Spirits At Little Round Top

Since I was a child my father Orman would take the family to various Civil War battlefields. He was and still is an avid Civil War buff.

As us kids grew up we also became interested in the Civil War. My sister Stefanie would go down to Gettysburg twice a year. On one trip in late September of 94 my sister and I headed down to Gettysburg for a week of relaxation. I had recently become interested in ghosts so on this trip I wanted to see if I could see a ghost.

Well on this trip I was in for a treat.

The usual routine when we get to Gettysburg is to check out monuments. (I've seen Lee's Memorial more times than I care to admit.) and see the battlefield for the hundredth time and basically be bored out of my mind. Well my sister just purchased a VHS video camera and she wanted to film some footage of the Slaughter Pen.

When we got there and tried to turn it on the camera just froze. Stef was mad as h*** and we headed back to the motel once we got in the hotel and she tried it again it worked like new. We haven't brought the camera back there again.

The next day we decided to try something different and go to Charlestown , West Virginia to see where John Brown was hung. We heard that there was a ghost there. When we got there Stef opened her car door. As she reached in the back seat of the car to get the camera the front door of the house that had since been built on the hanging site of John Brown burst open. A moment later Stef's car door came smashing closed. Stef just got out the way in time. Keep in mind her car is a Buick Regal and the doors on those cars are heavy. Not even a gust of wind would slam it like that. For the record there was no wind that day.

As we were filming the house (nothing seemed out of the ordinary from the windows) we were looking for Old John Brown sitting in the window rocking with his head cocked like it's just been snapped. But next to me a weird odour came out of nowhere and the air got chilly. The odour was like something rotting. Suddenly Stef yells, "Nothing here, let's go!" Little did I know at the time she also felt the chill and smelled the odour, though she didn't want to admit it. So we skedaddled out of Charlestown and headed to Harper's Ferry for a quick look before we headed to Sharpsburg (better known at the battle of Antietam.)

At Antietam more weird things would occur. As Stef and I headed into the Sunken Road, the weird odour and chill followed us until we stepped out of the road. As we headed past the wheat field I heard what sounded like a hollow voice whispering something in the wheat. We again left in a hurry.

When we arrived back in Gettysburg that night we both had at weird feeling that we weren't alone. After we changed and put on some make-up we headed down to The Gingerbread Man. Stef's favourite restaurant. We would go there every night. While we where there we would spend about $5 on the jukebox I'd pick some songs and Stef would pick some songs. Well this time we both picked the same song not knowing that the other picked it. It was Guns ?N Roses Welcome to the Jungle. It was last pick and my first pick. I was going to play Edge of Seventeen but changed my mind. Well as it played Jungle for the first time I told her it was going to play over again. But the next song it played was Edge of Seventeen I almost hit the floor. I know that I didn't put that song in. The amazing part is that the last song of the night was Damn Yankees' "Come Again?!" It's not even listed on the jukebox. We were already flipped out from what happened earlier so we said it's just our imagination running wild. Well for the rest of the week (and this is the god honest truth) no matter what we picked for songs it would end with "Come Again." I won't listen to that song even now. It freaked me out that much.

On the last night of the trip the most amazing thing happened.

Our favourite spot on the battlefield was Little Round Top it's where the turning point of the battle began. Plus it where our Maine's own hero (Yes were Mainers ) Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain became a legend. So we decided that we'd drive down to Little Round Top on last time. Plus we never saw it after dark and the park was closing soon. As we got out of the car a light mist started (Strange the weather report didn't say anything about rain?) but we decided to look out over the battlefield one last time. So we walked up to the statue of Warren (I think that's who it's of, I can't remember.) that overlooks the battlefield and the town. As I looked out over the battlefield I saw dozens of flashes. Red, blue, green, yellow flashed of colours danced on the battlefield directly in front of me about 5 yards away and getting closer. Suddenly they stopped. I was terrified I didn't know what they were and I told my sister to haul a** and get back to the car. She was already moving before I said anything. As soon as we got in the car the rain stopped. We were out of there in no time flat. As we got back to the motel we discussed what we saw. It was advancing that's for sure. But what was it? I was in the army and I know what a rifle looks like when it's discharged. Could Stef & I have seen the battle of Little Round Top? It did look as if the flashes were rifles being discharged would explain the colours, but who or what was firing them. It was dark, but not dark enough that we couldn't see that the flashes were in the air about a foot in the air to be exact; like someone or something was in the prone position and firing. It was the eeriest feeling that I have ever felt.

I haven't been to Gettysburg since. Not that I'm afraid, but I haven't had the opportunity to go again. I would love to return to find an answer to the puzzle of Little Round Top.

These are true accounts and I am willing to sign any document or take a lie detector test!