A Study in Paranormal Archaeology
— By Patrick Burke —
Battlefields abound with what-ifs—those thirty-second decisions that may have changed the outcome of the battle and possibly the war. As a person who loves history, especially military history, I’ve always been fascinated with why the outcome of a battle happened the way it did … and at what point the tide turned? Who made the correct decision, and who was responsible for the final choice in the action?
The cool thing about being a paranormal investigator and a student of history is that I get to actually attempt to capture a moment in time. What were the sounds of battle, the Union huzza or the infamous rebel yell as one side or the other gains a momentary advantage, or maybe the call of the wounded pleading for help? In modern times, much of the conflict has been captured by battlefield reporters in real time. As a battlefield historian and a sensitive, I endeavor to dig down into the event on a psychic level. I can equate this with the work of archeologists as they dig through the layers of earth to discover who fought and died on the battlefield, how the fighting flowed across the land, and where the fighting was most ferocious.
Instead of digging through the soil, I dig through the historical firsthand accounts of soldiers who survived the action. In addition, I bring in people who have a psychic ability, meaning they can speak with or interact with those who have died in the action to determine if they have stayed behind or crossed over.
To do this, I bring in talented individuals whom I call investigative mediums and sensitives. Having worked in this field for years, I’ve developed good working relationships with a few who share my methodology and investigative approach. I always bring them in cold, and by that I mean they have no prior knowledge of the investigative site. This allows me to accurately validate the information coming in through them with the historical facts I already know. It is also helpful that, as a sensitive, I’m privy to much of the information coming to the investigative medium or sensitive.
Most paranormal investigators look at a haunting from the perspective of proving or disproving the existence or appearance of ghosts. Some research may be done on the history of the location and the people involved; it’s with an eye to further the investigator’s own objective. However, I believe the focus should be on validating the historical event, so I approach every investigation as a roving historical reporter. I attempt to get the spirits to interact with the investigative team and let the ghosts/spirits tell their story. When you approach an investigation from this perspective, you’re actively practicing paranormal archaeology, giving yourself the ability to gather clues and information without disturbing the ground or structures around you.
Being a historian and a sensitive certainly has its advantages in the study of paranormal archaeology. As a sensitive, I ensure that I only use the information coming to me to validate the historical facts I already know. I’ll let the other sensitives share what they’re getting first and then add that to what I’ve received. Because I familiarize myself with the history of each investigative site, I can quickly ascertain if the information coming in from another sensitive or medium is correct and validate the historical event.
There’s an added bonus when approaching an investigation using paranormal archaeology. Sometimes one of the team members gets a mostly unknown or hidden tidbit of information during the investigation that corroborates well-known historical facts, but it may alter our current understanding of how that particular event unfolded. You can literally rewrite the history books!
My journey into paranormal archaeology began in 2004 when I was asked to come on to the Michael Medved Show. Yes, it was a surprise at the time, but the producer of the radio talk show said that Michael believed he had experienced a paranormal event while sleeping on Cemetery Ridge near the Copse of Trees on the Gettysburg Battlefield. In brief, Michael said that he and a friend were hitchhiking in the 1970s and got a ride to Gettysburg. It was late, so they decided to roll out their sleeping bags and sleep right on the battlefield (Back then you could get away with that!). At about two in the morning, Michael woke up, but he couldn’t determine what woke him. As he sat up, he saw a glowing light around a dozen figures running on the backside of the ridge (on the south side away from the Emmitsburg Turnpike) coming toward Michael and his friend. The men were armed and he was alarmed, thinking they were in trouble. Michael realized that the figures made no sound and seemed intent on something beyond him. He shook his friend, but he was already awake and had his head in the sleeping bag. Michael watched the men coming on, realizing that the color of their uniforms were butternut and gray. He didn’t share this with anyone until 2004 when the Washington Post did an article on my team and me. When he saw the story, he contacted me to share his personal Gettysburg paranormal event for the first time. I filed his story away, thinking it was a great experience and that I would get to share it in one of my lectures or classes.
It wasn’t until 2009, when I was doing some research on known burial sites on the Gettysburg Battlefield, that I came across a piece of history not widely referenced. Made by S. G. Elliot & Company in 1864, it’s called the Elliot Map. According to Elliot, the cartographer, it was an accurate survey of the battlefield grounds by transient and chain measurements. Elliott was commissioned by Congress to accurately lay out the three days’ actions of the Battle of Gettysburg. He was to include the position of units before, during, and after the fight along with breastworks, lunettes, and rifle pits. He was also able to accurately place group and individual gravesites on and off the battlefield, as all of the dead were still interred in the fields. Elliot had no way of accurately measuring the number of dead in a mass grave, so he had to estimate based on interviews with townspeople who helped with the burials or the landowners where the mass gravesites were located.
