the Civil War, but it did involve a soldier, although judging by the uniform he wore, it was no earlier than the World War II era.

I was alone in the house. It was a nice, sunny afternoon in August and I went from the kitchen to my bedroom where I'd left a book I'd been reading the night before. My bedroom was separated from the dining room by a hallway, with the doors to both rooms in line with each other. I recall walking through the door into the dining room, looking down at the book in my hand, then glancing up, the way you do to make sure you're not about to run into something, and coming to a dead standstill, in total shock. There, across the room at an angle to me, just to the side of the large doorway to the living room, stood two men. The only thing about this experience that I'm not quite sure about is the strong sense that I glanced into the living room and saw several other people standing there, sort of in a group. However, I focused on the two men in the dining room, since being closer to me, they presented the greatest threat.

One man was a soldier. His uniform was what they refer to as "army dress greens." He was tall, had dark hair cut short and parted on the left side. I remember a rather ruddy complexion and would guess his age as early 30s. I don't recall any stripes on his sleeve, but remember some kind of brass on his shoulders. There were ribbons pinned to his chest, and he wore red braid looped from his left shoulder. He held his hat under his left arm, standing as though at "attention." He was facing the wall across the room from him, and since he was at an angle to me, I was seeing him in partial profile. At no time did he move or give any indication that he knew I was in the room.

The second man was quite unusual. Not as tall as the soldier, I would guess his age as early to mid 40s. He had medium brown hair, worn shoulder length, and somewhat curly or wavy. He was clean shaven. It was his garment that was so unusual. He was wearing a robe, the sort of robe you might see a man wearing in a photo of a person in the Middle-east. The color was medium gray, it was floor length, and I distinctly recall that the fabric looked quite rough and heavy, far too warm for an August afternoon. This man did realize I was in the room, and he turned to look at me. To say that I was terrified would be an understatement, and yet I was rooted to the spot. When I entered the room, the man in the robe was standing, facing the soldier, with his right hand touching the soldier's left arm, the way one does as a friendly, reassuring gesture.

You have described the expression on the face of the Confederate soldier you saw, and I must describe the expression on the face of the man in the robe. Keep in mind that I was not only so frightened I literally couldn't move, I also felt that this was a serious threat to my safety, and in that state of mind it seems logical that I would interpret his expression as threatening. Yet the only way I can describe the look on that man's face is that I've never seen a face so gentle, so kind and even so loving. That face was at complete odds with the terror I was feeling.

I don't have any idea how long I stood there, looking at the man in the robe, and he, looking at me, but it was probably not nearly as long as I later thought it was. I knew immediately that I was seeing something I was not supposed to see, that it was not a part of what I normally recognize as reality, and I knew that the man in the robe also knew I wasn't supposed to be able to see him. Additionally, I knew that he was completely in charge of the situation, and knew (probably my fear was obvious) exactly how to put an end to this. Turning toward me, with that gentle expression never changing, he took a couple of steps in my direction, which was just enough to release the paralysis that had held me there, and I was out in the kitchen, through the door to the sunporch, and out of the house in a matter of seconds. I stopped just short of running into the yard screaming. I stood on the step in front of the sunporch door, holding the door open and listening intently for any sound in the house. It was completely silent.

I don't know how long I stood there, at least five minutes, maybe ten or more, my heart pounding so hard I could hardly breathe. Finally, knowing I had to eventually go back into the house, if only to grab my car keys and flee to the safety of my mother's house, I tip-toed across the porch and into the kitchen, where I peered around the doorway into the dining room. It was, as I somehow knew it would be, completely empty.

It was a long time before I was able to tell anyone about that experience. It was just too bizarre to be believable and I didn't want to sound crazy. I was raised by parents who had no belief in the supernatural and they passed it on to me. I've listened to a lot of ghost stories, and have always just considered it to be silliness. I've never known what to make of my own experience. I've considered that it was simply a hallucination, yet I have no history of hallucinating. I don't drink, and have never used drugs. I can say in all honesty that the people I saw in that house that day were as real, as solid, as any person I've ever seen. Had I encountered them on the street, except for the unusual garment worn by the second man, I would have paid no attention to them. I have a vague sense that one of the people in that group in the living room that I "think" I saw, may have been a person I knew who had been killed in a highway accident about ten years earlier, but that's more of an impression than anything else.

The best I can say is that since that day in August over 20 years ago, I've never been as sure as I once was that there's no such thing as a spirit world. And I might add that deep down in my inner-mosties, I think that gentle man in the gray robe may have been an angel. Of course I would never tell anyone that.
 
Jules362,

That is a pretty amazing thing you saw. I was confused by something though. 3rd PA said that the confederate looked at him in hatred and you said that expression reminded you of the face of the man in the robe but then later you said that he looked gentle? Just wanted to understand it better. Has anything happened to you since?

Also did you live in an older house?

Lauren
 
This all intrigues me. So sorry if I'm dredging up a dead thread. There are different levels of so called spirit activity. What the first story indicates to me is a simple haunting. Check out and Google the Stone Tape Theory. Energy doesn't ever get destroyed. The energy of this incident by the tree was being replayed because at that exact time by a quirk of fate, the OP was in the right place at the wrong time. The soldier with the hatred in his eyes, wasn't looking at the OP but at someone who had stood where the OP stood all those years ago. It's basically a replay of an incident that held such high negative charges of energy that if the right conditions prevail, it's replayed like an old video. Nothing at all to be scared of.
 
I'm still frightened to talk about this. This encounter was about 3 years ago in April of 2005. I was on a trip to Gettysburg with my family for the Easter weekend. We had toured the battlefield that day, starting at Cemetery Hill. We worked our way south from the hill until we got to the Devil's Den area. We stopped there to have an impromptu lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches. I finished mine quickly and went off walking alone. I worked my way over Plum Run and back into a forest, which was partially cut back recently by the Park Service. While I scrambled through the boulders by Plum Run, I had scraped by knee on a rock. I leaned against a tree and bent down to take a look at it. When I stood back up, there was a swirling black mist in front of me about 10 feet. It just swirled and swirled and turned into the form of a man, which furthermore materialized into a Confederate soldier. This soldier was barefoot with a ragged gray coat and a floppy slouch hat on, all of which was transparent, kind of the look of frosted glass. He held a musket in his hands. He was crouched behind a rock. I looked into his eyes and saw a steely-eyed stare that was shot back at me. He stared at me as if he hated me, hated me with all of his soul. Around the soldier and I, there arose the din of battle. I heard cannons, drums, and small-arms fire. I heard a shrill scream, and when I looked around to find the source, I sure found it. I looked down on the ground about 5 feet to my left and there laid a boy, maybe 15 or 16-years-old with his intestines oozing out. When I saw the macabre sight, I began to cry and I collapsed to my knees. I looked back at the soldier with the floppy hat. He was still staring at me with that hatred in him. He slowly began to shake his head in what looked like disgust and turned away and proceeded on towards Little Round Top. I then ran back over Plum Run and back to the car. I hid away from everyone else under the car. I wasn't scared of the soldier, just horrified at the sight of that wounded boy. I crawled out eventually and tried the rest of the day to act like everything was OK, as hard as it was.
Incredible!!!
 
I was just in that area this past week and didn't feel anything till we got to the "High water mark" then i just had the most intense feeling of dread and sadness and it got stronger when i got to the angle. Unless you count my G.F. saying i was acting weird on sach's bridge a feeling too, she said i just kinda wandered off from our group and was just staring at one spot the whole time.
 
I also been to Gettysburg numerous times since its so close to me :smile: but i have never seen a apparition i have felt alot of mixed emotions there of pain and sorrow and of happiness and joy. Gettysburg is a verry spiritual place wich i love to be at
 
Been there three times, only this last visit (two Friday's ago) did I have an experience that remotely felt different. I stood on Little Round Top, just left center of the 20th Maine's position. I was staring out at the woods where the confederates attacked from. I heard plenty of footsteps in the woods, walking through the dead leaves and I looked all over to see who walking around in the woods, but I saw no one...and I stood there for a good ten minutes staring. I didn't see a thing, but I definitely heard multiple sets of footsteps in the woods and no one around making those steps. The only other living thing that was around me, that I saw, was a chipmunk. One tiny chipmunk cannot make the sound that I heard. Again, I could have been just hearing something that a visual was out of my sight...aka could have been people out there walking around and I just never saw them. ...But I hope not.
 
