Moment in Oddity - Snailfish
It may seem like we've gone down an oddity rabbit hole of things that glow, but let me tell you about the snailfish. In Greenland's cold waters, there is a fish that has the ability to glow green and red. The snailfish lives in Greenland's deepest depths inside the crevices of icebergs. The ability to glow in Arctic fish is somewhat rare and in the snailfish's case, it is atributed to an antifreeze protein that keeps the snailfish from dying. This fish's specialized adaptations prevent its internal organs from producing ice crystals allowing it to live in temperatures that would normally cause fish blood to freeze. According to one article a juvenile snailfish was found to have the highest level of antifreeze proteins ever recorded. Glowing deep sea creatures are always interesting, but the fact that the snailfish can produce quote unquote antifreeze qualities, certainly is odd.
This Month in History - Julian Calendar Changes to Gregorian Calendar in Britain
In the month of September, on the 2nd, in 1752, The British ended their use of the Julian calendar and switched to the Gregorian calendar. The move did not go well and it still makes it hard for historians to navigate whether historical records were entered according to the Julian calendar or Gregorian calendar. The Julian calendar was started by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. It follows much of how our calendar is today, but the way that leap years were figured, ended up leaving extra dates in some months and pushing seasonal equinoxes to fall too early by nearly a week and a half. It messed up Christian holidays too, so Pope Gregory XIII authorized a New Style calendar that was eventually named for him. In order to facilitate this change, the method of calculating leap years was changed, the beginning of the legal new year was changed from March 25th to January 1st so the year 1751 was a short year with only 282 days and 11 days were dropped from Septmeber in 1752. This meant that people went to bed on September 2nd and woke up on September 14th. People felt like they had been cheated because eleven days just disappeared and riots ensued as people demanded the missing days back. At least according to urban myth.
Haunted Gettysburg
The town of Gettysburg is centrally located in Southern Pennsylvania and its claim to fame is the three day battle that took place here in July of 1863 that became the major turning point of the war. Many of the homes, inns and businesses in town still bear the battle scars of this bloody battle and nearly every location has some kind of spirit hanging around. We got to spend a couple days in this historic and quaint town and we are going to share the haunted locations outside of the battlefield on this episode. Join us for the history and haunts of Gettysburg!
The town of Gettysburg was founded in 1786 and named after Samuel Gettys who was an earlier settler here and owned a tavern that the local militia used for meetings. Samuel had a lot of land after the Revolutionary War and he eventually sold his land to his son James, who sold it off in parcels. This was the official start of Gettysburg and James is recognized as the founder. Gettysburg officially became a Borough in 1806. James would serve as sheriff for three years and was the first town clerk and treasurer and in 1815 became Burgess. Samuel's brother-in-law, Reynolds Ramsey, was the first Burgess or mayor. We actually got to see James' burial plot in the Evergreen Cemetery. He died from typhus as did many members of his family, leaving his two young sons orphans.
Gettysburg was a trading hub with all roads and railroads leading to it and for this very reason, it was the perfect spot for a battle during the Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg would be fought here from July 1st to 3rd in 1863 with 165,620 troops facing off against each other headed by Union General George G. Meade and Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Lee had the upperhand at the beginning of the battle, but blunders on the third day led the Confederates into retreat and this became a Union victory. There were more than 50,000 casualties that day and most buildings in the area were quickly turned into field hospitals. The battlefield still serves as a reminder today of a dark moment in America's history. The battle would give the small town a spot in infamy. Today, tourists visit from all over the world to experience the deep history here. Many of the locations that stood during the battle, still stand today. And many of them are said to be haunted!
Baladerry Inn
The site where the Baladerry Inn stands at 40 Hospital Road had been the George Bushman Farm. The inn was built in 1812 to serve as the home for a tenant farmer. In 1830, the rest of the main house was added. George Bushman's son eventually moved into the home and during the Battle of Gettysburg, it was used as a field hospital with amputations taking place in the great Room. In 1992, the house was converted into a bed & breakfast. In 2010, Judy & Kenny Caudill bought the property and they have updated the place and continue to run it as a B&B. The main house and carriage house both have rooms for rent, ten in total. The Great Room has a great fireplace and opens up onto a large terrace with a hot tub. A traditional country breakfast is offered in the mornings.