It’s important to understand that during the Civil War there were two ways of burying the dead. Many were buried right on the battlefield where they died in combat; these could be individual or mass graves. The soldiers who were wounded and later died in the hospitals were moved about five miles from the hospital and buried. This was done because doctors worried about disease from the dead affecting other wounded soldiers. Due to the fact that Elliot’s map was created in a timely manner after the battle, and with such accuracy, he was able to precisely locate graves of soldiers and even where horses died. His map is a virtual ebb and flow of the battle.
I was looking over the map near the area called the High Watermark of the Confederacy. This is where Confederate Gen. Lewis Armistead crossed the wall near the Bloody Angle and, along with some fellow Virginians, pierced the Union line. Armistead was mortally wounded as he reached the first set of Union guns. The Elliot map showed that eighty Confederates were buried at the point where Armistead fell. This falls into line with the firsthand accounts stating that about two hundred Virginians crossed the wall with Armistead and almost half fell on the field. Elliot marked that all of the graves to the right of Taneytown Road were from hospital deaths, while those to the left of the road were buried where they fell during the battle. This was a common practice of the day.
Elliot marked thirty-six Union graves south of the Copse of Trees (COT). As I was counting the Union graves, I noticed that there were two Confederate graves just west of the COT, past the rock wall on the north slope of Cemetery Ridge. Although there are no references in any firsthand accounts, Elliot clearly indicates another six rebel graves eighty yards south of the COT, well past the Union batteries.
This caused me to sit back and think about all of the various firsthand accounts I had read about the July 2nd and 3rd day’s actions around the COT. I didn’t recall any account that mentioned Confederates on this part of the field, so I looked through my notes from my many visits to that part of the battlefield. Although I felt the presence of Confederates around various spots near the COT, I assumed they were just residual energies from the third day’s action or what I call “walk-through” ghosts (meaning spirits that are just passing through).
Looking at the map again, I noticed that there were thirty-three individual Confederate graves about 200 yards south of the COT and approximately 250 yards west of Meade’s headquarters. The Elliot Map shows two structures at this location, and they’re still there today. Whoa! I thought, What the hell is this?! Like so many of the soldiers who died on this battlefield, these Confederates would have been buried where they fell during combat, and this spot was well behind the Union defensive lines.
Continuing to reference the Elliot Map, I counted sixty-nine Union graves between the six Confederate graves south of the COT and the thirty-three additional Confederate graves in the field at the Leister House. There are also another ten Union soldiers buried on the north side of Taneytown Road, just beyond the two structures west of Meade’s headquarters.
Accepted historical accounts tell us the High Watermark of the Confederacy is just east of the COT, where General Armistead was mortally wounded on the third day of the battle. However, the Elliot Map clearly indicates the presence of Confederate soldiers where history tells us they shouldn’t have been. This map is worthy of serious consideration because it was commissioned by the U. S. Congress and completed within a year after the battle. At that time, eyewitnesses were still alive, the scars on the landscape were still evident, and the graves were still clearly visible. This area between the crest of Cemetery Ridge and the almost 200 yards to Taneytown Road obviously saw some serious action. This is a location where common history tells us no fighting took place!
Then I recalled my interview with Michael Medved, his story, and his location on the battlefield. Combining his story with the information on the map, I felt strongly that it was time to investigate his haunting experience and how it might be tied to the battlefield graves on the Elliot Map. So many questions popped into my head. Why would there be a residual haunting of Confederate soldiers where, by all historical accounts, they never were? Why, when soldiers were buried where they fell, are there Confederate graves beyond what current historical accounts call the High Watermark of the Confederacy? These were the nagging questions that led me to begin my journey into paranormal archaeology.
From my research pertaining to the third day of the battle, I knew that no large force of Confederates had been in the area where Michael saw the ghost soldiers. I started reading through the Official Report of the second day’s action. Among these, I came across Brig. Gen. Ambrose Wright’s (CSA) Official Report in which he stated, as a matter of fact, that his brigade not only took the Union position where more than sixteen cannons had blasted away at the Confederate advance on Cemetery Ridge, but they had also split the Federal defensive line.
What an eye-opener! If this actually happened, why didn’t the Confederates seize the foothold gained and expand upon it? Assuming that Wright did in fact accomplish what he claimed, I wanted to know what caused the failure of the breach? History tells us that the Union defenders fought off the bold Confederate advance, which led to Trimble and Pickett’s charges on the third day.
I diligently began my walk into paranormal archaeology. I began combing through as many firsthand accounts of this particular action as I could find and the various regimental histories and letters of recollections. I visited the National Archives to look over maps and period photos, reading all of the field reports and official reports of the engagement that were available.
Jack and I incorporate psi talent to help define the gaps in history, or the deliberate omission of historical facts. My objective was to, once and for all, establish the validity of Wright’s claim that “We were masters of the field.” Wright’s Official Report is a subject that is controversial with historians, armchair generals, and military enthusiasts alike. The question is whether or not General Wright and his men actually penetrated the Union line of defense on Cemetery Ridge during the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, as he states in his Official Report after the battle.
