Three days of the bloodiest fighting of the American Civil War have forever etched these hallowed fields into the memory of a country and a people. But in the hundred-plus years since the last shot was fired and the last man fell, there continue to be reports from the fields of the fallen: reports of spectral armies still marching in step, of ghostly sentinels and horsemen, of mournful women in white, and the ghostly wails of orphans and animals alike.

GETTYSBURG BATTLEFIELD GHOST PHOTO SUBMITED BY RANDY BERGAMO

The Gettysburg Battlefield was the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1 to July 3, 1863, in and around the borough of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the county seat of Adams County, which had approximately 2,400 residents at the time. It is now the site of two historic landmarks: Gettysburg National Military Park and the Gettysburg National Cemetery.

The town was the center of a road network that connected ten nearby Pennsylvania and Maryland towns, including well-maintained turnpikes to Chambersburg, York, and Baltimore, so was a natural concentration point for the large armies that descended upon it.

To the northwest, a series of low, parallel ridges lead to the towns of Cashtown and Chambersburg. Seminary Ridge, closest to Gettysburg, is named for the Lutheran Theological Seminary on its crest. Farther out are McPherson's Ridge, Herr's Ridge, and eventually South Mountain. Oak Ridge, a northward extension of Seminary Ridge, is capped by Oak Hill, a site for artillery that commanded a good area north of the town.

Directly south of the town is Cemetery Hill, at 503 feet (153 m) above sea level, a gentle 80 foot (24 m) slope above downtown. The hill is named for the Evergreen (civilian) cemetery on its crest; the famous military cemetery dedicated by Abraham Lincoln now shares the hill. Adjacent, due east, is Culp's Hill, of similar height, divided by a slight saddle into two recognizable hills, heavily wooded, and more rugged. Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill were subjected to assaults throughout the battle by Richard S. Ewell's Second Corps.

Extending south from Cemetery Hill is a slight elevation known as Cemetery Ridge, although the term ridge is rather extravagant; it is generally only about 40 feet (12 m) above the surrounding terrain and tapers off before Little Round Top into low, wooded ground. At the northern end of Cemetery Ridge is a copse of trees and a low stone wall that makes two 90-degree turns; the latter has been nicknamed The Angle and The High Water Mark. This area, and the nearby Codori Farm on Emmitsburg Road, were prominent features in the progress of Pickett's Charge during the third day of battle, as well as General Richard H. Anderson's division assault on the second.

Dominating the landscape are the Round Tops to the south. Little Round Top is a hill with a rugged, steep slope of 130 feet above nearby Plum Run (the peak is 550 feet (168 m) above sea level), strewn with large boulders; to its southwest, the area with the most significant boulders, some the size of living rooms, is known as Devil's Den. [Big] Round Top, known also to locals of the time as Sugar Loaf, is 116 feet higher than its Little companion. Its steep slopes are heavily wooded, which made it unsuitable for siting artillery without a large effort to climb the heights with horse-drawn guns and clear lines of fire; Little Round Top was unwooded, but its steep and rocky form made it difficult to deploy artillery in mass. However, Cemetery Hill was an excellent site for artillery, commanding all of the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge and the approaches to them. Little Round Top and Devil's Den were key locations for General John Bell Hood's division in Longstreet's assault during the second day of battle, July 2, 1863. The valley formed by Plum Run between the Round Tops and Devil's Den earned the name Valley of Death on that day.

Northwest from the Round Tops, towards Emmitsburg Road, are the Wheatfield, Rose Woods, and the Peach Orchard. As noted by General Daniel E. Sickles in the second day of battle, this area is about 40 feet higher in elevation than the lowlands at the south end of Cemetery Ridge. These all figured prominently in General Lafayette McLaws's division assault during the second day of battle.