The inn is said to be haunted not only because it was a field hospital, but because seven Confederate soldiers remain buried beneath some nearby tennis courts. The inn embraces their haunts and even keep a binder full of stories. A guest taking pictures around the inn captured Confederate soldiers in a picture with two of them being seated near some French-style double doors and two standing outside. One of them has what looks like a black armband, perhaps in honor of General Stonewall Jackson.
The Marigold Room plays host to a female ghost that usually appears at the foot of the bed. She is fond of jewelry as well and one female guest reported that she was participating in some re-enactments and had brough vintage jewelry with her to wear. She kept the jewelry in a bag and when she returned to her room, she found it laid out neatly on top of the bag. The Primrose Room has an amorous male ghost named Geoffrey. He rubs the feet of women and sings in their ears. Sometimes he gets into bed with guests as well.
Izzatyu wrote on TripAdvisor in 2013, "I chose the Marigold room, as it attracts ghost hunters often. (All though the whole property has that potential). I thought I would try it out and wow, a phantom voice on my recorder, a loud popping sound like a champagne cork (which I didn't hear, but was recorded), two knocks that I asked for that I heard, plus recorded, washroom door closed while I was out and couldn't make it do that myself. There could be more, as I haven't listen to all of the recordings (EVP's) as yet. I recommend the Baladerry Inn and hope to return one day. It is far enough away from the main part of town, so it is nice and quiet. This place has everything going for it. Couldn't be better! If you are afraid of ghosts, don't worry, just tell them to stop and they usually do."
George Weikert House
The George Weikert House, north of Little Round Top, is one of the houses along the edge of the battlefield that is now owned by the National Park Service. The Weikert family owned four farms in the area, but this one was owned by the patriarch George. He was born in 1801 and moved to Gettysburg from Maryland in 1838. He purchased the land with the house in 1852. The house started as a one-story, two-bay stone house built on a granite foundation that was built in 1798. The gabled roof is covered with wood shingles and has vertical board and batten on the gable ends and the rest of the house is built from stone. The house was altered in 1880, expanding it into a two-story, two-bay house. When the battle began near the farm, the family left and the house was strong enough to provide good shelter that the Union quickly commandeered it. When the Weikert's returned, they found their house had been turned into a field hospital with amputated limbs piled up outside and bodies buried nearby. Eventually the bodies where dug up and relocated and the parlor rug was found in the mass grave. At least six men lost their lives in the parlor of the house. Survivors from the New Jersey Brigade bought the farm because they had been successful holding the area and they put up a monument nearby. The park service bought the property and park rangers use the farm for housing. They are the ones who claim that the house is haunted. A door on the second floor refuses to stay shut and they've never found an explainable reason why. A frustrated ranger tried nailing the door shut and he still found it opened later. Disembodied footsteps are heard in the house, especially the attic.
Tillie Pierce House Inn
The Tillie Pierce House Inn was built in 1829 and purchased by James and Margaret Pierce in 1847. The Pierce Family would hold onto the home for 64 years. The inn is named for Matilda "Tillie" Pierce, who was the daughter of James and Margaret. She was fifteen when the battle started and her parents sent her to the Jacob Weikert Farm believing she would be safer there. This was at the base of little Round Top and Tillie soon found herself providing aid to wounded soldiers. She wrote of her experiences twenty-five years later in a book titled "At Gettysburg, Or What A Girl Saw And Heard Of The Battle." She wrote, "The whole landscape had been changed and I felt as though we were in a strange and blighted land." The inn features six rooms, a parlor, sitting room and Victorian garden. People claim to hear disembodied footsteps walking upstairs, the sound of a soldier pacing up and down the stairs and beds appear to have something unseen sit upon them.