Here is a brief description of what took place:
General Wright was to launch his attack on the center of the Union line dug in on Cemetery Ridge when Gen. Edward Perry’s Brigade of Floridians started off on his right flank. On cue, Wright moved his line forward. The Confederates stepped off smartly, as if on parade, moved past the Bliss Farm on its far left, crossing over the Emmitsburg Turnpike. They drove the Eighty-Second New York and then the Fifteenth Massachusetts from their positions around the Codori House. Lt. Fred Brown’s Battery B from Rhode Island continued firing (even wounding and killing some of the Union infantry by accident) until the last minute.
As the Federal troops and Brown’s Battery retreated to the stone wall at the base of Cemetery Ridge, Wright’s brigade followed hot on their heels. The fight at the stone wall was fierce. Brown was able to get four (according to Sgt. John Rhodes of Battery B only three) of his six guns behind the waiting infantry, and the other two pieces now belonged to Wright. Lt. Alonzo Cushing’s Battery A, Fourth US Light Artillery turned their guns on the two pieces to keep the Confederates off of them. As the Eighty-Second New York and the Fifteenth Massachusetts streamed through the gap in the stone wall, they re-formed behind the batteries on Cemetery Ridge, which were supported by the Sixty-Ninth and 106th Pennsylvania troops behind the stone wall.
Here, General Wright, under heavy cannon and musket fire, re-formed his lines and charged into the teeth of the dragon. He captured several batteries during the charge and drove off the Union infantry defending the ridge. He was master of the field, but for only a brief time as Union reinforcements arrived on his flanks and in front of him. With no support in sight, he withdrew to a small swale several hundred yards away.
The controversy is centered on whether General Wright’s brigade actually crested the ridge. All of the Union accounts I’ve read so far indicate that the Confederates never gained the heights, but rather that they penetrated the first line of defense on the west side of the ridge and were stopped just before approaching the top. All of the Southern accounts claim that he did gain the heights and by so doing split the Federal defenses in half.
So how can we use the method of paranormal archaeology to solve this dispute? It should be noted that, in the majority of cases, the Confederate officers tended to give a more accurate description when writing their reports than their Union counterparts. For instance, when the Confederate troops were routed, the Offical Report says they were routed. The Union reports of a rout usually have the following words: fell back in good order or maintained cohesion as they retreated to a second line of defense. In all honesty, no one, Rebel or Yankee, wanted to admit that his troops fell back in disarray.
So, here are the facts as we know them: General Wright’s brigade did indeed drive back the Union defenses around the Codori House, seizing one gun there, regrouping in front of the stone wall, and taking two of Brown’s guns that had been left behind at the wall.
This is supported by a number of accounts: Wright’s Official Report, Brown’s Official Report, and Charles H. Andrews’s History of the Third Georgia (he was the Company Regimental Historian). His is the most detailed when it comes to the actual action that took place at company levels, and I generally consider it closer to the truth than any other report. The following is an excerpt from his accounts:
“The Third Georgia moved forward and was met at the edge of the field in front with a storm of shot and shell. At a double quick step, the Regiment charged upon the enemy in the turnpike, followed at their heels across the little meadow beyond, passed a large brick house…”
General Wright gives a similar account of what happened at the Codori farmhouse and Lt. Col. George Joslin (US) of the Fifteenth Massachusetts also verifies this account. Although Joslin does give a unique point of view, he states that the Fifteenth Massachusetts was positioned to the left of the Eighty-Second New York and that the Fifteenth built a small breastwork when the pressure was such that the men broke and ran for the stone wall where the Sixty-Ninth and 106th Pennsylvania infantry were hunkered down. Note how he describes the retreating Fifteenth Massachusetts, which was in all actuality, a rout. It should be noted that the Eighty-Second New York was routed as well.
Joslin writes, “At this time the Eighty-Second New York fell back, exposing our left and rear to a deadly fire from the rebel infantry. Here Colonel Ward received wounds from which he has since died. We now opened a rapid fire, but being left alone could hold the position but a short time, when we retired in some disorder, being pressed so closely that we lost quite a number of prisoners, captured by the enemy. We reformed our line in rear of the batteries, and rejoined the brigade, which was moved after dark to the front line…”
The most telling factor is that Joslin doesn’t even reference the fighting at the stone wall. If the Fifteenth Massachusetts had regrouped just behind the batteries on top of Cemetery Ridge, he would have been in a position to witness this engagement. I made a note to enquire of any ghost soldiers of the Fifteenth Massachusetts whose energies still reside on the battlefield to tell me where they reformed.
Most interesting about this is the lack of information from the Union officers pertaining to the details of the action at the stone wall and the guns on the ridge. For instance, Union Gen. Alexander Webb states that the Confederates made it past one of Brown’s guns and then were driven back as the Seventy-First and Seventy-Second Pennsylvania advanced to the support of the Sixty-Ninth and 106th Pennsylvania. According to General Webb, Wright’s brigade only advanced to one of Brown’s guns. Which gun was it? According to Sergeant Rhodes of Brown’s Battery B, Brown left one gun at the Codori House and had two more stuck at the stone wall. The remainder of Brown’s Battery joined Battery A on the ridge and opened fire at the approaching Confederates.
