September 26, 2025 • 47 mins
Host Tony Sweet welcomes paranormal investigator and author Barry J. Corbett to discuss his haunting new book Haunted Gettysburg: Paranormal Tales from the Field of Battle. Together, they explore the restless spirits said to linger where 50,000 soldiers lost their lives during the Civil War’s most pivotal clash. From eerie cries at Devil’s Den to ghostly whispers at Kuhn’s Brickyard, Barry shares chilling accounts from one of America’s most haunted battlefields.
In this episode, discover why Gettysburg remains a place where history and the paranormal collide, and hear how these young soldiers’ stories still demand to be remembered.
#HauntedGettysburg #GettysburgGhosts #BarryJCorbett #TonySweet #TruthBeToldPodcast #ClubParanormal #CivilWarGhosts #HauntedHistory #GhostStories #ParanormalPodcast #GhostHunters #HauntedAmerica #CivilWarHistory #SpookySeason #ParanormalActivity
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/truth-be-told-paranormal--3589860/support.
In this episode, discover why Gettysburg remains a place where history and the paranormal collide, and hear how these young soldiers’ stories still demand to be remembered.
#HauntedGettysburg #GettysburgGhosts #BarryJCorbett #TonySweet #TruthBeToldPodcast #ClubParanormal #CivilWarGhosts #HauntedHistory #GhostStories #ParanormalPodcast #GhostHunters #HauntedAmerica #CivilWarHistory #SpookySeason #ParanormalActivity
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/truth-be-told-paranormal--3589860/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Well, welcome back to Truth Be Told. We're going to
battle for this holiday special edition. Today, we're exploring the
haunted histories of Gettysburg with Barry J. Corbett, author of
Haunted Gettysburg Paranormal Tales from the Field of Battle. Barry
spent six years as lead investigators for Boston Paranormal, exploring
(00:23):
more than one hundred and fifty hunted sites across New England.
His book brings to life the ghostly echoes of the
Civil War and their deadliest battles were fifty thousand soldiers,
many just teenagers, met their fate, leaving behind restless spirits
that still haunt the fields of Gettysburg. As an award
winning cartoonist and versatile storyteller, Barry has published comic collections,
(00:48):
short stories, and graphic memoirs. Now, he turns his lifelong
fascination with ghost into a chilling journey through America's most
haunted battles. I'm your host, Tony Sweet, Please welcome to
this studio for the second time, author cartoonist Barry J. Corbett.
(01:08):
There he is, there, he is, He's back. I couldn't
go through Halloween without having you on, Becky.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I appreciate it, of course.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well, well, first off, I want to get started on
this amazing book. But you know, you've, like I said
in the intro, one hundred and fifty haunted sites, but
Gettysburg seems to really stand out, stir stand apart, and
I wanted to ask if you could describe the feeling
of Gettysburg at night in one chilling moment. What really
(01:41):
stood out as the most unforgettable experience.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, the whole place, it's just incredible, is a real
gravitas about it. And the minute you step off the
bus there and see a field and the town itself,
it just gives you chills just to be there. It's
amazing sight. I highly recommend it if anyone hasn't been
there as a visit, I could have spent two or
three weeks there. But yeah, they actually don't let you
(02:10):
go in the park after dark anymore.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
You can, Oh, no, they don't.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
They used to do up until five or six years ago,
but they've stopped doing that. But there are plenty of
sites around town where you can get to. For example,
the Old Grove out near the middle School is a
very haunted area and some of the creepiest things experienced
have been seen there, you know, the usual gunshots, voices,
phantom mists. Sometimes they've seen our rider on horseback riding through.
(02:38):
And that's the area where at the middle school about
in nineteen eighty two, I think actually had a soldier
walk through one in a classroom, so many of the
days just an amazing thing.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well, I know we also mentioned many of the spirits
that you write about were incredibly young, and some as
young as twelve, and which is hard to believe, but
how does knowing their age change the way you connect
with or interpret the hauntings a Getty's Burden.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Oh, I think the inexperience probably has a lot to
do with it. They were already seasoned veterans by the
time they got to Gettysburg ward been in progress for
a couple of years.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
That's amazing though.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
And the kid that there were a lot of teenagers
that signed up, but a lot of the ones that
were that young twelve, There were bugle boys and drummers,
but they were still in the field of battle right
or right now. They were shot and killed and wounded,
and I can only imagine what that's like for someone
that young. I just I just can't put a finger
on it. I think that might be one of the
(03:44):
reasons that some of them stick around. They're just so
shocked by their own death of just totally unprepared for
it at that young age.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, And to think about when I was twelve years old,
I mean, you're you're starting to slowly turn into that manhood.
You know, you're starting to go through puberty and and
a lot of emotions anyway, but uh, I mean, I
couldn't imagine living in that time because you definitely had
to grow up faster back then. But putting into a
(04:15):
battles uh scene, I could that would just Yeah, the
shock or the change would just baffle people nowadays to
think about living in those times.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, Like you say, people grew up a lot quicker
than they do now. Yeah, they got married young, they
had lots of children young. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, I want to I want to ask you about
the Devil's Den. It's a kind of a legend for
ghost activity. What do you think makes this site so
uniquely active compared to other parts of the battlefield And
can you explain what Devil's Den is? Well, I'll look
at you. You you have the pictures ready, I'd love it.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah. Devil's then was smack dab in the middle of
the largest area of battle, in between Little Round Top,
which the Union held for the tire three days and
the area that was attacked by the South and Pickets Charge.
Day two took the heaviest fighting, and in that single
day alone they were about eight thousand rebels killed, eighteen
(05:24):
hundred rebels killed and eight hundred Union soldiers. And it
was the crop of boulders, full of crevices and shadows
and places you could hide behind and shoot someone stick
a bayonet and from behind. You know, it was just
a difficult place to fight. So it changed hands I
think four times in that single day, and it was
(05:48):
kindage at an unbelievable level. And at the end of
the day it was held by the Union soldiers. But
as dusk fell some of the shooting stopped, but at
that point never found themse was listening to people are
lying on the field, groaning in pain, screaming for help
as they slowly dying. Hundreds of bodies on the field,
I can't imagine. It's also one of the more haunted
(06:10):
areas on the battlefield. It had a reputation of being
haunted even before the battle, did it really? I guess
there's a legend. Maybe it's just folklore, but there was
a Native American battle called the Battle of the Crows,
and I didn't come across a lot of detail about it,
but the name itself the Devil's Then one of the
(06:34):
womens said it was infested with snakes. I think it's
because the crevices just looks so deep and dark. It
looks like they might go all the way down to
the Devil's domain. It just kind of got that nickname.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
What a lot of times, if you have your psychic
or ability, or even if you don't even think you
have the ability, being around a location like that, your
senses may be heightened. What did you feel or what
did you see? That kind of gave you that inclination
(07:07):
that there is a lot of activity and Devil's Den.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
You feel like you watched a lot when we were
standing there, and I try to get there early in
the morning so that there weren't a lot of visitors yet,
so that kind of enhanced the failing, I imagine, But
that's a common report by visitors there that they feel watched,
and it's just it gives you chills, just being there.
It's just an eerie, eerie site, even in the bright daylight.
(07:33):
One of the most common characters seen they've nicknamed the
helpful Hippie. He's got a Southern warrior, probably from one
of the Texas brigades. A lot of them weren't issued
full uniforms by the South, so they just came dressed
as they were when they signed up. He just has
their feet. He's kind of got ragged shoes, he has
long hair, and he wears a wide brimmed hat. People
(07:55):
he walks up to people and they think he's a
living person. He seems as solid as they are, and
he's very friendly and cheery, and he'll usually point over
towards the river called plumb Run. They said you should
take a look over there, or that's what you're looking for,
and then they'll turn around and be gone hundreds of times,
I guess, according to visits reports, so we think maybe
(08:17):
he might have died at plumb Run. They say that
the river itself ran red, but the blood of so
many people killed there, it.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Was most of the bodies removed or were many buried there.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
There are hundreds buried there. They were removed well. A
couple of weeks after the battle, the North made an
effort to reinter the bodies into Union cemeteries, mostly the
big one nearby, but a lot of the Southern bodies
they left for later on, and some of them are
never discovered. There's at least three or four hundreds still. Yeah,
(08:53):
some of the women in the South raised money to
send people to look search for the bodies, and they
reinter a lot of them, but there's no way that
they found all of them. There's just too big a task.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yeah, Yeah, that's it's pretty amazing because you know what,
fifty thousand people.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, that's the number in three days of battle, fifty
thousand wounded or killed.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I couldn't imagine the energy imprint that has been placed
on that site. And how does that maniffest for investigators
like yourself with that type of an imprint. I just
I just couldn't imagine fifty thousand people. That's pretty out.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, it's the energy imprints of phenomenon we econnor at
a lot of places done a haunted that we've been to.
