He Grew Up On A Civil War Battlefield, And He Had Numerous Run-Ins With Ghosts
This man grew up on the battlefield where General Lee and General Grant first battled against each other during the Civil War, called the Wilderness Battlefield.
Historical markers were all over the place for events during the war. The historical markers related to Lee, Grant, and Stonewall Jackson, but he always knew these markers didn’t share the entire story of these battles.
“Sometimes, history is lost. One piece of history from this battlefield that’s not written about is the actual fate of the troops who died. Most of the battlefield was engulfed in flames from artillery, and the wounded suffered a painful death from being burned alive,” he said.
His bedroom in his family’s home faced the shaded, woody area on the battlefield, and he always felt like it was filled with mystery.
As a kid, he and his friends had a blast building forts and cabins in the woods. They had to be on the lookout for Copperhead snakes, so they always brushed aside all the leaves surrounding where they wanted to construct their forts and cabins to make sure no snakes were hiding within them.
“While doing so, we would find hundreds of leather soles from soldiers’ boots and partial uniforms, buckles, and other artifacts. Since those days, I’ve always wondered if we were building these silly forts on a mass grave,” he explained.
There was a nearby neighborhood on the other side of the battlefield where some of his friends lived.
Throughout his childhood and adolescence, he estimated that he and his friends wandered hundreds of miles through the woods, day and night.
He had numerous run-ins with ghosts during these adventures through the woods to visit his friends.
Dennis M. Swanson – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
He was often tempted to run as fast as he could because he didn’t know what the ghosts wanted with him or whether they were kind or evil.
At the same time, he was curious about them. Whenever he stumbled over sticks or branches brushed against him, he was terrified.
He imagined the ghost of a soldier coming up from his grave, attempting to grab onto him as he walked by. These ghosts would have seen horrible atrocities during the Civil War.
Deep in the woods, sunlight shone through the trees, and moss glowed through the trails, but other than that, it was complete darkness.
He saw ghosts constantly in the woods, but when he was by himself, he tried to pretend they were a figment of his imagination.
While he never felt like he was in danger, he could feel the horrors these ghosts had experienced when they’d been alive, and it was a spiritual experience.
During the war, the Confederate army had a battle cry coined the “Rebel Yell.” He explained that a video from the 1930s posted on YouTube shows Civil War veterans reenacting the Rebel Yell.
“The poltergeist troops could be heard from time to time, but you never knew if it was someone out in the distance at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. or a troop screaming for help. What was very unsettling was when you could smell burning wood, followed by the cries of help/Rebel Yells. At the bottom of the neighborhood that I grew up in, there was an old railroad bed,” he shared.
This railroad was funded before the war, and once the war started, there was no more funding for it. Because the railroad bed was laid down before the war began, troops used it, calling it “The Abandoned Railroad.”
He clarified that not many Civil War books discuss this railroad, even though it was an important part of the Battle of the Wilderness and how it played out.
He hasn’t been to this battlefield in more than 20 years, but he reminisces about it a lot and hopes to go back someday soon.
But he doesn’t know whether he wants to visit because he misses the neighborhood or if the ghosts are reaching out and asking him to return.
Have you ever seen a ghost?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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