After the battle, the Army of the Potomac and the citizens of Gettysburg were left with appalling burdens. The battlefield was strewn with over 7,000 dead men and the houses, farms, churches, and public buildings were struggling to deal with 30,000 wounded men. The stench from the dead soldiers and from the thousands of animal carcasses was overwhelming. To the east of town, a massive tent city was erected to attempt medical care for the soldiers, which was named Camp Letterman after Jonathan Letterman, chief surgeon of the Army of the Potomac. Contracts were let with entrepreneurs to bury men and animals and the majority were buried near where they fell.

Two individuals immediately began to work to help the town recover and to preserve the memory of those who had fallen: David Wills and David McConaughy, both attorneys living in Gettysburg. A week after the battle, Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin visited Gettysburg and expressed the state's interest in finding its veterans and giving them a proper burial. Wilson immediately arranged for the purchase of 17 acres (69,000 m²) next to the Evergreen Cemetery, but the priority of burying Pennsylvania veterans soon changed to honoring all of the Union dead.

McConaughy was responsible for purchasing 600 acres (2.4 km²) of privately held land to preserve as a monument. His first priorities for preservation were Culp's Hill, East Cemetery Hill, and Little Round Top. On April 30, 1864, the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association was formed to mark "the great deeds of valor ... and the signal events which render these battlegrounds illustrious", and it began adding to McConaughy's holdings. In 1880, the Grand Army of the Republic took control of the Memorial Association and its lands.

On November 19, 1863, the Soldiers' National Cemetery was dedicated in a ceremony highlighted by Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The night before, Lincoln slept in Wills's house on the main square in Gettysburg, which is now a landmark administered by the National Park Service. The cemetery was completed in March of 1864 with the last of 3,512 Union dead were reburied. It became a National Cemetery on May 1, 1872, when control was transferred to the U.S. War Department.

The removal of Confederate dead from the field burial plots was not undertaken until seven years after the battle. From 1870 to 1873, upon the initiative of the Ladies Memorial Associations of Richmond, Raleigh, Savannah, and Charleston, 3,320 bodies were disinterred and sent to cemeteries in those cities for reburial, 2,935 being interred in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond. Seventy-three bodies were reburied in home cemeteries.

Gettysburg National Military Park
Travel back in time to Civil War days.
97 Taneytown Rd.
Gettysburg, PA 17325

Located 50 miles northwest of Baltimore, the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was the site of the largest battle ever waged during the American Civil War. Fought in the first three days of July 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg resulted in a hallmark victory for the Union "Army of the Potomac" and successfully ended the second invasion of the North by General Robert E. Lee's "Army of Northern Virginia". Historians have referred to the battle as a major turning point in the war, the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy". It was also the bloodiest single battle of the war, resulting in over 51,000 soldiers killed, wounded, captured or missing.

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It could be said that Mark Nesbitt’s first ghost investigations took place in the 1970s when he was a National Park Service Ranger at Gettysburg. Patrolling the battlefield at night could be a downright thrilling experience. When his shift was done, he would head for home, one of the historic buildings on the battlefield—buildings that had been used as hospitals during the battle. More than once, in the middle of the night, he was awakened by strange noises which appeared to have no source—at least no visible source.

Ghosts of Gettysburg Candlelight Walking Tours®

Ghosts of Gettysburg, 271 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325 (717) 337-0445

Visit Mark Nesbitt here Official Web Site www.ghostsofgettysburg.com

Also Check Out: Ghost TV Dead On Productions is a partnership between historian Mark Nesbitt, author of the highly acclaimed Ghosts of Gettysburg series, and Investigative Medium Laine Crosby, marketing strategist and former director of marketing for high-tech ventures, including the launch of The Weather Channel New Media and weather.com.