It's sometimes when an event is just so violent or
so tragic, it just is infused into the land. The
energy remains there forever. Yeah, and it's not just the field,
the entire town. A lot of the battle took place
right in gettys Rig itself, and that's why a lot
(10:02):
of the local ends are haunted. There's a lot of
people buried right in people's front yard. And they also
while the battles were going on, they arranged field hospitals
in the cellar of many of the buildings. There were
probably twenty five field hospitals spread throughout the city. So
(10:23):
people were dying suffering right in their homes, in the
basements of their hotels, things like that. So it's just
the whole entire city has spread with this echo of pain. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
I also saw was a Coon's brickyard. Can you kind
of tell us your experience that you've had.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, it took quite a few photos at the brickyard,
and that's one of the ones you could go to
at night. I did feel a very strong feeling of
being watched there. That is also near the middle school.
It's one of the earliest battles. The Brickyard battle was
a route for the South. It was Coon's orchard and
(11:06):
that they tried to The Union soldas were in trenched
behind a couple of fences and a brick wall, and
they sold The Southern force that came into town was
about three times their size, so it was turned into
a rope very quickly. It was hand to hand fighting,
so there was some brutal you know, wounds. People suffered
and died very quickly. There others lingered there north. The
(11:29):
Union solders had to retreat when they backed up a
door to Cemetery Hill, where they made another stand and
they were to hold that ground for the rest of
the three days. But spirits there lots of voices, lots
of gunshots. There's also there's also a little brook behind
there that one of the theories is running water can
(11:52):
supply energy that spirits can use to manifest, so that
might be something that enhances the haunting. But definitely in
place where lots of people were killed. In this nice monument,
there's a beautiful mural painted across the side of a building.
It's you know, it's about thirty thirty feet high and
(12:12):
fifty feet long. It's just a beautiful illustration memorializing the battle.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
We hear a lot about the you know, the tragedy,
and but is there any place that you felt on
the battlefield or in town that actually felt peaceful. I'm
curious to see if there was any positivity that you
(12:39):
felt in the area versus just all tragedy.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
The town itself has a nice vibe to it. It's
a pretty little place. There's lots of nice hotels and restaurants. Yeah,
and it's beautiful. The area around it's very beautiful. So yeah,
there are areas that are serene and pleasant to be around,
especially in a nice day. Some of the inns have
some of the best stories. I stayed in four different
(13:07):
Hearted inns, and I asked them to for their most
haunted room.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Oh did you really?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah? Did you?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Did you specifically ask for it?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah? Always they're always happy to run out the Hearted rooms,
and uh, I'm sure they use it to market their
their hotels. Did you have any activity a little bit
at the cash town in which I believe is one
of the most haunted sites there. And again, it was
one of the early sites for the battle. Generally, Bowden
(13:37):
met there with General Lee before the battle even started
and they were bringing their troops in, so they were
using the inn right away. They took it right over
and use the ovens to bake bread for the soldiers
and all that. But once the battle started, and just
like a lot of the others, they started bringing in
the wounded into the cellar and with very little painkillers.
(13:59):
They did have painkillers, but they just used morphine and
ether things like that, but they did not have any biotics.
So it was a lot of suffering and it was
the treatment for wounds was an amputation.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Yeah, there wasn't much else to do back then.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, So they're down on the cellar hacking off limbs
and then just throwing them out the cellar window, and
they formed a big pile out in the out in
the yard, just bleeding over the backyard. And that was
a common sight in some of the areas where they
had these horse field hospitals. I talked to Jeremy, the owner,
and Danielle, the owners of the really nice people. They
(14:33):
coming some fantastic stories, not only their experiences at the
inn itself with they've seen quite a few things, but
in the roads around there. He was driving his truck
home one night and he saw a Union soldier walking
down the street directly towards his truck. He thought it
was a reenactor because it looked solid. He tried to stop,
hit the brakes, but it was too late and the
(14:54):
soldier passed right through the truck. He actually turned his
head and looked at him while he was going through it.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Off the track, got out, looked around. There was no body, nothing, knowing,
never was anyone there, just that amazing.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
His heart was pumping.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, it happened to him twice. Another time there was
a store nearby. He had just pulled in. It was
a rainy night, and he turned around back the track out.
When he turned back to look forward again, another Union
soldier walked right through the porch into a wall to
the left, a fence rather to the left, disappeared into
the rain. In the hotel itself, uh, they're very friendly goes.
(15:32):
For the most part. They're not. They don't harass them
or anything. The most common thing is they knock on
one room at three in the morning. Three knock. It's
always three knocks. They'll get up, they'll answer the door.
Nobody there. They'll go back to bed. Half an hour there,
three knocks again. It didn't happen to me the night
I was there, but I still felt the chills. They
often see faces in the window Jemmy describes the door
(15:54):
opening and closing and locking on its own a few times,
and at one point he hear a thump on the
second floor landing. He ran up the stairs and right
in the middle of the landing there was a book
and the title of the book was like Stories from
Beyond the Grave.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
At least they have humor.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, they definitely haven't sense a human. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
I know you mentioned about some of these soldiers that
as longing to be remembered in your book. Which kind
of a spirit story do you think captures that desire?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Oh, Jesus, so many at Devil's Den. Uh, there was
so much death in that one day and so much destruction.
And because they were buried in these shallow grave sites,
and lots of them, there's no mockers. You don't even
know where they fell they were.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I think that alone would lead a spirit to be
dissatisfied with how how it ended, and they would want
someone to know where they were and to be remembered.
No one wants to be forgotten. I can't imagine what
it's like to be completely forgotten. So I imagine that's
what keeps them sticking around. The Valley of Death right
behind it was nicknamed because of so many deaths in
(17:19):
it was the area right in between Little Round Top
and Devil's Den. And there's also the Bloody what Field
in the slaughter pen. And then they have all these
grim nicknames because there was just so much death. Yeah,
it's almost hard to pin down one because they all
have the same experience. They were just cut down by
the hundreds at the time of the battles and buried
very quickly, and like you say, they went all found
(17:42):
later on.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Did a lot of the land that these battles are on.
Are they all federally owned land or they privately owned.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Much of its federal land, but some of the private
farms are still owned by Gettysburg citizens. You know. The
battlefield itself is actually with the visitors Center is they
have a great show there where they have audio visual display,
they can takes, they can rent tours with the guides themselves.
(18:16):
So they control that whole area. They patrol at night,
don't let people come come into the park at night.
But the hotels obviously are owned by independent businessmen business people.
Rather Howes Sacks Covered Bridge, which is what is the
Sacks Covered bridge, which is just west of the city,
(18:38):
a very hearted sight where the legend there says that
three Union soldiers were hung from the bridge as a
lesson because they deserted. Two or three different versions of
the story. One of them said they were Southern soldiers
and trying to join with the Union. Another one said
they were spies and when they were caught, they were hung.
(18:58):
But I don't know how much truth there is in that,
because the battle they were only there for four days.
The battle itself was three days. They might have hung someone.
It's possible, but that's the apparition that's seemed most often
at the bridge. Side of the bridge, and by night
it's a very creepy place.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Oh wow. Yeah, I can imagine at night. Yeah, during
the day it's pretty cool, but at night that would
be kind of creepy.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah. You walk across it, then you want to get
out of there very quickly. I bet there's a ghost
they named Tennessee. They think he was a former slave.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
And Folkalore says he likes cigarettes. If you put a
cigarette on the rail, you can watch it light up
like someone inhaled it. I didn't try. I didn't have
any cigarettes with me, but some of the stories I
came across that it did work for them.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Well all definitely if I ever go, which I hope
I do. I don't smoke either, but I definitely will
probably at least buy one just to or bum a
cigarette with somebody, just to try it.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah. They also see floating heads floating above the river,
and of course the usual voices and gunshots. General Lee
left took the entire army through it. On the way back,
I imagine they were carrying rickety carts with wounded soldiers.
They said they were bleeding the whole trip. So the
floor of the bridge is probably soaked in blood. I
(20:19):
can imagine that might leave an energetic imprint of some kind.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Was that bridge ever replaced or is it? I'm sure
it has been repaired, but was it ever replaced to
where not completely?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
No, they were paid it. There was a hurricane in
nineteen ten, I believe it was most of it was
washed down the river.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Oh that's too bad.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yeah, they got the whole thing back together again. It
wasn't destroyed. They were able to piece it back together,
reinforce it. They don't allows cars to go through it anymore.
You can walk across it, but it is the original
bridge for the most part. I love that.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I love that. What now, I know the community, some
of the people maybe have lived their you know, their
families have lived there since the Civil War, and probably
maybe still some of the land is still owned by
some of the family that was alive during the Civil War.
(21:12):
How do people feel? I know it's a it's a
money maker for the businesses, but how do people in
the community like to be remembered as the turning point
for the Civil War or do How do they feel
about the paranormal side of the of the being known about.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
I think they have mixed feelings about. The citizens themselves
are probably sick of the ghost towards. But the businesses
make a lot of money off it, and they obviously
promote it. A lot of hotels promoted. But I think
they have mixed feelings. But they're certainly proud that the
war itself, the battle itself was a turning point. They
came very close to losing the battle. Yeah, and I
(21:55):
think it was the first major battle generally lost.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah. He was marching on his way to Washington and
he had hoped to defeat General Mead, Right, there at
Gettysburg before they reached the city they had hoped to encounter.