We know from previous reports that Wright’s brigade took the Codori House and made it to the stone wall. In Wright’s Official Report he states:
“I immediately charged upon the enemy’s line, and drove him in great confusion upon his second line, which was formed behind a stone fence, some one hundred or more yards in rear of the Emmitsburg Turnpike. At this point we captured several pieces of artillery, which the enemy in his haste and confusion was unable to take off the field.”
From this description, we know that Joslin’s account is fairly accurate in that both Wright and Joslin reported the capturing of field pieces. Although Wright indicates that several were captured, we will go with the conservative number of one gun captured.
That Wright broke the Union line at the wall there is no doubt, as all accounts claim this. The issue is whether Wright took the crest of Cemetery Ridge and, in doing so, seized the guns on the heights and split the Union defense in two. As I continued to research, I came across a reference to the second day of the battle written by Gen. Henry J. Hunt, Chief of Artillery of the Army of the Potomac during the battle, for The Century magazine. He wrote three articles dated November 1886, December 1886, and January 1887, respectively. Read, in his own words, what Hunt had to say about the conflict at Cemetery Ridge, and pay close attention to the final sentence:
The first assaults were repulsed, but, after hard fighting, McLaws’ division being also advanced, the angle was, toward six o’clock, broken in, after a resolute defense and with great loss on both sides. In the mean time three of Anderson’s brigades were advancing on Humphreys, and the latter received orders from Birney, now in command of the corps, Sickles being severely wounded soon after six o’clock near the Trostle house, to throw back his left, form an oblique line in his rear, and connect with the right of Birney’s division, then retiring. The junction was not effected, and Humphreys, greatly outnumbered, slowly and skillfully fell back to Cemetery Ridge, Gibbon sending two regiments and Brown’s Rhode Island battery to his support. But the enemy was strong and covered the whole Second Corps front, now greatly weakened by detachments. Wilcox’s, Perry’s, and Wright’s brigades pressed up to the ridge, outflanking Humphreys’s right and left, and Wright broke through our line and seized the guns in his front, but was soon driven out, and not being supported all fell back, about dusk, under a heavy artillery fire.
Hunt is describing Wright’s breakthrough at the ridge, and his reference to the seizing of the guns is very clear. If Wright had captured one or two guns, Hunt would have given us that exact number or would have used the common reference of several guns or pieces of artillery. The only guns in Wright’s front, at this stage of the fighting, were the ones on Cemetery Ridge. This is corroboration supporting the first claim of Wright’s Official Report that he took the guns on the ridge. But, how do we prove the second part of Wright’s claim that his brigade “was a now complete master of the field”?
In June 2012, Jack and I decided to do an investigation of the various points of engagement of Wright’s brigade on Day Two. I brought both of my daughters, Emily and Shannon, who are both talented sensitives and have only a cursory knowledge of the battle. The goal was to use our combined psi talent to communicate with the ghost soldiers and get to the heart of the issue.
Jack and I parked just south of Meade’s Headquarters in a field lot on Taneytown Road. I wanted to see if we could find the remains of the ravine just south of Meade’s HQ. Wright mentions a ravine to the east of his position on Cemetery Ridge. Jack and I started to walk down Taneytown Road with the map and came to a creek bed on the left side of the road. Looking at the map, I heard a voice say, “Over here!” I turned and saw a cannon standing upright with the muzzle buried in the ground. As Jack studied the map, I crossed the street to look at the plate on the cannon and caught my breath … the marker indicated that the location of Hunt’s HQ was before me, just south of Meade’s HQ. I stepped up beside the monument and turned to look at the backside of Cemetery Ridge, realizing that Hunt would have had a perfect view of Wright’s troops as they crested the ridge, waving their battle flags in assumed victory. I called Jack and said “I found Hunt’s HQ! He had a firsthand view of the final actions of Wright’s brigade.”
We walked back to the car and opened the Elliot Map. Our next objective was to locate the two structures just south of Meade’s HQ and conduct our investigation of the field at the base of Cemetery Ridge. Elliot indicated that there were thirty-three Confederate soldiers buried in this field as well as ten Union graves. This is the area where we would be able to prove or disprove Wright’s claims, as this would be the furthest the Confederates would have gone before being turned back.
We pulled into a parking area by the structures. A park ranger happened to be there, and I asked him for permission to walk out on the field as I was curious about the accuracy of the Elliot Map. He replied that he knew of the map and that it was accurate; there had been multiple graves in that field. I thanked him and felt a surge of excitement as I walked over to the team. “This is the spot!”
