Serenity
— By Patrick Burke —
Most paranormal experiences at Gettysburg are actually emotional in nature. Despite what many people believe, not all ghostly phenomena require audible sounds, physical manifestations, or the capture of photographic evidence in order to represent a profound or noteworthy event. In fact, simply being affected emotionally by Gettysburg’s energies—whether imprinted or spirit-triggered—tends to have a more-lasting impact on people. One can only imagine the intensity and range of emotions felt by more than 150,000 soldiers and 2,400 residents both during and after the battle. As such, it isn’t difficult to understand how people can be “touched” emotionally while there.
While visiting Gettysburg with my wife Jean and my oldest daughter, Emily, we took a driving tour of Culp’s Hill, a fairly sizable knoll with heavily wooded slopes. Culp’s Hill was occupied by Union troops for just about the entire battle despite the best efforts of the Confederates to dislodge them. This area represented the point of the famous “fishhook” in the Union line often described by historians.
Union Earthworks on Culp’s Hill, where Union troops dug in against relentless Confederate attacks. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Jean has a degree in art history and has always been fascinated with history in general. Emily is much like her dad and finds military history to be fascinating. Jean is a sensitive, loosely defined as a person who has a high degree of proficiency in extrasensory perception or can sense or feel paranormal events beyond the range of their five human senses. Although she possesses these abilities, she doesn’t actively seek to exercise them. Regardless of her wishes, sometimes the ghost soldiers just don’t care. Apparently, during our visit to Culp’s Hill, a young soldier wanted her to know—and feel—what happened to him, and she had no choice in the matter.
As you start up Culp’s Hill, the first stone wall you come to is where the First Maryland stood its ground for the Union during a ferocious Confederate attack on the second day of fighting. Right beyond this area on Slocum Avenue is where the first Maryland monument is located. As Maryland residents, we were very interested in checking out this site. I pulled the car over. Jean stayed in the car while Emily and I got out and approached the monument. We read each and every side of it, and I told Emily what it must have been like at this exact location on the day of the battle. We walked over to the earthworks that Union forces built to protect their strategic position on the hill.
When we got back to the car, Jean was very quiet and seemed taken aback. I asked what was wrong, and she told me the following story:
I was just sitting here watching you and Emily walk around the monument and go over to the earthworks, and I couldn’t help but think how awful it must have been. Men shooting, screaming, and dying—it was quite overwhelming. Suddenly I felt all of that chaos leave my head, and a sense of peace came over me. I looked down at the ground and saw a young soldier lying between a small rock and a tree.
He was bandaged, but I knew he was dying … yet he was at peace with this fact. All of the fighting seemed to melt away from him, leaving him in this small oasis of serenity. I said a silent prayer for him and then he was gone. Then I heard you and Emily coming back to the car.
After Jean related her experience to me, I handed her my camcorder and she filmed the area in which she had the vision. There are times when a spirit wants to give you a glimpse of their life, a personal gift just for you. This was without a doubt one of those moments for Jean.