They had never planned to fight right at Gettysburg. It
just happened that way. But mead uh Una army held
most of the cemetery ridge and a knock all the
(22:19):
way around from Little Roundtop all the way to culps Hill,
and that helped them hang on because they had the
high ground. I was going to ask you that, Yeah, yeah,
culps Hill was you know, I'm not a historian. I
just learned all this from restitching for the ghost stories. UH.
Culps Hill was one of the earliest battles generally took
(22:41):
over uh the Dobbin House and the Broton not not
the Rose Farm, the Daniel Lady farm because it was
half a mile away from culps Hill. And he thought
culps Hill would be easy to take because they only
had a small Union force holding it. But they just
(23:03):
weren't able to take it. On the first day. They
took heavy losses and it threw off his whole battle plan.
A lot of men were wounded, a lot of men
were brought back to the farm there and treated. A
lot of them died there. And there's I think this
thirty seven Southern soldiers still buried buried in the front
yard of the farm. Daniel Lady himself helped to bury them.
(23:27):
There's a couple of markers there where they fell. But
there was also a field hospital behind it that treated
soldiers from both sides of the battle after the warrant,
after the battle ended, and they claimed that they saw
more wounded soldiers treated there than part of the battle.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I think that that's the exciting part of what you
do is I'm a big history buff, but also I'm
a big paranormal buff, and so you kind of get
the best of both worlds. You get the historical side
of it, but also the lingering of the paranormal of
the of the history. So I think that I find
(24:09):
that fascinating. I find that fascinating. How how do you
how do you as a writer separate the historical truth
to the paranormal side, Because some people are going to go, oh,
come on, and you know this paranormal stuff, But how
do you how do you separate the two and how
do you intertwine the two to make it an easy
(24:30):
flow for the readers.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Well, like yourself, Tony, I really fell in love with
the history when I started getting into this. Yeah, and
the more you find out about these sites, you start
digging in other things, Other little facts and figures come up.
It's just amazing stories. But I do try to keep
take it with a grain of salt that a lot
of it is folklore and a lot of it gets
(24:52):
exaggerated as it's be toold over the years. So you
kind of have to look for the facts themselves first
and see if that bears out with the actual event
that happened there. So and if you do that, you
get taken a lot more seriously, people don't call you
a sensationalist and right and accused of faking evidence things
like that. So it's always that's a good policy to
have from the from the beginning.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Do you do you get that emotionally connected? Because I know,
any any battle or any type of situation where there's
been a loss of many lives, how do you separate
the emotional side or do you like to include that
into your writings.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I think it's better to include it because it feelings
are part of it, really and it comes out in
your Hopefully it comes out in your writing that that
you really can feel for these people and their history
and what happened to them. It's it's such a tragedy
in so many ways, any war is, but the fact
to think that they're still stuck there beyond, unable to
(25:58):
move on to the next stage of existence, it is
just terribly sad. So you want to treat it with
respect in any man at anytime you can.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, yeah, I I've heard many times that you know,
psychic say, oh, just tell them to go go to
the light. But you know, I've heard that so many times.
But it seems like many of these locations. I don't
know if it's just so many spirits at certain locations
where it's hard to do that unless you just spent
every moment telling fifty thousand souls to go to the light.
(26:32):
But it seems like some location spirits just don't want
to go. And have you ever found yourself to your
to yourself having a conversation with the spirit or someone.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
There absolutely not a physical conversation. A lot of times
we do it through the gadgets. If you can get
say a rempot or something to light up and they
can interact with an intelligent spirits so that they hit
twice for no and once for yes, then you can
actually start almost interviewing the ghost and find out, you know,
did you die four nine? Were you killed here or
(27:08):
we killed somewhere else, We've borne somewhere, all that kind
of thing. You can actually write up a little history
with a yes and no process, so you really feel
like you have actually met some of these spirits in
a way. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Have you ever felt like one has befriended you and
decided to come and visit your where you're at or no?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah, A couple of times, really, yeah, just for a
single day. I went home a couple of times and
a couple of lights went on, and the TV went
on by itself. And one morning I got up, I
was doing I was the only one on the first floor.
We live in a kpe. My wife was upstairs. I
was just doing some stretches and her guitar was on
(27:52):
the guitar stand to my right, and a single note
just went twang like and the cat was I look
for the cat. She's sitting right in front of me,
he said, Well, it wasn't the cat. In fact, she
walked over to it, looked at the guitar like she
heard it too. So I think they a little bit mischievous.
Sometimes I was their way of saying, you know what,
I'm here, But then they were gone the next day.
(28:13):
They didn't hear anything.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Else, and like, I just wanted to play your guitar
and that's all.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah. Yeah. Another time I left the walkie talking on
and it was inside my backpack. I didn't realize. So
I went to bed. I got up in the morning,
walked into the room and I heard a woman's voice.
I couldn't make it out at first what I was saying,
but it was actually saying low battery.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Actually, that's a good point, you know. I didn't think
about that because we always hear about you know, the
soldiers were mostly men, but how often do they see women?
Spirits at the Gettysburg?
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Quite a bit as actually really Yeah, Jenny Wade was
a young woman, the only civilian killed in the battle.
She was I think she was only eighteen years old.
She actually was not even in her own home. She
had her sister had a baby. A couple of days
for the battle, and she moved into her sister's home
(29:09):
to help take care of the baby. And the battle
broke out and a sniper's bullet ricochet went right through
the back door. It stuck her in the back and
killed her with one shot. So the home is now
a museum they can tour. They have a recreation of
what happened where they took the body and all that.
(29:30):
Very sad story. But they see her spirit walking through
the front yard, walking through the home, and they see
it in the home where she grew up, so she
actually haunts two different locations.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
She's a busy ghost.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah. Also, a lot of women helped out treating the soldiers,
and one of one of the most famous characters from
the Battle of Gettysburg is Tillie Pearce, young girl of sixteen.
She was just in high school when the battle broke out.
Her parents thought she was in danger, so they sent
(30:04):
her down to her friend Jacob Wacker's farm, which was
actually further south, and the battle found her. The battle
ended up coming down right to the farm, was in
the middle of the whole thing. The first day she
watched her and her best friend watch all the wounded
soldiers come in being laid in the barn. They started
cooking for the soldiers, washing out you know, blood out
(30:28):
of the rags and all that, and then she started
helping the doctors bandage wounds. In the end, she's helping
them hack off limbs. She's hold them still while they're
hacking off arms and legs. At sixteen years old, so
I stayed in the Tilly Pierce in which is supposedly
haunted by Tilly. They see a young woman on the
second floor peering out the window wistfully. They think it's
(30:50):
Tilly Pierce. But she wrote a book about the experience
later on, which was for historians a very valuable piece
of information because she described in great detail everything that
happened and what she saw, what she survived it, and
there's none the worse afterwards. But I can't imagine being
that young and going through that.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
I couldn't. I could not either. And uh, you know,
we we've we forget about those people, Like you said,
it's mostly we don't realize the women that actually helped.
You know, these doctors are just people that the wounded.
Many of them cared for them, so I'm sure they
(31:33):
were appreciated.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
At the Spandless Spangler's Spring, which is near colps hillmu
there's a lady in white that visits. The spring looks
like a wishing well. You know, the soldiers got their
water there both sides. During the battle, lots of were
killed right at the site, but they say that the
woman in white had been seen there long before the war,
and the folklore legend associated with her is that she
(31:56):
was a jilted lover. She was too people having an
affair and they would meet at the spring at midnight,
and one day she showed up and her love didn't show,
so she committed suicide right there at the site. And
now every year her spirit returned to the site looking
for her lost lover.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Wow, he's either up there or down there, so that.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Well, he also could be one of the nuns. There
was a convent nearby that Wow, after the battle rushed
to help out. A lot of soldiers took care of them,
and they think she could be one of them, roaming
the field looking for someone she knew, or was just
so affected by the experience that she sticks around beyond death.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Do the locals or people that see these spirits have
they noticed more Union or Confederate soldiers or is it
kind of a mix of both.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
It's more Confederate, I believe, because I think most of
the Union soldiers were moved.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
That makes sense.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
The consecrated ground, the Phantom Regiment is a Union regiment
seen most often. In fact, one of the hotel owners
I spoke to had personally saw it himself quite a
few times. They've seen entire regiment marching on the field.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I was going to ask if marching or if the
actually in battle.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
So yeah, some of the battles are recreated. There's two
stories associated with that. The Phantom Regiment has shown up
in a number of different areas. At Little Roundtop has
been seen three or four times, and the other one
is before Little Roundtop, and they actually claim to have
(33:38):
seen the ghosts of George Washington twice during the Battle
of Gettysburg, which is the most amazing thing in the
book to me. On the way there, the battle had
already begun. General Meade ordered the rest of his army
to get up to the Gettysburg, and they were about
a half a day's march away. On the way there,
they alleged, says they they found the folk on the
(34:03):
road and they weren't sure which way to go. A
mounted rider came out of the woods, dressed in about
seventy years out of date. He had a try corner hat.
