There’s something mysterious about the late fall, when darkness creeps over the earth stealing away precious daylight hours and the earth loses its color. Once familiar trees transform into shadowy forms at twilight, their fingers reaching out to the unwary traveler. The comforting sounds of animals scurrying about take on a more sinister tone and even the wind begins to moan hauntingly. Is it any wonder that such a time of year made many believe that the veil between worlds was thin and gave rise to the spooky season we know and love so well?
It’s a time of year when many travelers flock to the former places of death in hopes of encountering a being from beyond. Certain places are known to be more haunted than others and few other places top Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on the list of most haunted places frequently earning the 3rd or 4th spot. The majority of these restless dead are thought to come from the decisive battle of Gettysburg, one of the deadliest battles in our nation’s history and is considered by many to be the definitive turning point in the civil war. Over 51,000 soldiers perished and many more were injured.
Being both curious to learn more about the history of Gettysburg and to get ourselves in the spirit of the season, my sister and I embarked on an evening stroll to suspend belief for an hour or two and perhaps, catch a glimpse of a specter. Given the town’s reputation for its hauntings and that it goes all out with Halloween decorations, it is decidedly recommended to arrive early for a walking tour because parking was rather difficult to find as hundreds of spooky enthusiastics milled about also hoping for a ghost sighting. With a little trouble, we made it to the appointed meeting spot which was difficult to spot as it was an unassuming door for the Museum of Haunted Objects.
Our guide was a jovial man dressed in the manner of an 1860’s gentleman, complete with top hat, lantern and walking cane. He explained that the reason for the number of hauntings was due primarily to the unburied and still restless ghosts of the Confederate Army. He explained that in the aftermath of the battle, the town and surrounding countryside were overwhelmed with the corpses of the dead. The stench lingered for months as they struggled to lay to rest the dead. It seems almost a natural reaction in the face of so many that the dead of one’s enemies were more hastily buried with little honor or respect. Many of the townsfolk wanted to move on from the aftermath of the battle, to forget the horrors from the streams of blood and piles of amputated limbs littering the outside of the former field hospitals. Unfortunately, the dead not properly put to rest lingered on a constant reminder of the horrors of those three days.
We actually began our tour at a curious place, the local high school where in the course of an expansion several confederate soldiers were uncovered. It was strange to think that hauntings were so common in this area that one may go to school directly next to ghosts especially when reflecting on all the late night music practices I attended. Having set the tone as being a town so haunted ghost sightings are your local high school are hardly something to comment on as out of the ordinary, we set off to learn more directly about the different places and their stories. It also gave credence to the theory that the hauntings were a result of restless Confederate soldiers in need of peace. Because after the discovery of the Confederate soldiers, they were buried properly and the reported hauntings ceased.
But not all hauntings can be explained by disrespect for the dead. Ms. Jennie Wade was the only civilian to die during the intense fighting – a rather shocking fact when one considers the numbers lost to the fighting. Jennie had come to support her sister Georgia who had just given birth along with her mother and her brother. She was mixing dough for biscuits when a stray bullet passed through two doors before hitting her in the back. Though certainly given a proper burial by her family, it does seem she remained to haunt the home due to unfinished business – she never got married. Unlike many ghost stories, ending in misfortune, it seems that Ms. Jennie is a generous spirit rather than a malicious one as she is said to help single ladies who visit her home. Just place your finger on the interior door bullet hole and you shall receive a marriage proposal within the year. One does hope that she is able to find rest after granting happiness to so many others.
We heard other stories of haunting in the area including the orphanage where the guide told us a rather chilling story of children inviting others to join in a game of ring-around-the-rosie much to the dismay of the adults. Interestingly enough the orphanage itself was not directly connected to the battle but rather its aftermath. With so many lost in the war, many children found themselves without a caregiver which led to the founding of a new orphanage in Gettysburg under Ms. Philinda Humiston. Initially, the orphans were well cared for until a new Headmistress took the reins of power, Ms. Rosa Carmichael. Ms. Rosa is reported to have locked a four year old boy in an outhouse in the bitter cold of December, keeping others in chains, sometimes in vats of water where they risked drowning and beaten them. There were several children who were missing and never found. Visitors to the orphanage are said to hear the clanking of chains and the cries and laughter of children. Some report to have seen the visage of the evil head mistress. It seems a bit macabre to me that people will pay for a chance to interact with the lost children of the orphanage and such a cruel creature. It is not the stories of ghost which haunt, but of the cruelty of people.
However, it was not the stories of ghosts that haunted me (pun intended), but rather the description of the carnage of the field hospitals and the battles. It was not just death which turned this quiet town into a horror show, but also the number of amputations. The guide described how there were so many body parts that they began to simply toss them outside the window of the hospital, piling up limbs, that doctors and nurses waded through blood trying to help the wounded and dying. At one place a group of captive soldiers being held in a basement had blood raining down on them through the floorboards. Whether one believes in ghost stories or not the reality of the battle could not be downplayed. I think in our modern era it’s easy to forget the real horrors of war being so far removed from it as we often are.
What I found most interesting about the tour was seeing the battle from the perspective of the townsfolk and how it affected them many generations after. It is what still defines the town to this day. When many people were frolicking about in their costumes, giggling at the sightings of ghosts and enjoying a festival atmosphere, one must wonder how we arrived at this point. Almost a hundred and fifty years ago nearly 50,000 people perished in a war to decide the fate of America. The town was washed in the blood of patriots fighting for freedom. Doctors and nurses frantically rushed to save lives, hacking off limb after limb in a desperate attempt to mitigate the damage. After the armies left, it was the townsfolk who were left to pick up the pieces and bury the dead. Perhaps, there is something to be said that an experience so horrific can be transformed into an evening of lighthearted fun, traversing the streets by candlelight as the guide does his best to both educate and scare you. Perhaps, it is an indictment of a culture so indifferent to real human suffering that it seeks to capitalize on it. Perhaps, it is a coping mechanism of a place so scared by the horrors witnessed both in those three days and in the years after, that we can hardly blame them for embracing the kitsch nature of the spooky season to transform it into a more palatable form.
Regardless, it was an intriguing evening of history and even anthropological musings on the response to collective trauma. Though those musings were from my own internal observations than anything the guide said. I found the guide to be quite informative and an avid storyteller who was quite capable of raising goosebumps as he relayed the tales of the ghosts who stalked the streets at night.
How can you go on a haunted tour?
There are many towns and cities throughout America that have reported hauntings from Gettysburg, PA to Savannah, Ga, from Salem, MA to Portland, OR, from Chicago, IL to Sante Fe, NM and everywhere in between. My own hometown gives a ghost tour each fall! You can usually find them being advertised from Mid-September through early November. There are places that will offer ghost tours throughout the year.
Whether you believe in ghosts or not, I certainly recommend them for the history as they often give a different perspective than other walking tours. Often, they showcase the lives of ordinary people like Jennie Wade who only wished to help her sister and had dreams of getting married or they help us remember the victims, like the orphans who suffered at the hands of Ms. Rosa. They can be nights of fun and even frivolity, but at their core, they are stories to remember the darker parts of our collective past, even if they’re presented in more palatable forms. Nevertheless, they are stories worth remembering.
Completed: October 2021
Cost: $35 each
Miles from home: 63 miles
Budget Bliss: Bucket List 