I instructed Emily and Shannon to go through the training I had taught them, basically putting up psi shields against negative energies and opening up their psi abilities to the zero-point field (ZPF). It’s important to note that Jack is critical of using the information provided only by sensitives to assess what may have occurred at a particular location. In this case, he was excited because we had the map and we had multiple battle reports that we could use to verify whatever the girls came up with from a psi standpoint. He also trusts my methods and knows from experience that I have a sincere connection to ghost soldiers. Ironically, Jack has unwillingly developed his own psi abilities simply by being around paranormal energies over the years, and his paranormal intuition has been extremely helpful in assessing particular situations at haunted locations.
I lead the team toward the break in the fence and the uncut field beyond. I stopped at the opening in the fence and was hit with the unmistakable feeling of many eyes watching us. “Boys,” I said quietly, “My name is Patrick and I have with me Jack, Emily, and Shannon. We are here to ask you about what happened here on July 2, 1863. We are hopeful that you will share with us a bit of your story … your name, rank, or regiment and company you were with during the fighting that happened here on July 2nd.”
A brief image flashed in my head. Soldiers in butternut and gray forming a quick line and firing at a thin line of Union soldiers with the haze of battle thick on the field, and then a rolling crash of musketry off to the left of the Confederates and then … the clear blue skies of the present.
Jack stepped past us, and Emily said, “They’re still out there,” and pointed toward the field before us.
I looked at her, already knowing the answer but asking it anyway, “Who?”
Shannon said, “The soldiers.” I looked at her as Emily said, “There are bodies still out there.” I felt a shiver run through my spine. The girls were already getting a stream of information, and they were completely unaware of the events that unfolded in this area. Jack and I told and showed them nothing before starting the investigation. Plus, this was information I was also receiving but hadn’t shared with them yet.
As we worked our way into the field, I let Emily and Shannon guide us to the location where the ghost soldiers had indicated their bodies were. As they were walking, Shannon suddenly stopped and said, “Here!” This precise area was the area where Elliott indicated Confederate and Union soldiers had fallen in battle and been buried. Emily mentioned that a Union soldier was approaching her. She believed his name was Daniels, and I asked her to inquire about his rank. She said he had stripes. She wasn’t sure but thought he was a sergeant. He indicated to her that he was with a Massachusetts regiment and that he came from the north (from their position at the Codori House). Shannon said, “From that direction,” (she was pointing north toward Cemetery Ridge), and “had fallen back to this spot.” I was confident this was a live interaction with the spirit of Daniels.
I was excited to garner this information because Daniels corroborated that a Massachusetts unit had fallen back to the base of Cemetery Ridge. But was it the Fifteenth? If we could determine that information, maybe it would explain why Joslin’s report lacked the details regarding this action. He would have been busy rallying his remaining men in the field near the Leister House.
“Are you Confederates?” Emily asked, already knowing the answer, but wanting to validate it for us to hear. “No.” “Did you retreat to this spot?” “Yes.” Then Emily said an “aide” was with them from General “H,” but she couldn’t make out the name. I asked Shannon if she could make out the name and she thought it sounded like “Han.” I then asked if the name was Hancock, and the girls and Jack said “Yes!” “I went with the first thing that came into my head, and that was Hancock,” Jack said. “I’m just flowing with this.” I laughed. I knew from past investigations that Jack was quite good at this. He just didn’t fully trust that he could actually do it.
Emily said a Confederate soldier named George was standing near me. I asked him who his commanding general was. “Anderson,” Emily said. R. H. Anderson was the commanding general for that division. When asked what rank he was, Emily replied, “Captain.” When I prompted Emily to request what regiment he was with she held up two fingers. Research confirms that Capt. George Salley Jones of the Second Georgia Battalion was wounded on Cemetery Ridge.
Again, we had most likely just validated that elements of Wright’s brigade not only seized the cannons on the ridge but also had gone more than 200 yards past the ridge line, almost reaching Taneytown Road.
As is sometimes the situation, when the ghost soldiers realize that there is someone on hand that they can communicate with them the conversation can turn into a chorus of voices saying various things. This is what happened when I said that many Union accounts state the boys from Wright’s brigade never took the guns on the heights. Shannon laughed and shook her head as Emily cried out, “No, no, no! Third Georgia, we took them. Took two, left two!” Emily said there were a lot of men, even men in blue, that said they took the guns, but the Union soldiers were quick to point out they got them back.
I then asked how they stopped the Confederates and Emily drew a line in front of her. “The Fifteenth Massachusetts re-formed here, and as they engaged the Confederates, another company of Union soldiers came around from that direction,” and she pointed toward Meade’s headquarters. This information coincided with the image I had received at the fence line before entering the field and with Wright’s own report.
Shannon asked if we could cross over the soldiers that wanted to move on. I felt that we had successfully gathered credible evidence, both historical and paranormal, that allowed us to verify and validate that Wright’s brigade did, in fact, do what he claimed and seize the guns on Cemetery Ridge, causing the Union defenses to split. I told her it was now time for us to assist the soldiers to their final rest.
