Following our investigation of the West Virginia State Penitentiary, the GLH crew stayed in Moundsville, WV another day to explore the prison cemetery just outside of Moundsville limits and the Native American built Grave Creek Mound directly across from the prison. April 19th -21st,  2011, I (Lon, from Great Lakes Hauntings)  met with Danielle, Keith and Maryann (three investigators from Lower Michigan Paranormal Society) for a repeat investigation of the Battlefield and town of Gettsyburg, PA. The LMPS crew arrived in Gettysburg the day before, after our joint investigation of the prison with them and Grimstone, Inc.
The GLH crew had investigated Gettysburg in 2009 (see previous investigation report), so a return visit was definitely overdue. I stayed in the hotel bordering with Evergreen Cemetery and the activity began soon after my arrival. After checking in, walked through the cemetery to meet the rest of the group for lunch and during my short trip I heard two separate volleys of about 50 gunshots each coming from south of the cemetery. I took this to be an omen of another interesting trip to one of the country’s most haunted locations.
After our lunch on the 19th, we drove around the battlefield and staged at several of the locations where we had personal experiences and captured evidence on our last investigation. We began with Culp’s Hill before sunset. During our 2009 investigation, I was seated on a boulder near the monument to the 149th New York regiment when I experience being shot in the head and captured an EVP of the musket shot and my description of the feeling (see 2009 investigation report). We were exploring this area again when the LPMS crew said they want to climb the observation tower on Culp’s Hill about half a mile away. I’m not a fan of open staircases and heights, so I decided to remain behind. I walked to the south along the crest of the hill towards a stack of large boulders to take some photos (my DVR was running throughout the evening) and as I began to walk down the hillside a little I heard voices, nor saw anyone, anywhere in the area, but a review of the DVR yielded my first EVP of the trip, a male voice shouting for me to “STOP!”.
I walked back to “my” boulder waiting for the others to return from their trip to the observation tower when I captured another EVP on my DVR. Again, I heard nothing at the time. No one was in sight, or earshot, but caught the sounds of musket fire, a male voice saying “Load” and another male voice (nearby) saying “LEFT!” then a nearby musket shot.
We stayed at Culp’s Hill a while longer, but did not experience any other phenomenon, so we drove on to Little Round Top to watch the sunset behind Devil’s Den (a wonderful experience) and investigate the area. We captured no audio or video evidence here, but had numerous “hits” on our ITC (Instrumental Transcommunication) devices and each of us saw a shadow figure lurking in the tree line of the Slaughter Pen. As we walked to the top of Little Round Top, we saw two stationary figures standing near the road. We kept calling out to them, but we received no response. We kept walking closer to the figures and they moved slightly, so we called out to them again, but still no response. As we got nearer to the figures, they walked into the road, so we called out again…and finally…the couple on the road responded to us! Danielle told them, “If you’re alive, say you’re alive!” They said, “We knew you were investigating and didn’t want to interrupt you.” Another reason to trace down any experience until you can eliminate normal explanations!
By then, it was nearing 10pm and the park was ready to close for the night, so we headed back to town to set up our investigation that night of the Hoffman House with the Gettysburg Paranormal Association. Danielle wasn’t feeling well, so she stayed behind at her hotel while Keith, Maryann and I headed for the midnight investigation south of town.
The Hoffman House is a large house that was expanded from an original pre-Civil War farmhouse. The house was used as a battlefield hospital with an amputation room where the living room is now, officer’s ward to the rear and temporary morgue in the cellar. The surrounding yard was filled with the union dead immediately following the battle until they were relocated to the National Cemetery in town. The house is now a rambling colonial style building, that experienced more tragedy during WWII when one of the daughters, distraught by the loss of her fiancée in the war, took her own life by hanging herself. Our guides said they would tell us where she hanged herself, but wanted us to try to see if we could pick up where it occurred.
We explored the house to determine the layout and to figure out the areas we anted to stage in. On the second floor, I was walking down a narrow hallway next to the stairs, while Keith and Maryann were standing in one of the bedrooms about 20 feet away, I captured an EVP of a woman whispering, “I FEEL it!” then I say “Wanna head up to the attic?” followed by a woman whispering, “How dare you?” and a second softer “How dare you?” follows.
We staged in the attic for a while, and then decided to head for the cellar. On the way to the cellar, I stopped in the living room to take some photos. I say something about the Amputation Room and my recorder pick up the sound of three knocks. We stayed in the cellar a short time, but experienced no activity. On our way back through the first floor we encountered our guides from Gettysburg Paranormal Association and I asked them if the daughter had hanged herself in the attic. They confirmed that her body was found hanging from the wooden steps leading to the roof hatch in the attic, so we decided to try to make contact with her. We were staged in the attic when Maryann began an EVP session trying to contact the daughter. I learned later that I had captured a EVP when Maryann asked, “Can you please tell me what YOUR name is?” the recording yields a woman’s voice whispering “Emily” right before a popping noise. We stayed here for a while but the atmosphere in the attic began to change we began to feel an agitated unwelcome presence which began to affect Maryann emotionally, so I told Keith that we had to get her out of there and outside. Once outside, she broke down sobbing. She regained her composure and we spoke with one of our guides outside for a while, asking him what he knew about the daughter that ended her life in the attic. He told us that several sensitives had been through the building and state that the girl’s name they give usually begins with an “E”, like “Emily”. We wrapped our investigation about 2am, and headed back to town.
