The town of Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania was the site of the bloodiest
battle of the American Civil War. The town’s long, chilling history of
paranormal occurrences began a short time after the battle ended.
The Battle of Gettysburg, fought in the hills, forests, and streets of
the town, raged on for three days, from July 1-3, 1863. During this monumental
battle, 70,000 Confederate men faced off against 94,000 Federals. When the
fighting ended, the Confederates, led by General
Robert E. Lee, had lost the battle. The casualties from both sides,
including the dead, wounded, captured, and missing, are estimated between 45-
and 51,000.
In the aftermath of the
battle, the once-quiet town of Gettysburg was a scene of human devastation. The
bodies of the dead, scattered in and around the town, lay bloating and decaying
in the summer heat. Houses and businesses, and even the Hall at Pennsylvania
College, had been turned into makeshift field hospitals to accommodate the
wounded and dying. Reports from the period tell of blood-soaked carpets and bloodstained
walls in peoples’ homes, with the wounded being laid out side-by-side. The
scene at the field hospital in Pennsylvania Hall was especially intense:
blood-sprayed walls and floors, amputations without anesthesia, and the mortally
wounded being taken just outside the operating rooms to die.
The process of cleaning
up the carnage at Gettysburg would not be swift—but the reports of strange occurrences
would be much more immediate. Rose Farm
was the site of one early report. The farm had been used as a field hospital
and burial ground for slain soldiers, and hundreds had been buried in rows around
the house and property. A few weeks after the battle, a man who worked at the
farm reported a “strange glowing shape” appearing near the graves just after
dark.Other early incidents occurred at the Devil’s Den, a “tangled outcropping of rocks” that was reputed to be haunted even before the battle—and was the scene of an intense, bloody skirmish on the second day. After the day’s fighting ended, the men who stood guard that night spoke of a “macabre and unnerving” atmosphere among the “looming rocks” and corpses. In another, later report, a pair of hunters became lost in the woods near the rocky ridge. They saw the “dim figure of a man standing atop the boulders,” gesturing. They realized he was showing them the direction they needed to go. And then he vanished. (www.prairieghosts.com)
These strange events at Gettysburg were just the beginning. In the 151 years since the battle, innumerable incidents have been reported all around the town. And the reports continue, even to the present day.
Next entry: Gettysburg today, and its most ghostly locations.
To learn more about the Battle of Gettysburg and its legacy of paranormal occurrences, visit:
http://www.prairieghosts.com/gettysburg.html
http://www.gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/Gettysburg_Facts/Gettysburg_Facts.php