When doing a crossover of a spirit, it is important to understand that in many cases it is easier to assist the spirit by communicating in the terms that they understood when they were alive and use whatever terms for whatever higher being they believe in. This sometimes makes individuals uncomfortable, I understand that. What those individuals also need to understand, whether they believe in the psychic abilities of others or that spirits can be crossed over, is that as a sensitive we do feel the need of the soul to be at peace and in all cases in which the spirit is asking for aid it is imperative that we assist when we can.
I briefly walked Emily and Shannon through the process as I normally do and asked the spirits if they were ready to go. I heard the Union and Confederate soldiers say, “Not together.” Emily said, “Daniels says let the Confederates go first; they don’t want to go together.” I said it wasn’t a problem and set to work.
I connected my energy field to Emily and Shannon’s and then opened the portal through the zero-point field. The stream of energy was intense. As the Confederate soldiers approached, Emily asked them to give us a rebel yell as they crossed over. Twenty-six soldiers crossed over and I couldn’t believe the intensity of the rebel yell that washed over us. I had heard the rebel yell before, but not like this. The hair on my arms was standing straight up!
The Union boys stepped up after the Confederates had passed over. Daniels and his Union comrades wanted to make sure their story would be told and people would know what happened. I assured them that we would share their story and do what we could to locate the graves and have the dead honored. Twelve Union soldiers crossed over with a huzzah washing over us.
As we left the field, Jack said he felt a quietness that was not there before. We stood near the house on Taneytown Road and looking back into the field we talked about the information that we just gathered in the investigation. I felt that we had successfully gathered credible evidence, both historical and paranormal. This allowed us to verify and validate that Wright’s brigade did, in fact, do what Wright claimed and seize the guns on Cemetery Ridge, causing the Union defenses to split.
As the information came in, the picture became clearer. The advancement of Wright’s brigade on the second day of the battle went much farther than even I had imagined, almost 200 to 300 yards beyond the crest of Cemetery Ridge. With the aid of the girl’s psi abilities, Jack and I were able to validate the documented historical information and paint a complete picture of the last moments of the Confederacy’s farthest advance. As we looked at each other, we realized we were standing on what was the true High Water Mark of the Confederacy.
After reviewing the evidence, I told Jack I was going to call my good friends Shawn Taylor and Dan Morgan. They have been leading the way in developing a system for live communication with those who have passed on that they call “The Double-Blind Ghost Box” (The Double-Blind Ghost Box, Shawn Taylor and Dan Morgan, iUniverse, Inc. 2013).
I had worked with Shawn and Dan on an investigation of the Otto Farm, part of the battle of Sharpsburg/Antietam, and was impressed with their professionalism and attention to detail. The basic concept of a ghost box is to use a random AM radio frequency to enable the ghosts to communicate with you more easily. You ask a question and then listen for an answer. The problem with this method is that everyone present hears the questions, allowing for people perceiving tainted answers based on what they know the question is.
What Shawn and Dan did was take this process to the next level. They created a system in which there is a Questioner and a Listener. The Listener is connected to the ghost box via high-quality, noise-reduction headphones with the volume on high, making them unable to hear anything except the sounds coming through the ghost box. Additionally, the Listener is turned away to look at the ground or a wall, never looking at the Questioner and avoiding any possibility of reading lips. The Questioner also stands about twenty-five feet away from the Listener to further ensure no words are overheard.
The experiment begins when the Questioner asks a question out loud. If there is a medium in the room, he or she should be out of the Listener’s sight and give their answer before the Listener does. Next, the Listener gives an answer. If the Listener, alone, gets the correct response, you have accomplished the highly improbable. If the medium has given the same answer first, you may have achieved the statistically impossible. This systematic, organized approach minimizes the uncontrolled variables.
Jack and I totally agree that this technique and methodology are as valid as can be when dealing with psi experiments. To further support the investigative findings, the Listener has a digital recorder plugged into the ghost box along with the headphones. This allows the sounds form the ghost box to be reviewed and validated by the investigators. The Questioner holds a camcorder and a digital recorder, as well. The entire session is captured by multiple media sources and from multiple perspectives. The investigators mark the recordings and video so they can sync audio and video together after the investigation.
To experiment with this, I arranged to meet the guys and their team at Gettysburg for three days. They brought three teams: Team 1—Shawn and Dan; Team 2—Amy Buchanan and Shelley Smith; Team 3—David Hendricks and Jim Johnson. I brought my sister, Mary Russell, a talented medium in her own right who has worked with Jack and me on several other investigations. Kenny Coombs acted as team photographer. My goal was to control the information coming through to each group and Mary. I gave them the name of the hotel and told them that everyone would be briefed at the same time. No specific information about the battle was provided.
I had Chris Carouthers and Karen Mitchell-Carouthers scheduled to meet me at the knoll between the Codori House and the stone wall where the Eighty-Second New York and Fifteenth Massachusetts Infantry had been posted. This slight rise is where Brown’s Battery B Rhode Island Light Artillery was located with six Napoleon guns in support of the Eighty-Second New York and the Fifteenth Massachusetts. These two regiments were ordered to move forward and occupy the ground at the Codori House.