Farnsworth House Inn
The Farnsworth House Inn sits on land that had been owned by Reverend Alexander Dobbins and he sold part of the land to John F. McFarlane. The house has a murky background with McFarland being credited as the first recorded owner of the house, but its not clear he built it, nor is it clear when it was built. Most historians believe that the house was built in 1810. McFarland owned it until his death in 1851 and then the Bank of Gettysburg took ownership of the property. During the Civil War, this was another one of those field hospitals and some Confederates were buried on the property. This was also a stop on the Gettysburg Address campaign. There were other owners through the years with one of the families being the Black Family who opened up the Sleepy Hollow Inn here. In 1972, Loring and Jean Shultz bought the inn and offered tours of the house in which they shared stories about paranormal activity.
The rooms of this bed and breakfast are filled with antiques. There are ten rooms to choose from and then there is also the Lee and Meade Dining Rooms, Sweney's Tavern and a Beer Garden with outside dining. We didn't get a chance to try the food here as the main dining rooms were closed the days we visited, but Sweney's Tavern is available more often. They offer a variety of tours through their Sleepy Hollow Ghost Tours. These include a Civil War Era Magic Show or a Haunted Cellar Presentation or Yankee Spirits Walking Tour or Creekside Tales or Confederate Hospital Walking Ghost Tour or ghost hunts of the place. Clearly, embracing the paranormal started with the Schultz in the 1970s and continues to today. And there is a lot of activity here.
There are several spirits reputed to be here, including a ghost cat. The Schultz family claim that there are at least sixteen ghosts. There are claims that there is one room that has been closed off and padlocked because the activity in there had gotten so aggressive. The lock on that door is said to rattle on its own. A bathroom up in the garret, which is the attic, sometimes plays the scene of a bloody mess. There had been three Confederate sharpshooters up in the attic during the battle that were picking off Union soldiers on Cemetery Hill and one of them was either seriously wounded or died up in the attic. There are stories that the home was stormed by Union soldiers, so they could take out the sharpshooters. The disembodied sobbing of a man is heard sometimes and if this apparition is seen, he is usually carrying the body of a child wrapped in a quilt.
A soldiers spirit is seen in the cellar helping a wounded comrade and disembodied singing is heard down here as well. The temperature plummets in the cellar unexpectedly. A midwife tucks in guests staying in the Schultz Room and strange sounds are heard in the McFarland Room. The spirit of a young boy plays in the house. His name is said to be Jeremy and he was supposedly struck by a carriage in front of the house. And there is a nose picture here: the scent of cigar smoke. The most haunted room in the inn is the Sara Black Room. Entities have been photographed many times in the window of this room and shadow figures are seen in here. Occasionally the mattress will be depressed by something unseen. A Jews Harp can be heard playing in the attic in the dead of night.
The most memorable evening was on a Halloween one year when a local radio station hosted a special from the house. Everybody was dressed in blue and they kept calling the host "Captain" and before long, many apparitions of soldiers were seen in the house and heard banging around. The only malevolent entity at the inn is thought to belong to a female cook who lets her displeasure be known in the kitchen and dining room. Lorraine Saintz of Johnstown, Pennsylvania said, “I spent a few days in Gettysburg last year and stayed at the Farnsworth House overnight, and upon awakening during the night, I saw a form of a woman standing near the doorway. Oh how exciting it is to know that you had a ghostly encounter.” Ghost Hunters also visited the inn in 2014 and two of the teams saw a black mass down in the basement.
Cashtown Inn
Lorraine Saintz had at experience at this next location as well. She said, "Returning to the inn around 10 p.m. and while in the parking lot I heard music and people having a good time in the bar. When I unlocked the door to get into the inn, I saw no one in the bar room and no music was playing. The bar was locked up for the night and no one was in sight." The Cashtown Inn was built in 1797 as the first stagecoach stop west of Gettysburg. The Cashtown Inn was named for the crossroads village that was founded here. The name Cashtown was derived from the fact that the first innkeeper, Peter Marck, would take only cash for goods he sold and tolls he charged for using the road. Lt. General A.P. Hill used the inn as a headquarters and his troops camped around the place. Hill would launch from this site and when the Confederates retreated, Brig. General John Imboden made the inn his headquarters and his troops ascended the mountain in the direction of Chambersburg. The cellar was used as a field hospital and amputated limbs covered over the basement windows. By the 1940s, the inn had fallen into disrepair and an owner was considering turning it into low-income apartments. Bud and Carolyn Buckley bought the property and restored it, so that it would serve as an inn once again. Jack and Maria Paladino owned it for over two decades after that. The inn has just come under new ownership in 2021 and offers three rooms and three suites for rent. The inn was used during the filming of the movie "Gettysburg."
