If you are looking for a paranormal experience, you may want to think about booking a hotel room in the historic town of Gettysburg Pennsylvania. In July of 1863 it's living population was outnumbered twenty to one by thedead, with so much blood spilled on the floors of some churches that drain holes had to be drilled in them.

Not surprisingly Gettysburg has long been the setting for strange tales of supernatural acitivity. Everything from phantom apparitions of battlefield ghosts to strange disembodied screams. Many people claim that the constant influx of visitors from the south tends to trigger off a flurry of paranormal activity in the summer months, sometimes resulting in mysterious backward glimpses in time to the summer of 1863.

There is the case of the mysterious ghost known as the Sentry who still guards the cupola at the top of Pennsylavania Hall at Gettysburg College.. The apparation of this rebel soldier has been on duty for the past 145 years. In some ways he behaves like a normal residual haunting, pacing back and fourth on the Cupola as though the college is still in southern hands, yet every now and then he aims his rifle at students on the ground. This behavior fascinates parapsychologists because it is part of a trend of Intelligent (communicative) hauntings in Gettysburg, which goes back hundreds of years. Everywhere else in the paranormal world intelligent hauntings are extremely rare, even when compared to the ghostlore of other battle grounds like Shiloh or Antietem, and no one knows why Gettysburg has so many of them..

One of the earliest hauntings in Gettysburg Pa happened as the battle was still unfolding. The soldiers of the 20th Maine, (famous for the heroic bayonette charge under general Joshua Chamberlain) claimed to have encountered a ghost while they were marching toward Gettysburg..As the story goes, they came to a fork in the road and stopped, not sure which way to go.. when a man on horseback appeared and led them on toward Gettysburg.. At first they thought the man was a Union General. He looked like one, but soon they began to notice a strange glow emenating from both him and his horse. They also noticed the man had an eerie resemblence to portraits of the late George Washington. He even wore a tri cornered hat that had not been in style for over a hundred years.

The ghostly man led to the top of little round top where they would later repel a Confederate attack on the Union flank, and then he disappeared without ever being identified. Could it have been the ghost of George Washington, trying to aid the Union army in one of it's most important battles? Enough people beleived so that the Secretary of war, Edwin Stanton did a formal investigation into the matter. When asked Colonel Chamberlain, responded, "We know not what mystic power may be possessed by those who are now bivouacking with the dead. I only know the effect, but I dare not explain or deny the cause. Who shall say that Washington was not among the number of those who aided the country that he founded?"

It was just the first in a long series of ghost sightings that have made Gettysburg known as the most haunted city in north america.

The Ghosts of Devils Den

Posted November 5th, 2009 by lori

The Devils Den was a Confederate stronghold throughout most of the battle of Gettysburg, but the rocky geography of the Devils Den was very difficult for southerners who found that they could not climb the rocks without being shot by snipers on little round top, and they could not bury their dead. They could only throw them into the crevices between the huge boulders. The psychological impact of this was so devestating it was said to have caused one delirious Alabama soldier rescued from the Devils Den to repeatedly mumbled the words “Awful awful rocks” for weeks.

ghosts of the devils den

The dead there were treated just as bad after the battle. In addition to being robbed of jewelry and gold tooth filllings, many of the Confederate corpses at the Devils Den were dragged from one spot to another and posed in front of the huge bouldrs so that photos could be taken, like the one above. Not surprisngly it seems from the reports of paranormal activity in this area that many of these souls were not able to find peace in the afterlife.

If you should go there you will want to keep a lookout for a ghost known as the hippie. He is often seen walking barefoot threw the area, wearing buckskin and a big floppy hat. (A style of clothing that was at one time common in parts of Texas) The ghost is presumed to have belonged to the first texas infantry which launched repeated attacks on the Devils Den on July 2, although he is often mistaken for a homeless person who lives in the park. Awareness of the ghost came about because some visitors had asked to take photos with him, thinking he was a reeenactor, but his image failed to materialize in the photo. This then prompted them to report the strange encounter to the park service.

Another strange phenoma in the Devils Den is the malfunctioning of cameras and other electronic equipment, which happens there so often it is almost accepted as a natural occurence. Paranormal researchers beleive that ghosts suck the electrical charge out of cameras so that they can use the energy to manifest themselves, but local ghostlore says that the ghosts of the Devils Den intentionally stop pictures from being taken there as a direct result of the ghoulish death photos that were taken of their corspes. What do you think?

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