The next morning, the 20th, brought heavy downpours, so I spent the morning walking the streets of the town before meeting the rest of the group before lunch at the Dobbin House Tavern. After lunch, Maryann wasn’t feeling well, so they headed back to their hotel while I headed to the High Water Mark on Cemetery Ridge (the furthest northern point the Confederate Army ever reached during the Civil War) to retrace the route of Pickett’s Charge alone. The rain had stopped, so I grabbed my “Wellies” to make the three-quarter mile walk to the Confederate line starting point and back. I knew the ground would be wet and squishy in parts, so I stopped frequently to take photos and record audio on my DVR. The previously inclement weather worked to my advantage. I was the only person (living, that is) that traced the route of Gen. Pickett’s doomed charge. Starting off from the Union lines defending the ridge, I walked towards Emmitsburg Road. Moving away from The Angle, about 500 yards later I stopped to record. My DVR picked up the sound of a pistol shot nearby. I heard nothing but the recording sounds like a hammer clicking as it is cocked, the hammer falling setting off the charge and the echo of the gunshot.
Crossing Emmitsburg Road, I stopped again to record. Again I heard nothing, but the recording yields high-pitched whistling noises surrounding me. The double split rail fences along Emmitsburg Road slowed the advancing Confederates to a crawl making them vulnerable to thousands of Minie Balls fired by the Union lines in front of them. Was this a recording of the bullets whistling through this area 148 years earlier? I continued my trek to the Virginia Monument with its statue of Robert E. Lee astride his horse Traveller, the Confederate starting point and was amused by seeing all the tourists by their bus watching my progression alone on the battlefield. As I neared the parking lot a man with a British accent walked up to me and said, “You sure came a long way!” I laughed and replied, “Now I get to do it again” and started the same pathway that Pickett’s men walked to their deaths.
I stopped frequently to record more audio and as I neared Emmitsburg Road again, I heard audible gunfire coming from the south near the Peach Orchard and was able to capture it on my DVR. I finished my walk to the Copse of Trees, the target the Confederates were headed for during the ill-fated charge, and paid my respects to all those who lost their lives during this three day battle and headed back for a well earned nap at my hotel.
That evening, I met the rest of our group for some ghost stories at the historic Farnsworth House Inn, used as a Confederate sharpshooters nest during the battle. It is believed that a shot fired by a Confederate sniper at the Union line near Evergreen Cemetery, was the bullet that struck Jennie Wade, the only civilian killed during the battle. We met the rest of the group and Tom, our guide for the evening, and climbed the stairs to the attic. We all were taking pictures and I was recording audio on my DVR throughout the tour. Tom sat with us in the attic telling tales of the house and the soldiers that figured into its history. As he was telling a tale about what a guest of the Inn witnessed in a bathroom on the second floor near a porch where Confederate sharpshooters were killed, my recorder picked up the sound of a musket shot.
We headed to the cellar for more tales and Maryann’s K2 meter was registering activity among us. After we wrapped up the session in the cellar, Tom took us to The Grove, an area near the school a block east of the Farnsworth House Inn, where the Louisiana Tigers fought the battle. He told us that after the battle in July 1863, the hot weather made it necessary to bury the dead as quickly as possible. Most were buried where they fell in shallow graves. After the dedication by Abraham Lincoln of the National Cemetery in November of 1863, the Union soldiers were moved to their final resting places in this cemetery, but Confederate soldiers weren’t so lucky. Their native states would have to pay for disinterment and transportation back home, leaving the cash strapped states unable to bring their boys home, so hundreds of soldiers still lie under the soil of this battlefield and neighboring town. We were listening to Tom discuss the area, when I snapped a photo. As I took the shot, the flash illuminated something in front of me that seemed to “flash” back at me. I took eight more shots immediately following, but only saw the grass and dark sky in each photo. In the view screen of my camera, I looked at the first photo I took and saw what looked like a cloudy mist, fill the screen. I showed Tom & the other 26 people on the tour with us and we could see faces in the mist. We all looked around and there was no fog or mist anywhere in the area, and no one was smoking anywhere in the area. We all took several more shots, but were unable to recreate the photo. When I transferred the photo to my computer and was able to view it on a larger screen, it appeared to contain mist (ectoplasm?) forming four figures in the photo. One figure on the right appears to be a body lying on the ground with his eyes and mouth open. A second figure appears to be leaning over him with his arms wrapped around the first figure comforting him with his head pointed down and to his right. A third figure is seen on the left side of the photo appearing to “slump” to his right side with his arms and legs curled limply below him. The left arm, shoulder and back of a fourth figure appear to drape over the left arm of the third figure. Tom asked if I could send a copy of the photo to the Farnsworth Inn House, so they could see the evidence I caught on our tour.
We finished and headed back to the hotel to pack for our trip home and a promise to return to this very active location soon!!

To view the evidence captured during this trip, click HERE