I decided to focus on Wright’s approach from the point where he claimed to capture several pieces of Brown’s battery at the knoll and then as he re-formed to charge the wall at the base of Cemetery Ridge. From this point, I needed to know what path Wright’s brigade took, so I had Dave and Jim work the area from the wall between the Fifteenth Massachusetts and Eighty-Second New York monuments and up the crest of the ridge to the right of the Copse of Trees (west). To validate the information gathered earlier during the investigation Emily, Shannon, Jack, and I conducted in the open field by the two structures just south of Meade’s and Hunt’s HQ near Taneytown Road, I had Amy and Shelley dress in period dresses. They walked the boulder-strewn field on the backside of Cemetery Ridge and worked their way down toward the area where the thirty-three Confederates were buried. At the knoll, Shawn and Mary were the Listeners, Dan and I were the Questioners and Mary did an area read. I asked Shawn if we could hook up two Listeners to see what would happen if a medium was also attached to the ghost box system. He rigged up another set of headphones and we were ready to go.
We began the investigation at the Knoll. I started off by asking the ghost soldiers to interact with us. “Hey boys, I’m here with my good friends to try and accurately recount the fighting that took place here on July 2, 1863. You can communicate directly with Mary, me, or Shawn. We just want to capture a bit of your story to make sure that history has been told correctly. If it hasn’t, we will correct it.”
I felt a heaviness in the area, as if an unseen hand was pressing on the back of my head, a sure sign that a lot of energy was present. As Mary crossed over the stone wall between the Fifteenth Massachusetts and the Eighty-Second New York monuments, I asked where Brown’s guns got stuck. Dan, Shawn, and Mary were walking several yards in front of me, just clearing the wall when Mary pointed to her left and said, “To my left.” She pointed toward the Fifty-Ninth New York monument where historical records indicate that two of Brown’s guns had been stuck while trying to clear the gap in the wall at the same time. This started a string of contact with Dan asking questions and Mary and Shawn calling out what they heard. As I reached the position of the battery, I started to feel anxious. Urgency seemed to be all around me, as if something was terribly wrong. About fifteen feet away from me, Shawn said, “What’s wrong. Help!” Dan asked the ghost soldier what his name was and Mary replied, “Richard.”
I had the feeling that there was an issue with Brown’s cannons. Suddenly, I heard very clearly, “Wrong direction!” And then I heard Mary say something about “The right direction.” Could Brown have positioned his Battery in the wrong direction? What effect would that have had when he fired as Wright’s brigade approached? After the investigation, I did further research on Brown’s battery and came across a video series by licensed Battlefield Guide George Newton. Newton stated that when Brown set up his battery of six Napoleon guns, he positioned them in what is called a right oblige, meaning he had his cannons facing to the northwest. This means Brown’s battery was facing away from the approach of Wright’s brigade, who was approaching from the Codori House to the west. Wright advanced so fast that Brown could only get several cannons turned in time to have any effect on the approaching Confederates.
Imagine you were one of the gunners in Brown’s unit, or even Brown himself. What a shock it must have been to suddenly realize that all of your cannons were facing in the wrong direction! The pandemonium that ensued must have been something to observe. For any of Brown’s guns to get off any rounds is a testament to those brave soldiers’ ability to do their job under extreme circumstances. At this knoll, Brown would lose two of his guns, have three men killed, seventeen men wounded and one man captured. Brown himself was struck in the neck by a bullet.
I proceeded to ask a series of questions about the location of certain regiments on Wright’s brigade during the fighting. “Where is the Second Georgia Battalion?” Mary said “left” and pointed to the area where the Second Georgia secured the right flank of Wright’s brigade. Chris then came over and asked if there was a James or a colonel whose first name started with a J. I asked him to give me a last name and he said “Wasden.” He felt as if he couldn’t breathe and then pointed to the Codori House in the distance saying, “He died there, right?” Col. Joseph Wasden, commander of the Twenty-Second Georgia, was killed and buried on the grounds of the Codori House as shown on the Elliott Map.
Chris then began to feel extreme anxiety and worry because there was no support for the Confederates advancing. I heard Mary say “Richard” again and Chris say, “He sent a message to Anderson.” Richard H. Anderson was the divisional commander and Wright, in his report, states that he sent three messages to him asking for his support.
The level of validation of the historical facts was outstanding. Using the double-blind ghost box method ensured that those answering the questions were doing so with no knowledge of the questions being asked, and the answers they gave were spot-on.