There are a variety of experiences that take place here. The main haunt here belongs to a Confederate soldier who is seen staring from the upstairs windows. Some guests return to their rooms after a day of sightseeing to find their luggage packed for them and it isn't the innkeepers providing this unwanted service. One couple had a terrifying evening. It started with knocking at their door that wouldn't stop. When it finally stopped, they heard disembodied footsteps walking towards their bed and they stopped at the foot of the bed. Then their mattress started to shake and ripple. They described it rippling like a rock thrown into water. Something unseen grabbed the woman's shoulder. Activity increases at the inn on the anniversary dates of the battle. Many guests claim to have their doors banged on during the night and lights turn on and off by themselves. Ghost Hunters investigated here during Season 4 in 2008. A TV in a room turned itself on when the crew was setting up cameras in there. Jason felt something sit down next to him on a couch and the area felt much cooler than the rest of the area. Kris Williams became nauseous while standing in a place where amputations occurred and she actually ran upstairs and puked.
Lightner Farmhouse Bed & Breakfast
The Lightner Farmhouse B & B at 2350 Baltimore Pike is a Federal-style two-story red brick building with blue shutters. This house was built in 1862 by Isaac and Barbara Lightner on 140 acres of farmland. They had bought the land in 1841 and originally built a much smaller home. The new bigger home reflected the families moving on up the financial standing of the community. Isaac had served as Sheriff for the county from 1858 to 1861 and lived in the courthouse in downtown Gettysburg during that time. The house was just about done when the battle came to town and by the evening of July 1st, the Lightner home and barn had become hospitals. The wounded and dying would be here for three weeks. The house has been restored, preserving the random plank floors, doors, fireplaces and leaded glass windows and outside by the old summer kitchen, guests can still see the squirrel-tail oven that the Lightner's owned and in which bread was baked for Union soldiers. There are six rooms to choose from for accommodations.
jerzee2maytoe on TripAdvisor, "While they don't really play up that the house is haunted we really believe it is! We were both awakened at about the same time each night we were there by strange sounds in the hallway. It sounded like someone dragging something heavy across the floor (a body maybe?). Then even more nerve-wracking was the sound of someone trying to get in the room (turning and shaking of the knob, etc.)."
User Attack on Both Sides posted a picture to Pinterest with the following comment, "We recently stayed at the Lightner Farmhouse Bed and Breakfast. I snapped shots of the breezeway connecting the main house with the private Walnut Cottage, which is where we stayed. Later, I noticed something in the foreground, standing in front of the window. After enlarging this portion of the picture, I saw what appeared to be a soldier, looking into the french doors, kepi on his head, and a small horse or donkey beside him. I can even see the bridle across its muzzle." Here is the picture:
Hummelbaugh House
The Hummelbaugh Farm is today owned by the National Park Service. It is named for Jacob Hummelbaugh who was born in 1818. Dates of when he owned the property are unknown, but the house was built in the 1840s and consists of a log structure beneath the shiplap siding. There is a gable roof and an extended part to the back of the house that was added after the war. Jacob was a widower and his son John was off fighting in the Civil War near Harpers Ferry when his home became a field hospital for the 2nd Corps. Confederate General William Barksdale was treated at the house and it is there that he died. This also served as headquarters for Union Cavalry commander General Alfred Pleasanton from July 4th through July 6th. The farm was very close to some of the heaviest fighting and perhaps that is why it is haunted today. People definitely believe that General Barksdale haunts the property, along with his dog. The story goes that the General died in front of the house as he called out for water over and over, despite being given water, He was buried quickly on the property, but his wife and dog came to retrieve the body. The dog jumped on top of the grave and had to be dragged away so Barksdale could be disinterred. The dog jumped back on the grave after the body was removed and he refused to leave, so Barksdale's wife left the dog behind. He refused food and water from anyone and eventually passed away. The General is still heard calling out for water and the dog is heard howling.
