Ghosts at Monocacy?

[NH Civil War Gal]

@drjekyll76
- https://civilwartalk.com/threads/my-trip-to-monocacy-battlefield.161827/#post-2121755

Has anyone had any experience with this? I've been to Monocacy a number of times and haven't seen or felt anything in particular. I've been there in the fog of January and in the heat of summer and down by the river during that time and at other seasons. My niece has been with me (and lives in that area too) and she never felt anything.

However, in looking back on some very old threads here, I've seen where some reenactors have had experiences of things being moved around.

So I would like to know if there are any experiences anyone would like to talk about.

I believe the Best Farm was a place that was extremely cruel to slaves WELL before the Civil War, late in the 1700s and early 1800s. I've walked around there and could believe it was haunted.

 

[JOHN42768]

Never made it there, but expect it depends on the individual visiting as to their personal feelings of spirits left behind whom may have met with a gruesome death.

 

[Woods-walker]

View attachment 391216
@drjekyll76
- https://civilwartalk.com/threads/my-trip-to-monocacy-battlefield.161827/#post-2121755

Has anyone had any experience with this? I've been to Monocacy a number of times and haven't seen or felt anything in particular. I've been there in the fog of January and in the heat of summer and down by the river during that time and at other seasons. My niece has been with me (and lives in that area too) and she never felt anything.

However, in looking back on some very old threads here, I've seen where some reenactors have had experiences of things being moved around.

So I would like to know if there are any experiences anyone would like to talk about.

I believe the Best Farm was a place that was extremely cruel to slaves WELL before the Civil War, late in the 1700s and early 1800s. I've walked around there and could believe it was haunted.

@NH Civil War Gal are you asking specifically about unexplained encounters at Monocacy in particular? Or individual experiences in general?
Did you experience something at Monocacy?
Just wondering. I live on hollowed ground where fighting occurred on May 10, '64 and my wife and I have had several unexplained experiences.

 

[Seduzal]

Thanks for sharing this awesome article.

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

@NH Civil War Gal are you asking specifically about unexplained encounters at Monocacy in particular? Or individual experiences in general?
Did you experience something at Monocacy?
Just wondering. I live on hollowed ground where fighting occurred on May 10, '64 and my wife and I have had several unexplained experiences.

Please sure your experiences! I've walked a great deal of Monocacy in all kinds of weather and have been down to the river. I never felt anything really but there are places it feels different.

What fighting took place where you live? Please share your experience!

 

[Texas Yank]

Been there twice... We like to stay in Frederick, MD when visiting Gettysburg and Antietam due to its central location. The battle in 1864 is interesting but just as interesting is the fact that this ground also is where Special Order # 191 was discovered by the union forces in Sep. 1862. Sorry... never experienced anything unusual.

 

[captaindrew]

I really need to stop there sometime, driven past it many times on the way to Gettysburg. Can't say I've had any odd feelings at any battlefields except one visit to Antietam I was there at first light in the morning and had the place to myself and sure had a solemn feeling walking around that morning.

 

[Texas Yank]

I really need to stop there sometime, driven past it many times on the way to Gettysburg. Can't say I've had any odd feelings at any battlefields except one visit to Antietam I was there at first light in the morning and had the place to myself and sure had a solemn feeling walking around that morning.

It's definitely worth a stop. That drive to Gettysburg up Hwy. 15 through Thurmont & Emmitsburg is nice as well.

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

One of my favorite battlefields. Very intimate. One of the best times to go is in January when there is no snow and it is all corn stubble and you can walk the fields and follow paths to the river that the soldiers took. And it is very still and not many people around.

If you go to the NPS building and look east, you can see where defenses were made with artillery and the NPS building has some guns set up that are in position that the CSA used. A gentle rolling landscape but even gentle elevation can be everything with cannon fire.

Though I did the walk to the river in the summer in June with my daughter a couple of years ago and it gives a whole different feel too and went actually among some of the same paths. But I didn't enjoy having to go through the vegetation and worrying about snakes, but I did it.

 

[Woods-walker]

Please sure your experiences! I've walked a great deal of Monocacy in all kinds of weather and have been down to the river. I never felt anything really but there are places it feels different.

What fighting took place where you live? Please share your experience!