He was a tall man, and the soldiers swear they
had seen paintings of General Washington, and photography, you know,
been around. It wasn't around at the time, but not
popularized yet, but they had seen paintings of Washington. They
(34:23):
all swear it looked like General Washington. He got right
up at the head of the column and told the
commanding officer to follow him, and they all just fell
in line behind him. He led him right to a
little roundtop and then he disappeared. But by the time
they got there, they claim it was just dusk was
starting to get dark, and they noticed a glow around him,
(34:44):
like you a little bit lubinescence.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
He waltzed off into the woods without saying a word.
Two days later he showed up again at the same
spot at little Roundtop. The twentieth Maine was desperately trying
to hold that position. There would be an attack from
both sides, and they were almost out of ammunition late
in the day, and the rebels didn't know that. But
(35:11):
Joshua Chamberlain was the commander. He said, all right, well,
we're just gonna bluff. If we can't shoot him, we're
gonna charge them with bayonets. So they all mounted bayonets,
and they were getting ready to charge. The rebels came
up the hill, and they come screaming down the hill
with the bayonets raised, and Chamberlain himself and he wrote
(35:32):
it in this book. He later became governor of Georgia,
I believe, and he wrote a memoir and he wrote
about this incident. In the book. He says, the figure
of General Washington reappeared raising a sword above his head,
and he flew with his horse into battle and encouraged
it and inspired the men to fight like crazy, and
(35:52):
they turned the tide of battle even though they were
just about out of ammunition. That's just the most amazing story.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
That is amazing story. I want to I want to
see that movie.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Yeah, And they launched a full investigation after the war
because so many soldiers reported seeing Washington on the field.
They actually launched investigation and researched it. So I love it. True.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
I also realized, you know, even though the a lot
of the Confederates bodies were left, they also lost the battle.
So I don't know if that also put a negative, like,
you know, a negative tone onto their spirits also, but
they yeah, yeah, is there some other kind of famous
(36:40):
ghosts that are that are lingering around. We've heard tennessee
at the at the bridge, but what are some other
of the recognized I guess recognized soldiers that are kind
of lingering.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
This is the cash Town in nineteen oh six. I
believe there's two figures behind my shoulder. The one in
the front is the is the yep I see him.
Is the visitor, a tourist. The one behind him wasn't
there at the time. He didn't show up till he
checked this picture out later. They have this post got
for sale in the house in the hotel. It's good.
(37:18):
But the other one is the the fonce was out
Farnsworth House, and I believe it's the most haunted site
there's see if I can get a picture of that up.
I thought I brought one with me. I don't see you. Well,
here's one of the spirits that was seen there. Anyways.
They have a mirror in the basement once again. The
(37:39):
basement was used as a field hospital. Yeah, they keep
taking pictures of this mirror in the basement, and they
keep coming up with specters and phantoms showing up in
the mirror. The person with their back turned is actually
one of the one of the tour guides. He has
long hair. Because he's moving, it looks like his hair
is flowing, but the hand itself was not there. That's
(38:01):
a phantom hand reaching in to touch him.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Oh my god, that's pretty profo something.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Yeah, the owner of the hotel gave me that photo.
And then and they see a blue uniform Soda from
the Union Army. They call him Walter. This is the
face one of them captured in the melos. Yeah, there's
enough detail to see that it looks like a Union cap.
You can kind of see the original flat you can
see a little more of his uniform. But yeah, the
(38:28):
cellar theatre. When they retreated to the cellar, the rebel
soldiers took over the end and took told the guests
to wait in the sell They thought the bat would
be over very quickly. It wasn't. But as they brought
in wounded people, they'd lay them on the floor of
the end, and their blood would seek right through the
floorboards and actually drip on top of the people that
were hiding out in the cellar.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
And then later on a lot of the bodies were
brought down to the cellar and just piled up in
the storeroom in the back, so the farms were there.
Is one of the most haunted areas hotels in the
entire area. They brought in lots of psychics and memes.
I think loraene Ed Loraine Warren. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
(39:12):
Loreen said that that room they should be shut off.
There's something very aggressive, very hostile in that room. They did.
They called in the room off, don't allow anyone in
there anymore. Some people guests came out with scratches on
their face.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
I guess, come on, Barry, let's go.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
I don't fail me. Not right.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I will push you down, Gary Barry, I'll push you
get him.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
George stands.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
Yeah, I just love these stories. I love these you
people that investigate. Like I said, I haven't had the
opportunity to to do this yet and I really want to.
But you've investigated so many different sites. How does how
did Gettysburg compare to a lot of the haunt in
(40:05):
New England sites like the taverns and inns and homes
and all that.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
I would put it at the top of the list.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Really.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Yeah, there's just so many areas that have phenomena and
as I said, you can you can feel it from
the minute you step onto that field, you can feel it.
It's it's ominous, it's it's chilling, and it's just you
feel like you're being watched, as I said, in so
many areas, and you feel like they want to tell
(40:35):
you their story. You know, they really want to be heard. Yeah, oh,
I imagine that's why. And because it was such a
violent battle and it was so such a turning point
in the war that a crucial piece of history really
happened there at Gettysbury in those three days.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Do you think places like Gettysburg, you know it, Do
you think it serves as as a reminder of our
of our America's passed traumas, And do you feel like
it's could be like a teaching tool?
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Yeah, of course I mentioned any any war as a
teaching tool or trying to avoid the next one, right,
But it was the only war where you know, brother
against brother, cousin against cousin, people that knew each other
were encountered each other on the on the battlefield. They
would they would pull like the Union soldiers would pull
(41:28):
wounded rebel soldiers in and treat them and treat them,
you know, humanely because they knew they were all Americans.
No bet, no war has ever been like that or
of a since. This an amazing thing. I hope it
never happens again.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
I hope not either.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
I'm a big history buff of my family, my family tree,
and I've had both Confederate and Union soldiers on both sides.
They fought in the Revolutionary War. So uh, I take
great pride and you know, my culture, my family culture
in America. But yeah, this type of tragedy that we
(42:10):
hope we never see again is a teaching tool and
we can remember these this one battlefield, fifty thousand soldiers.
It's it's just baffling to us in twenty twenty five
that we could do that to each other. And I
can see why some of these spirits, these soldiers that
(42:30):
don't want to be forgotten, because maybe they do stick
around so we can remember to not do it again.
So well, the takeaway for you know, the people that
are going to pick up your book, what do you
hope they take away from it?
Speaker 2 (42:46):
There is quite a bit of history in it, you
know the focus of ghost stories. But I couldn't tell
them without doing the research and without telling what led
to the depths and know all the battles changed, and
you know, the mistakes were made, and the valor and
the courage of most of the soldiers a lot of
more facing incredible odds and they fought like hell anyways.
(43:11):
So I'm just impressed with the youth and dedication given
their life for their country.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Yeah, yeah, and just believing and what they were fighting for. Well,
I before we get out of here, I know there's
some people that are going to be inspired by you,
either writing or cartoonist or even just wanting to visit Gettysburg,
and if it's their first time or tenth time, but
(43:40):
they've never got to experience what you experienced. What is
some of the most powerful chants of experiencing paranormal activity
in which that of the top three would you suggest
visit first at Gettysburg. At Gettysburg, Yeah, Devil's.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Den, I think is probably one of them. More hont
and a little round top has its share of trauma.
And I think the Old Grove, which is where we
started off with with the soldier went ran through the
middle school the middle of the Yeah, there's there's quite
a few sightings there and you can visit there at night.
(44:20):
You know, they won't throw you out. So those three
very powerful sites a lot of emotion attached to them. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
So I'm going to show the book and so the
people that are watching on YouTube, it's Haunted Getticksberg paranormal
tales from the field of Battle. So who who is
this a picture or is this one of your cartoon drawings.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
I took the photo the great art de pominent Something
Publishing enhanced it beautifully like they did with the first book.
They just did a great job.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
No, they did. It's great, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Made it so dramatic and creepy and all that. And
they're printing is super high quality. You know the hold
up real well. They printed on good solid coated stock.
It's a very quality book. I'm very impressed with their printing.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
Where do people pick up your amazing book anywhere?
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Like Amazon, Monsan, Noble. We try to get into the
visitors center there, but they haven't put it out yet,
but those are the main you know, any large booksll
it would have it right.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Well, Gettysburg is your latest and what's your next project?
Because I know this is not your last book?
Speaker 2 (45:29):
It is not. No. I actually just almost completed a
book about history of Boston again, only these are not
ghost stories, the true events from the hidden history of Boston.
There's some amazing things that happened that people were either
unaware of or have totally forgotten about, like the molasses
flood that happened in nineteen nineteen, Harry Houdini performing twice
(45:54):
in having a public battle with a medium, famous medium
he actually set out spent his life trying to debunk medium.
So he's in the book quite a bit. And this
is seven or eight actually be eighteen stories from the
history of Boston.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
That's pretty cool. When is it going to be out?
Speaker 2 (46:15):
I don't know, probably January, I would think, not earlier
than January.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Oh so it's coming up soon.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Yeah, before well the spring, I think, Well, hit me up.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
We'll have to have you back, and I will definitely
hit you up. You can take us on a tour
to Boston the Forgotten Files. Well, Barry, thank you so much,
You're amazing, and thank you for doing an amazing job
on this beautiful book, and thank you experiencing Getty's Brickforest.