Been there three times, only this last visit (two Friday's ago) did I have an experience that remotely felt different. I stood on Little Round Top, just left center of the 20th Maine's position. I was staring out at the woods where the confederates attacked from. I heard plenty of footsteps in the woods, walking through the dead leaves and I looked all over to see who walking around in the woods, but I saw no one...and I stood there for a good ten minutes staring. I didn't see a thing, but I definitely heard multiple sets of footsteps in the woods and no one around making those steps. The only other living thing that was around me, that I saw, was a chipmunk. One tiny chipmunk cannot make the sound that I heard. Again, I could have been just hearing something that a visual was out of my sight...aka could have been people out there walking around and I just never saw them. ...But I hope not.
You will not believe it. I was at Little Round Top last weekend at the left flank of the 20th Maine's position and I heard the exact same thing. Really. I haven't told anyone because I thought they wouldn't believe me. Exactly as you described it, and at the same spot.
 
You will not believe it. I was at Little Round Top last weekend at the left flank of the 20th Maine's position and I heard the exact same thing. Really. I haven't told anyone because I thought they wouldn't believe me. Exactly as you described it, and at the same spot.


Now that is freaky. I stood there and thought for certain that there had to be a group walking through the woods, and I looked high and low, nothing. Just a scampering chipmunk and me....possibly some Alabamians as well!!!
 
It is said that Gettysburg is the most haunted place in the USA. 2o years ago, me and a buddy took some time off and volunteered our time on the movie Gettysburg. The camp where we set our tent was reportedly behind what were the Confederate lines. We were doing the scenes of the 20th Maine on Little Round Top that week so obviously we were dressed as Union privates. Some of the other reenactors who had been there pretty much all summer were relating stories to us of strange occurrences happening throughout the course of the movie shoot. probably the most vivid were the guys being woken up in the middle of the night being punched or kicked with nobody there. Could be they were just feeding us a story, or maybe something did happen. I don't rule it out.
 
Now that is freaky. I stood there and thought for certain that there had to be a group walking through the woods, and I looked high and low, nothing. Just a scampering chipmunk and me....possibly some Alabamians as well!!!
Just weird, man. It was getting on toward evening, but it wasn't dark. I could see clearly. The leaves were off the trees, it was daylight, and I looked as hard as I could and saw nothing. The only other person near me was a guy who portrays Colonel Strong Vincent. He looked just like him, and he was about where the 83rd Pa. met the 20th maine. Just weird how I could swear there was nothing out there, and the guy 70 yards behind me didn't seem to notice anything. I was really reluctant, but also kinda eager to leave. Cool experience, but kinda spooky.
 
Just weird, man. It was getting on toward evening, but it wasn't dark. I could see clearly. The leaves were off the trees, it was daylight, and I looked as hard as I could and saw nothing. The only other person near me was a guy who portrays Colonel Strong Vincent. He looked just like him, and he was about where the 83rd Pa. met the 20th maine. Just weird how I could swear there was nothing out there, and the guy 70 yards behind me didn't seem to notice anything. I was really reluctant, but also kinda eager to leave. Cool experience, but kinda spooky.

Very weird!!! It was about 3:00 when I got there. Two sets of couples had just left LRT as I was, for lack of a better term, getting into position on the left. So I was all alone. I didn't want to leave either, but something said to me, get the heck out. I've heard the stories of po'd ghosts kicking the snot out of people who didn't heed their warnings. If that was a warning, my intention was to heed.

I told me wife when we got home from Gettysburg. She was freaked out. I told my class when I got to school on Monday. They thought it was pretty cool. I'm somewhere in the middle of those two emotions.
 
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