The duo also co-host the talk show Ghost Talkers. The show includes interviews with psychics, authors, historians, and paranormal investigators. The first season’s topics include: unpublished Gettysburg ghost stories, capturing electronic voice phenomenon, psychic encounters, demonology, possessed possessions, and all things paranormal. “We noticed a void in the market- audiences’ desires were not being met,” said executive producer Laine Crosby, an ex-marketing executive who now works as an Investigative Medium. “Although national cable networks have begun to offer quality programming about the paranormal, with the exception of the random podcast, the Internet seems to be dead silent. We are the first non-television network to launch this unique programming in the high-tech world.” www.ghostchannel.tv

 

#2. ANTIETAM, MARYLAND

 

Established by Act of Congress on August 30, 1890, this Civil War site marks the end of General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the North in September 1862. The battle claimed more than 23,000 men killed, wounded, and missing in one single day, September 17,1862, and led to Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Upside down canon barrels mark the spots on the battlefield where Generals were killed. There are five in all on the Antietam battlefield. Ghost Photo sent to us from Belinda Franks.

Strange events have taken place at Bloody Lane that lead people to believe that it is haunted. The sounds of gunfire and the smell of smoke and gunpowder are just some of the strange happenings there. People have also seen strange blue lights near Burnside Bridge where many Federal soldiers died while trying to cross Antietam Creek. The Pry House was used as McClellan's headquarters and is thought to be haunted by General Richardson's wife Frances, who cared for him on his deathbed. Ghosts have also been seen at the Piper House, Sherrick House, Otto House and St. Paul Episcopal Church, which was used, as a Confederate field hospital following the battle.

Many ghost hunters have investigated Antietam Battlefield and have come away with paranormal photos of "orbs" and strange mists. There certainly appears to be here ample reason to conduct an investigation of our own.

Second only to Gettysburg in the annals of warlike horror is Antietam. On a single day – September 17, 1862 – the Union and Confederate Armies clashed in the corn fields and farmlands surrounding this little corner of a divided nation. When the day had ended, 23,000 souls had been dispatched to the hereafter: this is more than all the dead of the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Mexican American and the Spanish American conflicts combined.

Antietam National Cemetery, whose 11.36 acres contain 5,032 interments, 1,836 unidentified, adjoins the park; grave space is not available. Civil War interments occurred in 1866. The cemetery contains only Union soldiers from the Civil War period. Confederate dead were interred in the Washington Confederate Cemetery within Rosehill Cemetery, Hagerstown. The Antietam National Cemetery was placed under the War Department on July 14, 1870; it was transferred to the National Park Service on August 10, 1933.

Over the years visitors and park rangers alike have reported strange occurrences from the now idyllic fields of Antietam. Like their brothers at Gettysburg, the soldiers who fell at Antietam still remain as more than memory.

"Baltimore: A House Divided" Civil War Trail is open.

Cross the Potomac River with Lee. Discover the "Lost Orders" with McClellan and fight the battles of South Mountain as you follow the roads the soldiers used during the 1862 Antietam Campaign. Trace the route of John Wilkes Booth's escape route through southern Maryland after he shot Abraham Lincoln. Ride with Confederate Jubal Early as he marched toward Washington in 1864. Have a look at a prisoner-of-war camp at Point Lookout. Visit Baltimore's rich store of Civil War sites and uncover the secrets of Frederick, Washington, Carroll and Montgomery counties.

Antietam National Battlefield and South Mountain State Park in Washington County.

Civil WarTraveler.Com

NEW: Combined Virginia/Maryland Civil War Trails map-brochure

http://www.civilwar-va.com/maryland/antietam.html

In the early to mid-1800’s, the present town of Chickamauga was just a large plantation in the North Georgia rolling hills. The name of the post office was Crawfish Springs-named for Indian Chief Crayfish, of the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee Indians had settled the area, farming and enjoying the natural beauty of the land. Chickamauga is derived from an ancient Cherokee word meaning "River of Death".

Considered a Confederate victory for halting the Union advance, the Battle of Chickamauga was a costly one. It claimed an estimated 34,624 casualties (16,170 for the Union; 18,454 for the Confederates).

"Wherever there has been great suffering, people are always seeing strange things."

These are the words of Edward Tinney, former historian and chief ranger at Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park. Tinney, who worked at the park from 1969 to 1986 and also spent time working at the battlegrounds at Shiloh, Tenn., said ghostly sightings at the Chickamauga Battlefield or any Civil War site are not uncommon.

Tinney said the legend of Old Green Eyes, the ghost who is said to haunt the battlefield in various forms ranging from a Confederate soldier to a green-eyed panther, has been a part of Chickamauga Battlefield lore since the last shot was fired at the bloody battle that claimed 34,000 casualties Sept. 19-20, 1863. The tales of Green Eyes and other phantom sightings stem from the soldiers, who lived through the War Between the States, Tinney said.

"Green Eyes is rumored to be a man who lost his head to a cannonball, frantically searching the battlefield at night for his dislocated body," Tinney said. "History says ghosts in the bat-tlefield such as the Green Eyes tale began happening soon after the war in 1863.

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, located in northern Georgia and eastern Tennessee, preserves the sites of two major battles of the American Civil War.

One of the earliest ghost sightings shortly after the Civil War ended is documented in Susie Blaylock McDaniel's book "The Official History of Catoosa County."

Jim Carlock, an early resident of the Post Oak Community, writes in McDaniel's book about returning home from a centennial celebration on Market Street in Chattanooga in 1876, a mere 13 years after the bloody battle. Carlock writes: "Did you ever see a ghost? They used to see them on the Chickamauga Battlefields just after the war."

Carlock goes on to write that, while passing through the battlefield (or near it, the exact location is unclear), it was dark and there were no houses nearby when he and his friends spotted something 10 feet high with a "big white head." He said he and his companions were in a wagon and a Mr. Shields was riding horseback. Carlock said Shields road up and hit the ghost and a baby cried out and the ghost said, "Let me alone." He said the entity appeared to be a ghostly apparition of a Negro woman with a bundle of clothes on her head.

Chickamauga Ghost Photo sent to us by Danial Druey.

During the War of 1812, five hundred Cherokee soldiers from the area fought with General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend against the Creek Indians, who were aligned with England. Their valor helped assure victory for the Americans. The Cherokee nation was divided into districts and courts with Crawfish Springs the county site of one of the districts. A courthouse was built in the town in 1820 and the first court in Walker County was held here. The Cherokees called this area their home until their forced exodus in 1838, leading to the Trail of Tears.

But the Civil War is not the only source of death that may have imprisoned lost spirits at the battlefield. The hill behind Wilder Tower saw the deaths of many soldiers, mainly from ty-phoid fever, during their training and encampment on the battlefield in preparation for the Spanish-American War, he said.

According to various sources, other tales claim Green Eyes existed before the Civil War and circulated among the soldiers during the fighting, or that the spirit existed as early as the Native American occupation of the land where the battlefield is now located.

Tinney said that during his tenure at the park, he saw something one night that he could not explain, and believes he came face-to-face with the undead inside the battlefield.

The historian said that one day in 1976, about 4 a.m., he went to check on some battle re-enactors who were camping out in the park. He said that while walking near Glen Kelly Road, he encountered a man over 6 feet tall, wearing a long black duster, with shaggy, stringy, black, waist-length hair, walking toward him. From the man's body language, Tinney feared he was about to be attacked, so he crossed to the other side of the road, he said. When the man became parallel with Tinney he turned and smiled a devilish grin, and his dark eyes glistened. Tinney said he turned to face the man and began to back-pedal, as his companion did as well. At that moment, a car came down a straightaway in the road, and when its headlights hit the apparition it vanished, he said.

Between 1890 and 1899 the Congress of the United States authorized the establishment of the first four national military parks: Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Shiloh, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg. The first and largest of these, and the one upon which the establishment and development of most other national military and historical parks was based, was Chickamauga and Chattanooga. It owes its existence largely to the efforts of General H.V. Boynton and Ferdinand Van Derveer, both veterans of the Army of the Cumberland, who saw the need for a national park to preserve and commemorate these battlefields during a visit to the area in 1888.

Chickamauga Ghost Horse I am a Civil War re-enactor and was visiting the Chickamauga battlefield last year... I got home and developed the pictures there was one apparition of a dismounted horse behind me in the brush.

Ghost Photo submited by Rick Kanan.

Site of a major Confederate victory, it was nonetheless hard earned: All told 34,624 died in the battle that raged from September 18 – 20, 1863. Chickamauga is a Cherokee word meaning “River of Blood” and for the dead of both sides this is just what it became.

The specter, in the form of a lady in a white wedding dress, known as the "Lady in White," is searching for her lover, Tinney said.

Other stories of hauntings on the battlefield include visitors' accounts of hearing gunshots, hoof beats, or smelling the strong scent of alcohol.

Sam Weddle, chief ranger at the park for 11 years, said the National Park Service has no official opinion about the legend of Green Eyes or any of the other ghostly tales that float from the confines of the park.

Still, there have been hundreds of reports of paranormal events and ghostly encounters with the remnant spirits of the souls who once fought and died here.

David Lester, Civil War enthusiast and re-enactor, said about five years ago, he and some of his fellow re-enactors were camping out at the battlefield as part of "Living History Days," an event that gives park visitors a first-hand look at how soldiers lived during the war.

Lester said several of his comrades wandered to a neighboring camp to say hello to their fellow soldiers. The men talked with the neighboring campers for several hours before re-turning to their own camp to sleep for the night.

When day broke, the men went back to the camp to wish them a good morning and see how they were getting along, but they were gone, Lester said. There was no sign of their campfire from the night before, not one trace of any human occupation at the site — only undisturbed land.

Site of the Last Stand of U.S. Texans and proud Tejanos against the overwhelming might of Mexican General Santa Anna, the Alamo is burned into the history and patriotic memory of every American generation since then. The valiant defiance of Texas was tested in the forge on the 6th of March 1836 when men like Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett chose to fight and fall together for the honor of Texas and the independence of America. Many say that the spirits of Bowie and Crockett, and of the other brave defenders of this Mission turned Fortress remain to this day, still watchful and resolute, still prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice.

The Alamo Ghost, Ghost Photo sent to us by Gale Sillars.

“If we succeed, the country is ours. It is immense in extent, and fertile in its soil and will amply reward our toil. If we fail, death in the cause of liberty and humanity is not cause for shuddering. Our rifles are by our side, and choice guns they are, we know what awaits us, and are prepared to meet it.”

Letter from Daniel William Cloud of Kentucky, a defender of the Alamo, en route to San Antonio, dated Dec. 26, 1835.

The clash of the U.S. Army, under the command of General George Custer, and the Western Sioux Nation, under the hand of the great Sitting Bull, is forever carved into the American psyche for the horror and the loss of the June day in 1876.

Little Big Horn Ghost Photo sent to us from Natan and Lisa Clarkson.

Today visitor’s to the battlefield can view the black marker that occupies the spot where General Custer allegedly fell, but all around the black marker are other no less significant headstones attesting to the brutal fall of U.S. soldiers who had the misfortune of trying to fend off the Indian attacks. The soldiers were scalped and mutilated in the Indian custom of keeping the warrior from reuniting with his body on the other side. All around, the hollow melancholy of that day still lingers on the hills of Little Big Horn.

Reports have come from the battlefield in modern times of ghostly images, shadows and mists, and the eerie sounds of Indian chanting and war cries mixed with the whimpering of men who knew with certainty they were about to die.

"Oil droplets still bubble from the remains of the USS Arizona, the still-beating heart of the Japanese attack on American forces on the “day that will live in infamy” – December 7, 1941.

 

USS ARIZONA GHOST, Photo sent to us by Mike Steadman.

2,390 brave American died on the USS Arizona alone and it is just one site of many reportedly haunted by the memory of that infamous day. A visit to the USS Arizona Memorial should include a visit to the nearby buildings, part of the military complex still maintained to this day, and source of numerous reports of paranormal activities including voices and footsteps in empty rooms, ghostly lights,