And so you can also go to Boston Paranormal dot
(46:45):
org and see all kinds of different amazing stuff that
Barry is doing and part of the organization. So but Barry,
thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
You're very welcome. Tony, thank you, Thank you everybody.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
Well, that was another truth be Told episode of this
Halloween series. That we've been going on this journey until
the end of October, so we hope that you enjoyed it, share,
leave a review and tell your friends, and we hope
that you enjoy our episodes, so please subscribe. We'll watch
(47:20):
or listen to our Apple iHeart Spotify, all those good stuff.
But until next time, I want you to take care
of yourself and each other. Take care.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
Bye.
Well, welcome back to Truth Be Told. We're going to
battle for this holiday special edition. Today, we're exploring the
haunted histories of Gettysburg with Barry J. Corbett, author of
Haunted Gettysburg Paranormal Tales from the Field of Battle. Barry
spent six years as lead investigators for Boston Paranormal, exploring
(00:23):
more than one hundred and fifty hunted sites across New England.
His book brings to life the ghostly echoes of the
Civil War and their deadliest battles were fifty thousand soldiers,
many just teenagers, met their fate, leaving behind restless spirits
that still haunt the fields of Gettysburg. As an award
winning cartoonist and versatile storyteller, Barry has published comic collections,
(00:48):
short stories, and graphic memoirs. Now, he turns his lifelong
fascination with ghost into a chilling journey through America's most
haunted battles. I'm your host, Tony Sweet, Please welcome to
this studio for the second time, author cartoonist Barry J. Corbett.
(01:08):
There he is, there, he is, He's back. I couldn't
go through Halloween without having you on, Becky.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I appreciate it, of course.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well, well, first off, I want to get started on
this amazing book. But you know, you've, like I said
in the intro, one hundred and fifty haunted sites, but
Gettysburg seems to really stand out, stir stand apart, and
I wanted to ask if you could describe the feeling
of Gettysburg at night in one chilling moment. What really
(01:41):
stood out as the most unforgettable experience.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, the whole place, it's just incredible, is a real
gravitas about it. And the minute you step off the
bus there and see a field and the town itself,
it just gives you chills just to be there. It's
amazing sight. I highly recommend it if anyone hasn't been
there as a visit, I could have spent two or
three weeks there. But yeah, they actually don't let you
(02:10):
go in the park after dark anymore.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
You can, Oh, no, they don't.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
They used to do up until five or six years ago,
but they've stopped doing that. But there are plenty of
sites around town where you can get to. For example,
the Old Grove out near the middle School is a
very haunted area and some of the creepiest things experienced
have been seen there, you know, the usual gunshots, voices,
phantom mists. Sometimes they've seen our rider on horseback riding through.
(02:38):
And that's the area where at the middle school about
in nineteen eighty two, I think actually had a soldier
walk through one in a classroom, so many of the
days just an amazing thing.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well, I know we also mentioned many of the spirits
that you write about were incredibly young, and some as
young as twelve, and which is hard to believe, but
how does knowing their age change the way you connect
with or interpret the hauntings a Getty's Burden.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Oh, I think the inexperience probably has a lot to
do with it. They were already seasoned veterans by the
time they got to Gettysburg ward been in progress for
a couple of years.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
That's amazing though.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
And the kid that there were a lot of teenagers
that signed up, but a lot of the ones that
were that young twelve, There were bugle boys and drummers,
but they were still in the field of battle right
or right now. They were shot and killed and wounded,
and I can only imagine what that's like for someone
that young. I just I just can't put a finger
on it. I think that might be one of the
(03:44):
reasons that some of them stick around. They're just so
shocked by their own death of just totally unprepared for
it at that young age.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, And to think about when I was twelve years old,
I mean, you're you're starting to slowly turn into that manhood.
You know, you're starting to go through puberty and and
a lot of emotions anyway, but uh, I mean, I
couldn't imagine living in that time because you definitely had
to grow up faster back then. But putting into a
(04:15):
battles uh scene, I could that would just Yeah, the
shock or the change would just baffle people nowadays to
think about living in those times.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, Like you say, people grew up a lot quicker
than they do now. Yeah, they got married young, they
had lots of children young. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, I want to I want to ask you about
the Devil's Den. It's a kind of a legend for
ghost activity. What do you think makes this site so
uniquely active compared to other parts of the battlefield And
can you explain what Devil's Den is? Well, I'll look
at you. You you have the pictures ready, I'd love it.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah. Devil's then was smack dab in the middle of
the largest area of battle, in between Little Round Top,
which the Union held for the tire three days and
the area that was attacked by the South and Pickets Charge.
Day two took the heaviest fighting, and in that single
day alone they were about eight thousand rebels killed, eighteen
(05:24):
hundred rebels killed and eight hundred Union soldiers. And it
was the crop of boulders, full of crevices and shadows
and places you could hide behind and shoot someone stick
a bayonet and from behind. You know, it was just
a difficult place to fight. So it changed hands I
think four times in that single day, and it was
(05:48):
kindage at an unbelievable level. And at the end of
the day it was held by the Union soldiers. But
as dusk fell some of the shooting stopped, but at
that point never found themse was listening to people are
lying on the field, groaning in pain, screaming for help
as they slowly dying. Hundreds of bodies on the field,
I can't imagine. It's also one of the more haunted
(06:10):
areas on the battlefield. It had a reputation of being
haunted even before the battle, did it really? I guess
there's a legend. Maybe it's just folklore, but there was
a Native American battle called the Battle of the Crows,
and I didn't come across a lot of detail about it,
but the name itself the Devil's Then one of the
(06:34):
womens said it was infested with snakes. I think it's
because the crevices just looks so deep and dark. It
looks like they might go all the way down to
the Devil's domain. It just kind of got that nickname.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
What a lot of times, if you have your psychic
or ability, or even if you don't even think you
have the ability, being around a location like that, your
senses may be heightened. What did you feel or what
did you see? That kind of gave you that inclination
(07:07):
that there is a lot of activity and Devil's Den.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
You feel like you watched a lot when we were
standing there, and I try to get there early in
the morning so that there weren't a lot of visitors yet,
so that kind of enhanced the failing, I imagine, But
that's a common report by visitors there that they feel watched,
and it's just it gives you chills, just being there.
It's just an eerie, eerie site, even in the bright daylight.
(07:33):
One of the most common characters seen they've nicknamed the
helpful Hippie. He's got a Southern warrior, probably from one
of the Texas brigades. A lot of them weren't issued
full uniforms by the South, so they just came dressed
as they were when they signed up. He just has
their feet. He's kind of got ragged shoes, he has
long hair, and he wears a wide brimmed hat. People
(07:55):
he walks up to people and they think he's a
living person. He seems as solid as they are, and
he's very friendly and cheery, and he'll usually point over
towards the river called plumb Run. They said you should
take a look over there, or that's what you're looking for,
and then they'll turn around and be gone hundreds of times,
I guess, according to visits reports, so we think maybe
(08:17):
he might have died at plumb Run. They say that
the river itself ran red, but the blood of so
many people killed there, it.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Was most of the bodies removed or were many buried there.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
There are hundreds buried there. They were removed well. A
couple of weeks after the battle, the North made an
effort to reinter the bodies into Union cemeteries, mostly the
big one nearby, but a lot of the Southern bodies
they left for later on, and some of them are
never discovered. There's at least three or four hundreds still. Yeah,
(08:53):
some of the women in the South raised money to
send people to look search for the bodies, and they
reinter a lot of them, but there's no way that
they found all of them. There's just too big a task.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yeah, Yeah, that's it's pretty amazing because you know what,
fifty thousand people.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, that's the number in three days of battle, fifty
thousand wounded or killed.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I couldn't imagine the energy imprint that has been placed
on that site. And how does that maniffest for investigators
like yourself with that type of an imprint. I just
I just couldn't imagine fifty thousand people. That's pretty out.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, it's the energy imprints of phenomenon we econnor at
a lot of places done a haunted that we've been to.
It's sometimes when an event is just so violent or
so tragic, it just is infused into the land. The
energy remains there forever. Yeah, and it's not just the field,
the entire town. A lot of the battle took place
right in gettys Rig itself, and that's why a lot
(10:02):
of the local ends are haunted. There's a lot of
people buried right in people's front yard. And they also
while the battles were going on, they arranged field hospitals
in the cellar of many of the buildings. There were
probably twenty five field hospitals spread throughout the city. So
(10:23):
people were dying suffering right in their homes, in the
basements of their hotels, things like that. So it's just
the whole entire city has spread with this echo of pain. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
I also saw was a Coon's brickyard. Can you kind
of tell us your experience that you've had.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, it took quite a few photos at the brickyard,
and that's one of the ones you could go to
at night. I did feel a very strong feeling of
being watched there. That is also near the middle school.
