- Joined
- Feb 5, 2017
I found some great new material at a used book store, so I’m going to start slowly posting it this Fall so we can enjoy it and discuss sit.
I found a book called “Ghosts and Haunts of the Civil War” by Christopher K. Coleman. It is about 20-years-old and has some new stuff I’ve never read.
This is a real weird story and I’ve never heard the like:
”Front Royal, the town where Sheridan’s troops murdered the rangers, was called H-e-l-town in frontier days. The Federals apparently had sought to make Front Royal live up to its original name. There is some evidence to suggest they succeeded, at least in part. Beginning in 1870, and continuing in approximately six-year-intervals well into the twentieth century, the community of Front Royal has been visited by a most appalling apparition.
A local squire who encountered this entity called the Whirlaway. Characterized by a violent outburst of wind shrieking through field and forest, the apparition at first appears to folk as a silver-green light that shimmers before the eye.
Out of this bright display of light emerges a figure, wearing a plain gray jacket and trousers, with a visored kept shading its face. Surrounded by a shining silver glow, to mortal eyes it seems as though one is looking at him underwater. The strange apparition is able to move faster than the eye can follow. Even standing still it appears to undulate.
The best documented appearance of the Whirlaway was in 1925. in the early autumn of that year, Mrs. Cook, a local resident, and her daughters were virtually besieged by the Whirlaway. Their house lay on a stone outcropping overlooking the Shenandoah, in the Riverton community near to Front Royal. That day the Cooks first felt a strong wind coming out of the river, then they heard the sound of heavy boots on the gravel path leading up to their house. As it coalesced into human form, the four women quickly bolted and barred every window and door. Yet the entity seemed able to move from the front to the back of the house in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, the entity never got in the house, though the women were terrorized by it for the better part of the afternoon. That same day, the Whirlaway paid a visit to folks on the other side of the river as well. Some years before that incident, Judge Sanford Johnson of Front Royal also had a terrifying encounter with the entity.
Who, or what, was the Whirlaway? According to local tradition, it may be a young man of the Civil War era who had inquired about joining Mosby’s command. mistaken for a guerrilla, the Yankees fell upon the lad with murderous intent. When they had finished with him, they dumped his body in front of a herd of stampeding cattle.
Whether the young man actually rode with Mosby or not is a moot point; local tradition claims he was a civilian. Yet, Mosby’s men had only the simplest of uniforms—generally something gray—and they were recruited from, fought around, and lived among the local populace. Their ability to merge into the civilian population was legendary, and so it may be true that the Whirlaway was actually one of Mosby’s men.”
Has anyone in the area every heard of this?
I, personally, would call this an elemental. What do you think?
Has this occurred in recent years?
I found a book called “Ghosts and Haunts of the Civil War” by Christopher K. Coleman. It is about 20-years-old and has some new stuff I’ve never read.
This is a real weird story and I’ve never heard the like:
”Front Royal, the town where Sheridan’s troops murdered the rangers, was called H-e-l-town in frontier days. The Federals apparently had sought to make Front Royal live up to its original name. There is some evidence to suggest they succeeded, at least in part. Beginning in 1870, and continuing in approximately six-year-intervals well into the twentieth century, the community of Front Royal has been visited by a most appalling apparition.
A local squire who encountered this entity called the Whirlaway. Characterized by a violent outburst of wind shrieking through field and forest, the apparition at first appears to folk as a silver-green light that shimmers before the eye.
Out of this bright display of light emerges a figure, wearing a plain gray jacket and trousers, with a visored kept shading its face. Surrounded by a shining silver glow, to mortal eyes it seems as though one is looking at him underwater. The strange apparition is able to move faster than the eye can follow. Even standing still it appears to undulate.
The best documented appearance of the Whirlaway was in 1925. in the early autumn of that year, Mrs. Cook, a local resident, and her daughters were virtually besieged by the Whirlaway. Their house lay on a stone outcropping overlooking the Shenandoah, in the Riverton community near to Front Royal. That day the Cooks first felt a strong wind coming out of the river, then they heard the sound of heavy boots on the gravel path leading up to their house. As it coalesced into human form, the four women quickly bolted and barred every window and door. Yet the entity seemed able to move from the front to the back of the house in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, the entity never got in the house, though the women were terrorized by it for the better part of the afternoon. That same day, the Whirlaway paid a visit to folks on the other side of the river as well. Some years before that incident, Judge Sanford Johnson of Front Royal also had a terrifying encounter with the entity.
Who, or what, was the Whirlaway? According to local tradition, it may be a young man of the Civil War era who had inquired about joining Mosby’s command. mistaken for a guerrilla, the Yankees fell upon the lad with murderous intent. When they had finished with him, they dumped his body in front of a herd of stampeding cattle.
Whether the young man actually rode with Mosby or not is a moot point; local tradition claims he was a civilian. Yet, Mosby’s men had only the simplest of uniforms—generally something gray—and they were recruited from, fought around, and lived among the local populace. Their ability to merge into the civilian population was legendary, and so it may be true that the Whirlaway was actually one of Mosby’s men.”
Has anyone in the area every heard of this?
I, personally, would call this an elemental. What do you think?
Has this occurred in recent years?
Last edited by a moderator: