Tales of Ghosts, Gettysburg and Lincoln

I’ve been to Gettysburg several times now. I love American history, especially anything that concerns the Revolutionary War or the Civil War, wars that cover the birth and near death of our Country. Not a topic to take lightly, especially when standing on a battlefield. I went to Gettysburg with my friends for the first time, two years ago. We went mainly to do some ghost hunting, but the history of that place has a way of drawing you down a rabbit hole to the past. The first night there, my two ghost hunting friends and I wanted to get a feel for the place and learn about documented hauntings so we went on two ghost hunting tours, wanting to save the battlefield for the next day. Ghosts have a frustrating habit of not appearing on demand, but people pay for these tours thinking there is a written guarantee that a ghost will jump out and scream, BOO! They don’t, and believe me, you don’t want them to.  More on ghosts after the jump.

Who Are You?

Our first tour began at 9 PM on a rainy and cold night. Our guide, giving a well-researched history of the town, took us to several hot spots near the town center. At one point, we were in a field which had a big old tree. While the rain poured down on us, the guide told us about one particular skirmish that happened between North and South just a few feet away… But, I never heard a word he said. I was feeling nauseous, a sure sign that a spirit was close by, but it wasn’t a soldier?

As the guide and the group moved on to the next destination, I lingered for a bit trying to get a feel of the spirit. It was a cold night and I absolutely hate walking in the rain… but I was glued to the spot. My friends noticed that I wasn’t keeping up with the group and called out for me to hurry and catch up. It took me a moment to realize, because sometimes I can be quite dense, that I had been approached by a tribal spirit, an American Indian, but I didn’t know what tribe, how he died or why he picked me.  All I got was that he was young and he was killed in battle?

After the tour, I asked the guide if he knew anything about the tribal nations that lived in the area, but he was honest and said no, which meant that I needed to research the subject when I returned home. My two friends, who are also sensitive, picked up nothing on this tour, but like I said, spirits have their own agenda. This is the tree where I sensed the spirit of the Native American and you can see several balls of light, which our camera picked up.

Sachs Bridge

The second tour for the night began around 11 p.m. and the rain was now torrential, but that doesn’t stop a ghost hunter. Ha! I was dragged screaming and kicking to the bridge by my fellow hunters. Shivering and in need of a restroom, I did my own version of a tribal dance or what I call my pee-pee dance, while the group concentrated on a building that was used as a hospital during the battle at Gettysburg. Suddenly, the nausea hit and as I shined the beam from my flashlight up the hill, I saw the confederate soldier.

Holy General Lee!

He was dressed in a torn and dirty, maybe bloody, officer’s uniform and he was kneeling on one knee and held a rifle. I don’t think he was aware of me, but the feeling of utter despair hit full force. Jean had the special night vision camera so I slowly backed up until I reached the group. But he was gone by the time we made it back to the hill. Spirits will sometimes appear as a ball of light.

We drove to the battlefield the next day and visited the many sections where the blood of a torn nation was spilled on the fields of Gettysburg and the horror of that war pulled heavily on all three of us. My friends had their own ghostly experiences over the three day stay, but that story is for another time.

Abraham Lincoln

Yes, this was a segway into mentioning a film I recently saw with my husband. I had heard all kinds of comments and reviews of how good this movie was… they were wrong! This movie is better than good, it’s GREAT! This Historical Drama based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” was produced by Steven Spielberg. Daniel Day-Lewis played Abraham Lincoln, Sally Field was Mary Todd Lincoln and Tommy Lee Jones played the Radical Republican Congressional leader, Thaddeus Stevens. The movie dealt with Lincoln’s fervor and manipulations to get the 13^th Amendment added to the Constitution. He even went as far as keeping secret that there were Confederate soldiers on the way to talk peace between North and South. It was that important for Lincoln to make sure that all people were considered equal in the eye of the law.

Conclusion

War sucks! But it’s a necessary evil, especially when the value of a human being is at stake. The battle at Gettysburg was pivotal in the survival of a ‘United’ States of America. The spirits of fallen warriors still roam the battlefields be they Native Americans, Johnny Reb or Yanks, and yes I do pray for all the spirits that make contact with me.