It's one of the earliest battles. The Brickyard battle was
a route for the South. It was Coon's orchard and
(11:06):
that they tried to The Union soldas were in trenched
behind a couple of fences and a brick wall, and
they sold The Southern force that came into town was
about three times their size, so it was turned into
a rope very quickly. It was hand to hand fighting,
so there was some brutal you know, wounds. People suffered
and died very quickly. There others lingered there north. The
(11:29):
Union solders had to retreat when they backed up a
door to Cemetery Hill, where they made another stand and
they were to hold that ground for the rest of
the three days. But spirits there lots of voices, lots
of gunshots. There's also there's also a little brook behind
there that one of the theories is running water can
(11:52):
supply energy that spirits can use to manifest, so that
might be something that enhances the haunting. But definitely in
place where lots of people were killed. In this nice monument,
there's a beautiful mural painted across the side of a building.
It's you know, it's about thirty thirty feet high and
(12:12):
fifty feet long. It's just a beautiful illustration memorializing the battle.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
We hear a lot about the you know, the tragedy,
and but is there any place that you felt on
the battlefield or in town that actually felt peaceful. I'm
curious to see if there was any positivity that you
(12:39):
felt in the area versus just all tragedy.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
The town itself has a nice vibe to it. It's
a pretty little place. There's lots of nice hotels and restaurants. Yeah,
and it's beautiful. The area around it's very beautiful. So yeah,
there are areas that are serene and pleasant to be around,
especially in a nice day. Some of the inns have
some of the best stories. I stayed in four different
(13:07):
Hearted inns, and I asked them to for their most
haunted room.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Oh did you really?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah? Did you?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Did you specifically ask for it?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah? Always they're always happy to run out the Hearted rooms,
and uh, I'm sure they use it to market their
their hotels. Did you have any activity a little bit
at the cash town in which I believe is one
of the most haunted sites there. And again, it was
one of the early sites for the battle. Generally, Bowden
(13:37):
met there with General Lee before the battle even started
and they were bringing their troops in, so they were
using the inn right away. They took it right over
and use the ovens to bake bread for the soldiers
and all that. But once the battle started, and just
like a lot of the others, they started bringing in
the wounded into the cellar and with very little painkillers.
(13:59):
They did have painkillers, but they just used morphine and
ether things like that, but they did not have any biotics.
So it was a lot of suffering and it was
the treatment for wounds was an amputation.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Yeah, there wasn't much else to do back then.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, So they're down on the cellar hacking off limbs
and then just throwing them out the cellar window, and
they formed a big pile out in the out in
the yard, just bleeding over the backyard. And that was
a common sight in some of the areas where they
had these horse field hospitals. I talked to Jeremy, the owner,
and Danielle, the owners of the really nice people. They
(14:33):
coming some fantastic stories, not only their experiences at the
inn itself with they've seen quite a few things, but
in the roads around there. He was driving his truck
home one night and he saw a Union soldier walking
down the street directly towards his truck. He thought it
was a reenactor because it looked solid. He tried to stop,
hit the brakes, but it was too late and the
(14:54):
soldier passed right through the truck. He actually turned his
head and looked at him while he was going through it.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Off the track, got out, looked around. There was no body, nothing, knowing,
never was anyone there, just that amazing.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
His heart was pumping.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, it happened to him twice. Another time there was
a store nearby. He had just pulled in. It was
a rainy night, and he turned around back the track out.
When he turned back to look forward again, another Union
soldier walked right through the porch into a wall to
the left, a fence rather to the left, disappeared into
the rain. In the hotel itself, uh, they're very friendly goes.
(15:32):
For the most part. They're not. They don't harass them
or anything. The most common thing is they knock on
one room at three in the morning. Three knock. It's
always three knocks. They'll get up, they'll answer the door.
Nobody there. They'll go back to bed. Half an hour there,
three knocks again. It didn't happen to me the night
I was there, but I still felt the chills. They
often see faces in the window Jemmy describes the door
(15:54):
opening and closing and locking on its own a few times,
and at one point he hear a thump on the
second floor landing. He ran up the stairs and right
in the middle of the landing there was a book
and the title of the book was like Stories from
Beyond the Grave.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
At least they have humor.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, they definitely haven't sense a human. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
I know you mentioned about some of these soldiers that
as longing to be remembered in your book. Which kind
of a spirit story do you think captures that desire?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Oh, Jesus, so many at Devil's Den. Uh, there was
so much death in that one day and so much destruction.
And because they were buried in these shallow grave sites,
and lots of them, there's no mockers. You don't even
know where they fell they were.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I think that alone would lead a spirit to be
dissatisfied with how how it ended, and they would want
someone to know where they were and to be remembered.
No one wants to be forgotten. I can't imagine what
it's like to be completely forgotten. So I imagine that's
what keeps them sticking around. The Valley of Death right
behind it was nicknamed because of so many deaths in
(17:19):
it was the area right in between Little Round Top
and Devil's Den. And there's also the Bloody what Field
in the slaughter pen. And then they have all these
grim nicknames because there was just so much death. Yeah,
it's almost hard to pin down one because they all
have the same experience. They were just cut down by
the hundreds at the time of the battles and buried
very quickly, and like you say, they went all found
(17:42):
later on.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Did a lot of the land that these battles are on.
Are they all federally owned land or they privately owned.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Much of its federal land, but some of the private
farms are still owned by Gettysburg citizens. You know. The
battlefield itself is actually with the visitors Center is they
have a great show there where they have audio visual display,
they can takes, they can rent tours with the guides themselves.
(18:16):
So they control that whole area. They patrol at night,
don't let people come come into the park at night.
But the hotels obviously are owned by independent businessmen business people.
Rather Howes Sacks Covered Bridge, which is what is the
Sacks Covered bridge, which is just west of the city,
(18:38):
a very hearted sight where the legend there says that
three Union soldiers were hung from the bridge as a
lesson because they deserted. Two or three different versions of
the story. One of them said they were Southern soldiers
and trying to join with the Union. Another one said
they were spies and when they were caught, they were hung.
(18:58):
But I don't know how much truth there is in that,
because the battle they were only there for four days.
The battle itself was three days. They might have hung someone.
It's possible, but that's the apparition that's seemed most often
at the bridge. Side of the bridge, and by night
it's a very creepy place.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Oh wow. Yeah, I can imagine at night. Yeah, during
the day it's pretty cool, but at night that would
be kind of creepy.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah. You walk across it, then you want to get
out of there very quickly. I bet there's a ghost
they named Tennessee. They think he was a former slave.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
And Folkalore says he likes cigarettes. If you put a
cigarette on the rail, you can watch it light up
like someone inhaled it. I didn't try. I didn't have
any cigarettes with me, but some of the stories I
came across that it did work for them.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Well all definitely if I ever go, which I hope
I do. I don't smoke either, but I definitely will
probably at least buy one just to or bum a
cigarette with somebody, just to try it.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah. They also see floating heads floating above the river,
and of course the usual voices and gunshots. General Lee
left took the entire army through it. On the way back,
I imagine they were carrying rickety carts with wounded soldiers.
They said they were bleeding the whole trip. So the
floor of the bridge is probably soaked in blood. I
(20:19):
can imagine that might leave an energetic imprint of some kind.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Was that bridge ever replaced or is it? I'm sure
it has been repaired, but was it ever replaced to
where not completely?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
No, they were paid it. There was a hurricane in
nineteen ten, I believe it was most of it was
washed down the river.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Oh that's too bad.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yeah, they got the whole thing back together again. It
wasn't destroyed. They were able to piece it back together,
reinforce it. They don't allows cars to go through it anymore.
You can walk across it, but it is the original
bridge for the most part. I love that.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I love that. What now, I know the community, some
of the people maybe have lived their you know, their
families have lived there since the Civil War, and probably
maybe still some of the land is still owned by
some of the family that was alive during the Civil War.
(21:12):
How do people feel? I know it's a it's a
money maker for the businesses, but how do people in
the community like to be remembered as the turning point
for the Civil War or do How do they feel
about the paranormal side of the of the being known about.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
I think they have mixed feelings about. The citizens themselves
are probably sick of the ghost towards. But the businesses
make a lot of money off it, and they obviously
promote it. A lot of hotels promoted. But I think
they have mixed feelings. But they're certainly proud that the
war itself, the battle itself was a turning point. They
came very close to losing the battle. Yeah, and I
(21:55):
think it was the first major battle generally lost.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah. He was marching on his way to Washington and
he had hoped to defeat General Mead, Right, there at
Gettysburg before they reached the city they had hoped to encounter.
They had never planned to fight right at Gettysburg. It
just happened that way. But mead uh Una army held
most of the cemetery ridge and a knock all the
(22:19):
way around from Little Roundtop all the way to culps Hill,
and that helped them hang on because they had the
high ground. I was going to ask you that, Yeah, yeah,
culps Hill was you know, I'm not a historian. I
just learned all this from restitching for the ghost stories. UH.
Culps Hill was one of the earliest battles generally took
(22:41):
over uh the Dobbin House and the Broton not not
the Rose Farm, the Daniel Lady farm because it was
half a mile away from culps Hill. And he thought
culps Hill would be easy to take because they only
had a small Union force holding it. But they just
(23:03):
weren't able to take it. On the first day. They
took heavy losses and it threw off his whole battle plan.
A lot of men were wounded, a lot of men
were brought back to the farm there and treated. A
lot of them died there. And there's I think this
thirty seven Southern soldiers still buried buried in the front
yard of the farm. Daniel Lady himself helped to bury them.
(23:27):
There's a couple of markers there where they fell. But
there was also a field hospital behind it that treated
soldiers from both sides of the battle after the warrant,
after the battle ended, and they claimed that they saw
more wounded soldiers treated there than part of the battle.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I think that that's the exciting part of what you
do is I'm a big history buff, but also I'm
a big paranormal buff, and so you kind of get
the best of both worlds. You get the historical side
of it, but also the lingering of the paranormal of
the of the history. So I think that I find
(24:09):
that fascinating. I find that fascinating. How how do you
how do you as a writer separate the historical truth
to the paranormal side, Because some people are going to go, oh,
come on, and you know this paranormal stuff, But how
do you how do you separate the two and how
do you intertwine the two to make it an easy
(24:30):
flow for the readers.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Well, like yourself, Tony, I really fell in love with
the history when I started getting into this. Yeah, and
the more you find out about these sites, you start
digging in other things, Other little facts and figures come up.
It's just amazing stories. But I do try to keep
take it with a grain of salt that a lot
of it is folklore and a lot of it gets
(24:52):
exaggerated as it's be toold over the years. So you
kind of have to look for the facts themselves first
and see if that bears out with the actual event
that happened there. So and if you do that, you
get taken a lot more seriously, people don't call you
a sensationalist and right and accused of faking evidence things
like that. So it's always that's a good policy to
have from the from the beginning.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Do you do you get that emotionally connected? Because I know,
any any battle or any type of situation where there's
been a loss of many lives, how do you separate
the emotional side or do you like to include that
into your writings.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I think it's better to include it because it feelings
are part of it, really and it comes out in
your Hopefully it comes out in your writing that that
you really can feel for these people and their history
and what happened to them. It's it's such a tragedy
in so many ways, any war is, but the fact
to think that they're still stuck there beyond, unable to
(25:58):
move on to the next stage of existence, it is
just terribly sad. So you want to treat it with
respect in any man at anytime you can.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, yeah, I I've heard many times that you know,
psychic say, oh, just tell them to go go to
the light. But you know, I've heard that so many times.
But it seems like many of these locations. I don't
know if it's just so many spirits at certain locations
where it's hard to do that unless you just spent
every moment telling fifty thousand souls to go to the light.
(26:32):
But it seems like some location spirits just don't want
to go. And have you ever found yourself to your
to yourself having a conversation with the spirit or someone.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
There absolutely not a physical conversation. A lot of times
we do it through the gadgets. If you can get
say a rempot or something to light up and they
can interact with an intelligent spirits so that they hit
twice for no and once for yes, then you can
actually start almost interviewing the ghost and find out, you know,
did you die four nine? Were you killed here or
(27:08):
we killed somewhere else, We've borne somewhere, all that kind
of thing. You can actually write up a little history
with a yes and no process, so you really feel
like you have actually met some of these spirits in
a way. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Have you ever felt like one has befriended you and
decided to come and visit your where you're at or no?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah, A couple of times, really, yeah, just for a
single day. I went home a couple of times and
a couple of lights went on, and the TV went
on by itself. And one morning I got up, I
was doing I was the only one on the first floor.
We live in a kpe. My wife was upstairs. I
was just doing some stretches and her guitar was on
(27:52):
the guitar stand to my right, and a single note
just went twang like and the cat was I look
for the cat. She's sitting right in front of me,
he said, Well, it wasn't the cat. In fact, she
walked over to it, looked at the guitar like she
heard it too. So I think they a little bit mischievous.
Sometimes I was their way of saying, you know what,
I'm here, But then they were gone the next day.
(28:13):
They didn't hear anything.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Else, and like, I just wanted to play your guitar
and that's all.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah. Yeah. Another time I left the walkie talking on
and it was inside my backpack. I didn't realize. So
I went to bed. I got up in the morning,
walked into the room and I heard a woman's voice.
I couldn't make it out at first what I was saying,
but it was actually saying low battery.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Actually, that's a good point, you know. I didn't think
about that because we always hear about you know, the
soldiers were mostly men, but how often do they see women?
Spirits at the Gettysburg?
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Quite a bit as actually really Yeah, Jenny Wade was
a young woman, the only civilian killed in the battle.
She was I think she was only eighteen years old.
She actually was not even in her own home. She
had her sister had a baby. A couple of days
for the battle, and she moved into her sister's home
(29:09):
to help take care of the baby. And the battle
broke out and a sniper's bullet ricochet went right through
the back door. It stuck her in the back and
killed her with one shot. So the home is now
a museum they can tour. They have a recreation of
what happened where they took the body and all that.
(29:30):
Very sad story. But they see her spirit walking through
the front yard, walking through the home, and they see
it in the home where she grew up, so she
actually haunts two different locations.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
She's a busy ghost.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah. Also, a lot of women helped out treating the soldiers,
and one of one of the most famous characters from
the Battle of Gettysburg is Tillie Pearce, young girl of sixteen.
She was just in high school when the battle broke out.
Her parents thought she was in danger, so they sent
(30:04):
her down to her friend Jacob Wacker's farm, which was
actually further south, and the battle found her. The battle
ended up coming down right to the farm, was in
the middle of the whole thing. The first day she
watched her and her best friend watch all the wounded
soldiers come in being laid in the barn. They started
cooking for the soldiers, washing out you know, blood out
(30:28):
of the rags and all that, and then she started
helping the doctors bandage wounds. In the end, she's helping
them hack off limbs. She's hold them still while they're
hacking off arms and legs. At sixteen years old, so
I stayed in the Tilly Pierce in which is supposedly
haunted by Tilly. They see a young woman on the
second floor peering out the window wistfully. They think it's
(30:50):
Tilly Pierce. But she wrote a book about the experience
later on, which was for historians a very valuable piece
of information because she described in great detail everything that
happened and what she saw, what she survived it, and
there's none the worse afterwards. But I can't imagine being
that young and going through that.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
I couldn't. I could not either. And uh, you know,
we we've we forget about those people, Like you said,
it's mostly we don't realize the women that actually helped.
You know, these doctors are just people that the wounded.
Many of them cared for them, so I'm sure they
(31:33):
were appreciated.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
At the Spandless Spangler's Spring, which is near colps hillmu
there's a lady in white that visits. The spring looks
like a wishing well. You know, the soldiers got their
water there both sides. During the battle, lots of were
killed right at the site, but they say that the
woman in white had been seen there long before the war,
and the folklore legend associated with her is that she
(31:56):
was a jilted lover. She was too people having an
affair and they would meet at the spring at midnight,
and one day she showed up and her love didn't show,
so she committed suicide right there at the site. And
now every year her spirit returned to the site looking
for her lost lover.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Wow, he's either up there or down there, so that.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Well, he also could be one of the nuns. There
was a convent nearby that Wow, after the battle rushed
to help out. A lot of soldiers took care of them,
and they think she could be one of them, roaming
the field looking for someone she knew, or was just
so affected by the experience that she sticks around beyond death.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Do the locals or people that see these spirits have
they noticed more Union or Confederate soldiers or is it
kind of a mix of both.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
It's more Confederate, I believe, because I think most of
the Union soldiers were moved.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
That makes sense.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
The consecrated ground, the Phantom Regiment is a Union regiment
seen most often. In fact, one of the hotel owners
I spoke to had personally saw it himself quite a
few times. They've seen entire regiment marching on the field.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I was going to ask if marching or if the
actually in battle.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
So yeah, some of the battles are recreated. There's two
stories associated with that. The Phantom Regiment has shown up
in a number of different areas. At Little Roundtop has
been seen three or four times, and the other one
is before Little Roundtop, and they actually claim to have
(33:38):
seen the ghosts of George Washington twice during the Battle
of Gettysburg, which is the most amazing thing in the
book to me. On the way there, the battle had
already begun. General Meade ordered the rest of his army
to get up to the Gettysburg, and they were about
a half a day's march away. On the way there,
they alleged, says they they found the folk on the
(34:03):
road and they weren't sure which way to go. A
mounted rider came out of the woods, dressed in about
seventy years out of date. He had a try corner hat.
He was a tall man, and the soldiers swear they
had seen paintings of General Washington, and photography, you know,
been around. It wasn't around at the time, but not
popularized yet, but they had seen paintings of Washington. They
(34:23):
all swear it looked like General Washington. He got right
up at the head of the column and told the
commanding officer to follow him, and they all just fell
in line behind him. He led him right to a
little roundtop and then he disappeared. But by the time
they got there, they claim it was just dusk was
starting to get dark, and they noticed a glow around him,
(34:44):
like you a little bit lubinescence.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
He waltzed off into the woods without saying a word.
