Desert Kid
2nd Lieutenant
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2011
- Location
- Arizona
To bounce off an idea from the Sasquatch thread.
Were there any "encounters" during the war rather than after it?
Were there any "encounters" during the war rather than after it?
Chamberlain wrote about seeing the ghost of George Washington during the march to Gettysburg.
Was he serious or was he just speaking euphemistically?
Was he serious or was he just speaking euphemistically?
That one Stanton actually investigated. Members of the 20th Maine claimed to have seen a tall man wearing a tricorn hat riding a white horse (which would be Washington's white war horse Nelson) who directed them to Little Round Top. Chamberlain told Stanton, “We know not what mystic power may be possessed by those who are now bivouacking with the dead. I only know the effect, but I dare not explain or deny the cause." So...basically he didn't know what his men had seen but however it happened they were where they needed to be that day at Gettysburg!
Great link @NH Civil War Gal . I have read this story in a collection borrowed from a virtual library. It really is a great story. How true it is we'll never know, but going by the number of witnesses you'd imagine there is some truth to it.
Was he serious or was he just speaking euphemistically?
He was serious and others mentioned it as well. The 20th Maine was marching towards Gettysburg and came to a fork in th eroad and were unsure which way to go. A mounted figure in a tri-corn hat motioned for them to take a certain direction, which was the right one. He roe with them for a while and then he disappeared. it was noted that he looked like GW. There is also a story that GW fell into a sort of dream in which he saw huge unfamiliar armies engaged in a terrible terrible battle that he thought was in the US. Some have suggested GW was time travelling to the Civil War.Great link @NH Civil War Gal . I have read this story in a collection borrowed from a virtual library. It really is a great story. How true it is we'll never know, but going by the number of witnesses you'd imagine there is some truth to it.
OOPs, should have read the rest of the thread before answering!He was serious and others mentioned it as well. The 20th Maine was marching towards Gettysburg and came to a fork in th eroad and were unsure which way to go. A mounted figure in a tri-corn hat motioned for them to take a certain direction, which was the right one. He roe with them for a while and then he disappeared. it was noted that he looked like GW. There is also a story that GW fell into a sort of dream in which he saw huge unfamiliar armies engaged in a terrible terrible battle that he thought was in the US. Some have suggested GW was time travelling to the Civil War.
Do we have a solid source for this? I'm not trying to poo-poo the story, but I want more information.
maybe neither they or their commander wanted to be asked what they'd been smoking up there!
Apparently he also made a visit to McClellan before Antietam. Well, of course he did!
http://ghostology.com/2012/10/17/ghostology-the-ghostly-history-of-george-washington/