Daniel Lady Farm
The 146-acre farm on the Old Hanover Street was first graced by a log barn. This was replaced in 1842 by a German bank-style barn. A fieldstone farmhouse was constructed in 1820. During the Civil War, the farm served as General Edward Johnson's staging area before the Confederate attack on Culp's Hill and then a Confederate field hospital. The Lady family stayed in their house even when it was occupied by the Confederates. Daniel and his wife Rebecca sold the farm in 1867 and they left for another town with their seven children. The Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association bought the Daniel Lady Farm in 1999 and restored the property. Tours and camping for re-enactors are offered. Bloodstains can still be seen on the woodwork throughout the house and there are even carvings and graffiti that can still be seen in the barn on the beams. Cadaver dogs have identified graves on the property. The Niagara Falls Police did some tests at the farm and they found an area in the parlor where a pile of blood-soaked rags were thrown, evidence of the upper torso of a body upstairs and marks from fingers of men who propped up against a wall. There was more death and blood here than any other location in Gettysburg. The upstairs of the house is the most active. Soldiers are seen still patrolling the land around the farm. General Isaac Ewell was here for a time with his troops and people believe he has returned in the afterlife.
Gettysburg Hotel
The Gettysburg Hotel started as a tavern that was built in 1797. This was a much smaller building than the one that is seen today in the heart of the historic downtown area. We ate dinner in a restaurant across from the hotel and it is gorgeous with a Beaux-Arts architectural style. The tavern was built by James Scott and was named Scott's Tavern. A York County sheriff named William McClellan bought the tavern in 1809 and renamed it Indian Queen. By the late 1840s, the tavern was known as McClellan House. The larger structure was completed in 1890 and took on the name Gettysburg Hotel at that time. A few years later it added luxuries like modern plumbing and electric lights. President Dwight Eisenhower used this location as a temporary White House when he was recovering from a heart attack he had in 1955. By the 1960s, the hotel was closed and transformed into apartments until it was gutted by a fire in 1983. Gettysburg College worked with a historic architectural review board to reopen the hotel. In 2013 it underwent a massive renovation. There are 119 rooms and suites and this is one of the nicest places to stay in Gettysburg. The hotel offers meeting space and a ballroom in the former Gettysburg National Bank building dated to 1814 that they acquired under the ownership of Gettysburg College. Baskervill, an international full-service architectural and interior design firm, redesigned the restaurant leaving the interior with a tavern feel featuring a large communal table sitting before a grand fireplace. The lounge, named One Lincoln Food & Spirits, pays tribute to Lincoln being on the penny with a pressed-tin copper ceiling and an art piece made up of 100 copper pots of different sizes and styles. The menu has some of Lincoln's favorite foods, such as apples, cheese and chicken fricassee.
The hotel is home to several spirits because it too served as a hospital and these ghosts include a Civil War nurse named Rachel, a lady who dances in the center of the ballroom and a wounded soldier named James Culbertson who did succumb to his injuries. Rachel has been sited running down the stairs and also likes to rummage through people's belongings in the drawers of furniture in their rooms.
The Dobbin House Tavern
The Reverend Alexander Dobbin built the Dobbin House in 1776 and this is the oldest house still standing in Gettysburg. This served not only as his family's home, but he also ran a school from the property. The house became the first stop on the Underground Railroad above the Mason-Dixon Line and like most of the homes in the town, it became a field hospital. Today, the Dobbin House is an inn and restaurant.
Blue orbs of light are seen, fires start themselves in the fireplaces and disembodied footsteps are heard. One of the most common spirits seen here belongs to a little girl. Patrons of the restaurant, Springhill Tavern, claim to see the apparition of this girl in one of the upper windows. Staff and patrons claim to see other spirits as well, including slaves and soldiers and maybe even Rev. Alexander Dobbin.