Two days later he showed up again at the same
spot at little Roundtop. The twentieth Maine was desperately trying
to hold that position. There would be an attack from
both sides, and they were almost out of ammunition late
in the day, and the rebels didn't know that. But
(35:11):
Joshua Chamberlain was the commander. He said, all right, well,
we're just gonna bluff. If we can't shoot him, we're
gonna charge them with bayonets. So they all mounted bayonets,
and they were getting ready to charge. The rebels came
up the hill, and they come screaming down the hill
with the bayonets raised, and Chamberlain himself and he wrote
(35:32):
it in this book. He later became governor of Georgia,
I believe, and he wrote a memoir and he wrote
about this incident. In the book. He says, the figure
of General Washington reappeared raising a sword above his head,
and he flew with his horse into battle and encouraged
it and inspired the men to fight like crazy, and
(35:52):
they turned the tide of battle even though they were
just about out of ammunition. That's just the most amazing story.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
That is amazing story. I want to I want to
see that movie.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Yeah, And they launched a full investigation after the war
because so many soldiers reported seeing Washington on the field.
They actually launched investigation and researched it. So I love it. True.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
I also realized, you know, even though the a lot
of the Confederates bodies were left, they also lost the battle.
So I don't know if that also put a negative, like,
you know, a negative tone onto their spirits also, but
they yeah, yeah, is there some other kind of famous
(36:40):
ghosts that are that are lingering around. We've heard tennessee
at the at the bridge, but what are some other
of the recognized I guess recognized soldiers that are kind
of lingering.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
This is the cash Town in nineteen oh six. I
believe there's two figures behind my shoulder. The one in
the front is the is the yep I see him.
Is the visitor, a tourist. The one behind him wasn't
there at the time. He didn't show up till he
checked this picture out later. They have this post got
for sale in the house in the hotel. It's good.
(37:18):
But the other one is the the fonce was out
Farnsworth House, and I believe it's the most haunted site
there's see if I can get a picture of that up.
I thought I brought one with me. I don't see you. Well,
here's one of the spirits that was seen there. Anyways.
They have a mirror in the basement once again. The
(37:39):
basement was used as a field hospital. Yeah, they keep
taking pictures of this mirror in the basement, and they
keep coming up with specters and phantoms showing up in
the mirror. The person with their back turned is actually
one of the one of the tour guides. He has
long hair. Because he's moving, it looks like his hair
is flowing, but the hand itself was not there. That's
(38:01):
a phantom hand reaching in to touch him.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Oh my god, that's pretty profo something.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Yeah, the owner of the hotel gave me that photo.
And then and they see a blue uniform Soda from
the Union Army. They call him Walter. This is the
face one of them captured in the melos. Yeah, there's
enough detail to see that it looks like a Union cap.
You can kind of see the original flat you can
see a little more of his uniform. But yeah, the
(38:28):
cellar theatre. When they retreated to the cellar, the rebel
soldiers took over the end and took told the guests
to wait in the sell They thought the bat would
be over very quickly. It wasn't. But as they brought
in wounded people, they'd lay them on the floor of
the end, and their blood would seek right through the
floorboards and actually drip on top of the people that
were hiding out in the cellar.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
And then later on a lot of the bodies were
brought down to the cellar and just piled up in
the storeroom in the back, so the farms were there.
Is one of the most haunted areas hotels in the
entire area. They brought in lots of psychics and memes.
I think loraene Ed Loraine Warren. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
(39:12):
Loreen said that that room they should be shut off.
There's something very aggressive, very hostile in that room. They did.
They called in the room off, don't allow anyone in
there anymore. Some people guests came out with scratches on
their face.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
I guess, come on, Barry, let's go.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
I don't fail me. Not right.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I will push you down, Gary Barry, I'll push you
get him.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
George stands.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
Yeah, I just love these stories. I love these you
people that investigate. Like I said, I haven't had the
opportunity to to do this yet and I really want to.
But you've investigated so many different sites. How does how
did Gettysburg compare to a lot of the haunt in
(40:05):
New England sites like the taverns and inns and homes
and all that.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
I would put it at the top of the list.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Really.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Yeah, there's just so many areas that have phenomena and
as I said, you can you can feel it from
the minute you step onto that field, you can feel it.
It's it's ominous, it's it's chilling, and it's just you
feel like you're being watched, as I said, in so
many areas, and you feel like they want to tell
(40:35):
you their story. You know, they really want to be heard. Yeah, oh,
I imagine that's why. And because it was such a
violent battle and it was so such a turning point
in the war that a crucial piece of history really
happened there at Gettysbury in those three days.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Do you think places like Gettysburg, you know it, Do
you think it serves as as a reminder of our
of our America's passed traumas, And do you feel like
it's could be like a teaching tool?
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Yeah, of course I mentioned any any war as a
teaching tool or trying to avoid the next one, right,
But it was the only war where you know, brother
against brother, cousin against cousin, people that knew each other
were encountered each other on the on the battlefield. They
would they would pull like the Union soldiers would pull
(41:28):
wounded rebel soldiers in and treat them and treat them,
you know, humanely because they knew they were all Americans.
No bet, no war has ever been like that or
of a since. This an amazing thing. I hope it
never happens again.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
I hope not either.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
I'm a big history buff of my family, my family tree,
and I've had both Confederate and Union soldiers on both sides.
They fought in the Revolutionary War. So uh, I take
great pride and you know, my culture, my family culture
in America. But yeah, this type of tragedy that we
(42:10):
hope we never see again is a teaching tool and
we can remember these this one battlefield, fifty thousand soldiers.
It's it's just baffling to us in twenty twenty five
that we could do that to each other. And I
can see why some of these spirits, these soldiers that
(42:30):
don't want to be forgotten, because maybe they do stick
around so we can remember to not do it again.
So well, the takeaway for you know, the people that
are going to pick up your book, what do you
hope they take away from it?
Speaker 2 (42:46):
There is quite a bit of history in it, you
know the focus of ghost stories. But I couldn't tell
them without doing the research and without telling what led
to the depths and know all the battles changed, and
you know, the mistakes were made, and the valor and
the courage of most of the soldiers a lot of
more facing incredible odds and they fought like hell anyways.
(43:11):
So I'm just impressed with the youth and dedication given
their life for their country.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Yeah, yeah, and just believing and what they were fighting for. Well,
I before we get out of here, I know there's
some people that are going to be inspired by you,
either writing or cartoonist or even just wanting to visit Gettysburg,
and if it's their first time or tenth time, but
(43:40):
they've never got to experience what you experienced. What is
some of the most powerful chants of experiencing paranormal activity
in which that of the top three would you suggest
visit first at Gettysburg. At Gettysburg, Yeah, Devil's.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Den, I think is probably one of them. More hont
and a little round top has its share of trauma.
And I think the Old Grove, which is where we
started off with with the soldier went ran through the
middle school the middle of the Yeah, there's there's quite
a few sightings there and you can visit there at night.
(44:20):
You know, they won't throw you out. So those three
very powerful sites a lot of emotion attached to them. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
So I'm going to show the book and so the
people that are watching on YouTube, it's Haunted Getticksberg paranormal
tales from the field of Battle. So who who is
this a picture or is this one of your cartoon drawings.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
I took the photo the great art de pominent Something
Publishing enhanced it beautifully like they did with the first book.
They just did a great job.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
No, they did. It's great, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Made it so dramatic and creepy and all that. And
they're printing is super high quality. You know the hold
up real well. They printed on good solid coated stock.
It's a very quality book. I'm very impressed with their printing.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
Where do people pick up your amazing book anywhere?
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Like Amazon, Monsan, Noble. We try to get into the
visitors center there, but they haven't put it out yet,
but those are the main you know, any large booksll
it would have it right.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Well, Gettysburg is your latest and what's your next project?
Because I know this is not your last book?
Speaker 2 (45:29):
It is not. No. I actually just almost completed a
book about history of Boston again, only these are not
ghost stories, the true events from the hidden history of Boston.
There's some amazing things that happened that people were either
unaware of or have totally forgotten about, like the molasses
flood that happened in nineteen nineteen, Harry Houdini performing twice
(45:54):
in having a public battle with a medium, famous medium
he actually set out spent his life trying to debunk medium.
So he's in the book quite a bit. And this
is seven or eight actually be eighteen stories from the
history of Boston.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
That's pretty cool. When is it going to be out?
Speaker 2 (46:15):
I don't know, probably January, I would think, not earlier
than January.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Oh so it's coming up soon.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Yeah, before well the spring, I think, Well, hit me up.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
We'll have to have you back, and I will definitely
hit you up. You can take us on a tour
to Boston the Forgotten Files. Well, Barry, thank you so much,
You're amazing, and thank you for doing an amazing job
on this beautiful book, and thank you experiencing Getty's Brickforest.
And so you can also go to Boston Paranormal dot
(46:45):
org and see all kinds of different amazing stuff that
Barry is doing and part of the organization. So but Barry,
thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
You're very welcome. Tony, thank you, Thank you everybody.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
Well, that was another truth be Told episode of this
Halloween series. That we've been going on this journey until
the end of October, so we hope that you enjoyed it, share,
leave a review and tell your friends, and we hope
that you enjoy our episodes, so please subscribe. We'll watch
(47:20):
or listen to our Apple iHeart Spotify, all those good stuff.
But until next time, I want you to take care
of yourself and each other. Take care.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
Bye.
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