Ghost Tours

Jackson'sArm

Corporal
Joined
Apr 21, 2017
Location
just south of the Red River
Ghost tours always seem like an odd little embarrassment around the battlefields. Who would pay for such a thing? And then there are the theological difficulties. Traveling with a friend once, who really REALLY wanted to go on a ghost tour, I did the gracious thing (well, she had gone to the Maritime Museum with me) and went along. I must say, it was fascinating historically. I'm sure there are good and bad tour guides, but we got a good 'un.

The article below begins with a defense of ghost tours and folklore, and ends up with a perspective on battlefield preservation and manipulation.

"The result is a battlefield highly effective in educating visitors of the events, but a landscape devoid of meaning and memory to residents who lived there after the battle had subsided... This dark side of preservation is rarely recognized."

https://thehistorybandits.com/2015/10/29/a-defense-of-ghost-tours-in-gettysburg-pa/
 
I enjoyed reading this, and it seems like a well researched and thoughtful article. This little snippet stood out for me:

"An academic investigation of the battlefield might teach us of the powerful Major General John F. Reynolds’ heroic deeds. The role of a ghost story, however, is to tell the tale of the powerless Katherine May Hewitt—Catholic fiancée to General Reynolds whose ghost has reportedly been seen tending to his bloody corpse in the back of the George George House on Steinwehr Avenue. For Gettysburg, only by embracing both methods of historical inquiry, “the sacred as well as the secular,” and “the powerless as well as the powerful,” can we begin to “account for the whole of the human condition.” Ghost tours reinforce the fact that, though the battle lasted only three days, its tragedy spanned a lifetime".
 
Ghost tours are a racket. Pandering to superstition and ignorance has little to do with history. Entertainment, yes. During my time as an NPS volunteer at the Castillo de San Marcos I heard local commercial tour guides spread so much nonsense it....argh.
 
Ghost tours always seem like an odd little embarrassment around the battlefields. Who would pay for such a thing? And then there are the theological difficulties. Traveling with a friend once, who really REALLY wanted to go on a ghost tour, I did the gracious thing (well, she had gone to the Maritime Museum with me) and went along. I must say, it was fascinating historically. I'm sure there are good and bad tour guides, but we got a good 'un.

The article below begins with a defense of ghost tours and folklore, and ends up with a perspective on battlefield preservation and manipulation.

"The result is a battlefield highly effective in educating visitors of the events, but a landscape devoid of meaning and memory to residents who lived there after the battle had subsided... This dark side of preservation is rarely recognized."

https://thehistorybandits.com/2015/10/29/a-defense-of-ghost-tours-in-gettysburg-pa/
Hey @Jackson'sArm . Ever been to Ellwood, the Lacy place in the Wilderness where Stonewall's arm was buried?
 
I enjoyed the article @Jackson'sArm! Thanks for sharing! I especially like the Joshua Chamberlain quote. I think many of us have felt this way when we have visited Gettysburg.

"In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls.”​
 
Ghost tours are a racket. Pandering to superstition and ignorance has little to do with history. Entertainment, yes. During my time as an NPS volunteer at the Castillo de San Marcos I heard local commercial tour guides spread so much nonsense it....argh.

It has become a major racket, similar to the snake oil salesmen of the period. I'm sure much of what is told is pure fantasy, I'll save my money.
 
I enjoyed the article @Jackson'sArm! Thanks for sharing! I especially like the Joshua Chamberlain quote. I think many of us have felt this way when we have visited Gettysburg.

"In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls.”​
I like that part, too, Eleanor Rose. Very poignant indeed...
 
Hey @Jackson'sArm . Ever been to Ellwood, the Lacy place in the Wilderness where Stonewall's arm was buried?
34a01bc8b5c09fa2a6dac87526d037bc.jpg
Discovered on Pinterest!
 
I was in Roanoke 18 months ago and I sure wish I had thought to take a picture of the grave - of the Dr - who amputated Jackson's arm! It was listed on his stone and I was like, "what - that was a thing?" Sort of like, "I danced with a guy, who danced with a girl, who danced with the Prince of Wales."
 
I was in Roanoke 18 months ago and I sure wish I had thought to take a picture of the grave - of the Dr - who amputated Jackson's arm! It was listed on his stone and I was like, "what - that was a thing?" Sort of like, "I danced with a guy, who danced with a girl, who danced with the Prince of Wales."
You mean it was on his gravestone that he amputated Jackson's arm??
 
I was in Roanoke 18 months ago and I sure wish I had thought to take a picture of the grave - of the Dr - who amputated Jackson's arm! It was listed on his stone and I was like, "what - that was a thing?" Sort of like, "I danced with a guy, who danced with a girl, who danced with the Prince of Wales."

Sorry, but as far as I know Jackson's arm was amputated by Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire and he is buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond. Have a look here:
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/...l=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=5908003&df=all&
Maybe it was a memorial for Dr. McGuire that you saw in Roanoke?
 
I've never been on one but I can see taking the family on one.

I've stayed in the Dobbin House at Gettysburg. Trying to remember the name of the room but it's door was right on Steinwehr street. I swear that late at night there was all kinds of noises, sounds of feet, and other things. Woke my wife up one time and she is soundest sleeper I've ever met.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top