Heather wrote, "I used to work there. One day while a co worker and I were setting up for a banquet, Tabbi said she was going outside to smoke, I said okay and kept getting stuff ready. I heard someone clear as day say my name, 'Heather.' Didn't think anything of it, responded with, 'yeah?' Looked around and no one was there. Went through the dining room and up to the bedroom and still didn't see anyone. Went outside and Tabbi Roth was still there. Asked her about it and she said it wasn't her." Tabbi had her own experiences and said, "I remember going up to the bedroom and seeing a little girl out of the corner of my eye hated going up there by myself."
Trey wrote, "I talked to a long time employee there last year who does janitorial work. He said it was very common to hear footsteps where there were no people or catch a glimpse of people in period wear who disappeared as soon as you adjusted your eyes again." Audrey wrote, "About the year 2007, my family ate here for lunch. We sat on a long bench that was back up near a fireplace downstairs. They saw me jump when I felt something touch my back. I thought maybe a big bug but there was nothing around. To this day, I still wonder if it was a ghost or something like that."
Is this a picture of a ghost? Looks like a woman in a black Victorian mourning dress. A man named Clint wrote of this picture, "That is me and my buddy at the bar, it was a slow day in there. Not many people at all. My buddy kept saying he was feeling cold drafts of air to his left. Little while later, two ladies from out of town said they got that in one of the pics...no one was ever in that area while we were there...it's def a ghost...never into the ghost stuff or believed it until that day...def real..."
National Homestead at Gettysburg
The National Homestead at Gettysburg opened in 1866 to serve as a place for both widows and orphans. The location was chosen at the north foot of Cemetery Hill. The facility was under the direction of Dr. John F. Bourns and appeared in a famous photo with Ulysses S. Grant in 1867 with the future President posing with boys and girls from the orphanage. The initial head mistress helped the orphanage to prosper, but things changed drastically when Rosa J. Carmichael took over as head mistress. She was cruel and designed the basement to become a dungeon of torture. There are still chains connected to the walls that were used to lock up the children. There was even a place down there called The Pit where kids were left for days. This is barely big enough for an adult and has no light. Carmichael allowed older kids to discipline the younger ones. There are some who believe that Carmichael killed some of the children. The location is said to be haunted by both some of the children and Carmichael herself. The disembodied voices of children are heard and people have been touched. Ghost Adventures investigate this location in 2010. The crew heard bangs and disembodied footsteps and captured the following EVPs: "you're wonderful... thank you" after Zak offered some candy, "Watch your back with them" after a rock was thrown at Nick, "Pass all the Morgans" referring to silver dollars from the 1880s, "Betcha won't untie me", "Kill the girl", "I never killed again", "I want the bowl of money." Ghost Hunters investigated this location in 2014. A woman named Alexis told them she heard an audible male voice tell her to "get out now" when she looked into The Pit.
Sachs Covered Bridge
Sachs Covered Bridge was originally spelled as Sauches during the Civil War and is a truss covered bridge spanning 100 feet. The style features wooden beams cris-crossed like a lattice. This was built in 1854 and in 1863 would provide a route for the Union Army to come into Gettysburg. After the battle was concluded, General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia retreated across the bridge. Legend claims that three deserters were hanged at the bridge, but we've found no proof of that. Vehicles used the bridge until 1968, when it was closed to vehicular traffic. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 25, 1980. A flash flood in 1996 knocked the bridge from one of its abutments and the bridge was restored and rededicated in 1997.