The fighting occurred in the late morning and afternoon of May 10 1864. It's know as the battle of Tally's Mill. Gorgon Rhea summarized it as Action on the Po [Po river] in his book The battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse and the Road to Yellow Tavern. I plan to post a more detailed essay on CWT later this year if time permits.
As far as strange happenings there have been too many to write in detail. But to summarize:
Inside the house - unexplained voices - tamperings with the thermostat when no one is home.

Outside we have seen horses in the pasture with our horses and separate sightings of three different confederate soldiers.

 

[Ole Miss]

Monocacy was a little known but important ACW clash! Early was on a tight schedule and he had no desire to meet any sizable Federal force on his way to Washington D. C. and a visit to the Smithsonian museum. Lew Wallace did just enough to delay and hurt Early's force enough that Grant could send reinforcements to defend the Capitol.

I have been to the battlefield a couple of times and have marvelled about how beautiful it is, especially in the fall. I have never encountered any haints, ghosts or spirits but then I have never seen any of them at Shiloh!
Regards
David

 

[CowCavalry]

I really need to stop there sometime, driven past it many times on the way to Gettysburg. Can't say I've had any odd feelings at any battlefields except one visit to Antietam I was there at first light in the morning and had the place to myself and sure had a solemn feeling walking around that morning.

Funny you say that; I worked in Frederick for 10 months and visited Sharpsburg, took a colleague who had 0 knowledge or interest in the ACW really. She would return every Sunday when we were off work and walk the battlefield in the early morning and she told me that she did not know why but she felt drawn to the place and it wasn't just because of the natural setting, she described it as eerie. The area had no lack of good places to walk if she had just wanted excercise.

 

[Rebelsoul]

I had friends who lived at the old stone mill, I think it's the visitor center now, back in the late 70s early 80s before it became a park. The bottom part was their apartment. My wife and I lived in Frederick and use to visit them all the time. Never seen or heard anything but I wish I would have !!

 

[Jantzen64]

Just adding my two cents worth that Monocacy is well worth the stop - great Visitors' Center, and, as @Texas Yank notes, it's where they found Special Orders 191, so you get a "two-fer." I think the markers/signage really brings home the drama of Lew Wallace's desperate defense! Never had any "other worldly" experience there, but I'm typically skunked on my late night battlefield trampings. I usually run into someone else with a humongous flash on their camera, after which I definitely see "orbs." The closest was at Gettysburg and it wasn't in reputed areas like the Triangular Field/Devils Den. It was down in the hollow at the base of Eastern Cemetery Hill - after midnight, and there was such a heaviness there that my son and I got uncomfortable and actually retreated. Never saw or heard anything, just a feeling . . .

 

[BronxYankee]

Never visited Monocacy but when I was at Antietam in May 2017 I was walking Bloody Lane and saw a reenactor and spoke to her for a minute. Well I started to walk away and within a split second she was gone. It got eerily quiet and no one was around. I'm sure she just walked away but was really strange. Same thing happened on Burnside Bridge also. Everything became still and no one was around.

 

[BillWright]

I've been an outdoorsman most of my life. I've hunted,camped and love being in nature.. I've been privaledged to walk many of the civil war sites and the only one I ever got a strange feeling at was Appomattox at dusk…knowing this was the road Lee's army came down to stack their arms and flag. I've also visited Shiloh walking at night from the Shiloh church to Pittsburg landing. I guess I expected to feel something because of the fierce fighting that had gone on. As a historian I try to envision what happened on the ground beneath my feet.

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

Never visited Monocacy but when I was at Antietam in May 2017 I was walking Bloody Lane and saw a reenactor and spoke to her for a minute. Well I started to walk away and within a split second she was gone. It got eerily quiet and no one was around. I'm sure she just walked away but was really strange. Same thing happened on Burnside Bridge also. Everything became still and no one was around.

What did she say? And what did the Burnside Bridge one say?

 

[BronxYankee]

What did she say? And what did the Burnside Bridge one say?

The Bloody Lane Reenactor was dressed as a Confederate from a North Carolina unit and she was describing where they were located in the vicinity I was at. At Burnside Bridge it was a Park Ranger who gave me a quick overview of where the Georgians were located across the bridge as I was on the Union side.