People believe the Sachs Covered Bridge is guarded by the spirits of the soldiers who died here while being pursued by the Union. Visitors to the bridge feel uneasy and some people claim to have seen full-bodied apparitions of soldiers pacing around the bridge. On a summer evening in 2004, a group of investigators saw a strange mist followed by several orange light orbs that appeared to be dancing near the bridge. They heard the sounds of cannons firing and horses as well. This activity continued for nearly twenty minutes and then disappeared. Later they saw disembodied spirits that freaked them out a bit, but it took the disembodied growling of a male voice to finally chase them off. Virgil commented on the Astonishing Legends blog, "I went ghost hunting there a few years ago. I captured sometime after 3 in the morning an apparition of a woman with a long dress from the period and a union soldier in uniform standing along behind her by her side. It’s too bad I can’t post picture here." And Zach commented, "Anyway, my friend walked across it at night and had a terrifying experience. As he entered the bridge and slowly walked through it, making it to the other end, he heard boards creaking that wasn't his own steps. He turned around to see a dark figure standing where he entered the bridge."
Jennie Wade House
Mary Virginia Wade was known as Jennie to her family. She was born in 1843 and lived in a home on Breckenridge Street with her mother and two younger brothers and she worked as a seamstress. Her father had been locked up at Eastern State Penitentiary. Jennie had an older sister, Georgia Anna Wade McClellan, who lived at a home at 548 Baltimore Street and she was pregnant before the battle came to Gettysburg. She gave birth four days before the battle started and Jennie, along with her mother and brothers, moved to her sister's house to help. This is the house now referred to as the Jennie Wade House. Jennie was kneading dough in the kitchen around 8am when a Minie ball came through an outer door of the house and through the door of the parlor, which was open to provide extra protection, and hit just below her left shoulder blade, piercing her heart and killing her instantly. No one knows who fired the shot, but there are many bullet holes on the outside of the house, so it was definitely in the path of fire. Jennie was only 20 years old and she was the only civilian to die during the battle.
A shell came through the roof of the house and blew out part of a wall upstairs. Union soldiers came to rescue the rest of the family and they wanted to get them to the cellar, but they couldn't risk going outside on the side of the house that Georgia lived in, so the soldiers knocked out the rest of the wall upstairs to get the family to the other side of the house. They took Jennie's body with them and they all hid in the cellar together. The story of Jennie only got more tragic. She was engaged to marry Corporal Johnston “Jack” Skelly and he was wounded and captured in Winchester shortly before Jennie died. She had no idea. He died in captivity, probably never knowing that she had passed as well. Jennie was quickly buried right outside the house, but in January 1864, her body was relocated to the cemetery of the German Reformed Church on Stratton Street. She was moved a third time to her final resting place at Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg and we visited the plot. It is memorialized with an eternal American flag. She is only one of two women given this honor. Betsy Ross is the other. Jack is buried near Jennie.
The Jennie Wade House is now a museum that preserves the house as it was during the battle. The bullet holes are still here as is the part of the wall knocked out upstairs. The cellar has a recreation of the events with a mannequin under a quilt serving as a stand-in for Jennie. There are ghost hunts offered here and the haunted reputation is embraced. Ghost Adventures investigated in 2010 and they captured an EVP that very much sounds like a young woman whispering "I'm pregnant" when asked what she wanted to tell her boyfriend. A legend claims that if a woman places her ring finger in the bullet hole of the outer door, she will soon be proposed to and people have written letters to the museum claiming that this has indeed happened. Visitors and investigators claim to be scratched, pushed and pinched by something unseen and Zak even had his butt grabbed. Ghost Hunters also visited the house in 2014. A FLIR camera caught a figure walking on the property. They were told by a tour guide that he had seen a male child spirit in the house and they think he may have come over from the orphanage, which is across the street.
Gettysburg is a wonderful historic town that every one really needs to visit at least once in their life. The museum does a great job of covering the history before the Civil War started, the various battles highlighting Gettysburg and the aftermath for both the town and country. Gettysburg is similar to St. Augustine in that one can just feel the spiritual energy all around. Driving through the battlefield at night and seeing the silhouettes of the monuments on the hills is chilling. Driving the battlefield and heading out to Sachs Bridge reveals just how much area was covered by the battle and all the intricacies of everything that happened over those fated three days. It is not surprising that lots of spiritual residue has lead to paranormal activity in this town. Are these locations in Gettysburg haunted? That is for you to decide!
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