I moved the team about 100 feet before the location of Brown’s battery because I wanted to see if I could locate the Third Georgia’s approach. I got on the ghost box with Shawn and, immediately, we both said “three” and then I said “third.” I then asked, “When they reached this spot did they think they had held the day?” Shawn replied, “Stacked.” Could that have been a reference to the Twenty-Second Georgia crowding the Third Georgia because the Second Georgia became mixed into the Twenty-Second Georgia’s lines? At this point, I slipped in a trick question to see what would happen. “Did the Fourteenth Mississippi go forward with you?” If the answer was yes, then I knew the information might be tainted because the Forty-Eighth Mississippi is the only regiment from Posey’s brigade that went forward with Wright’s men. Shawn quickly said, “Not the right question, Burke!” Obviously the ghost soldier knew that I had asked a misleading question and also knew my name. This systematic, organized approach minimizes the uncontrolled variables. Very cool indeed.
I moved up to the wall where the Union soldiers of the Eighty-Second New York and the Fifteenth Massachusetts retreated. At that spot, Dave Hendricks was the Listener and Jim Johnson was asking questions. They had been working this area with the intent to gather validation of action that took place here and to see if they could pinpoint Wright’s breakthrough at the wall. They started at the Knoll with Jim asking where Wright’s brigade took the guns. Dave called out, “Hold, brother!” Jim was standing near Brown’s Battery marker. They moved to the wall and, while crossing over near the Fifteenth Massachusetts monument, Dave said he was getting a cramp in his abdomen as if he had been shot. The ghost box recorded the following, “He’s hurt … He died.”
When asked if the Eighty-Second New York could point out where the Fifteenth Massachusetts was, the response was a surprising, “They left!” According to Joslin’s report of the Fifteenth Massachusetts, the Eighty-Second New York broke first, which caused the Fifteenth to fall back. Then Dave called out, “Fall back!” Jim asked if any shots were fired, to which the reply was, “Yes, sir!” Jim, who wasn’t on the ghost box, heard some reenactors fire their muskets in the distance and asked if they sounded like that, and a ghost soldier said, “We looked better.” Jim called roll call for the Fifteenth Massachusetts. Jack and I regularly do this on a battlefield as a way to prompt any ghost soldiers who are present to respond. We usually select names of soldiers who died at the location or were wounded, throwing in a name or two of soldiers we know weren’t there to see what happens. “Roll call!” said Jim. Dave suddenly called out, “We’re listening”—“1st Sergeant Henry C. Ball”—“Brother.” Could this be a reference to a brother in arms? 1st Sgt. Henry C. Ball died during the second day’s action. At this point, Dave was standing about halfway up Cemetery Ridge with the Copse of Trees off to his right. He said, “I need to know where Wright’s brigade broke the line.” “Back!” came through. Dave started walking back toward the wall as Jim asked where Wright’s brigade broke through. Dave was walking about halfway between the New York and Massachusetts monuments when he stopped and called out the answer to their query, “Was here!”
Jim asked about the fighting: Any shots or wounded? How bad was the fighting? Any New York regiments? Dave then called out a string of replies: “Wounded”—“Rescued … Bad!”—“Here!’—“Battle.” This session with the ghost soldiers from the Eighty-Second New York and the Fifteenth Massachusetts reinforced the historical information we already know. Did they fall back from the Codori House to the position at the wall, make a brief stand, and then retire behind the guns on the ridge? Dave and Jim were able to verify that Wright’s men had broken the Union defenses at the wall, and now all I had to do was confirm, through the words of the ghost soldiers themselves, if Wright had seized the guns on the top of Cemetery Ridge.
I asked Amy Buchanan and Shelley Smith to wear period dresses since they both are active reenactors. I wanted to see how the ghost soldiers would react to women, not only on the battlefield, but also in period dress. Jack and I have made it a common practice to incorporate, when possible, reenactors in period dress and uniform. Our observations suggest that the amount of activity around the reenactors tends to be more. Using the ghost box, Amy was the Questioner and Shelley the Listener. They started just inside the field, which is near the top of the ridge on the south slope of Cemetery Ridge. From this location, you can see the Leister house and the big red barn on the property, in addition to the field where we had done an earlier investigation.
Amy asked, “General Wright, are you here?” The answer was immediate:
“I was…time to go!” Amy and Shelley appeared to have brought out the ghost soldiers rather quickly. Amy asked, “How many men are here?” and the reply was “Sixteen—Now—We’re here!” They were able to get a name when Amy asked for one. Shelley said, “Colt.” Amy then asked if that was his last name and the reply was, “Yes.”
Upon further review of the recording, it was determined that the name given was either Cole or Clarke.
I later researched the list of dead to see if a Colt or Cole had been present with any of Wright’s brigade on July 2, 1863. I came across a Private J. M. Cole of Company C of the Twenty-Second Georgia. I then went back to Charles H. Andrews’ account of the second day’s action, and Cole was present at the fighting on Cemetery Ridge where Wright claimed to seize the guns and split the Union line. As I stated earlier in this chapter, Andrews described how the fighting developed around the Codori Farm. His account further stated that the Third Georgia stormed the wall and took command of the thirteen cannons on the ridge. He said that during the fighting, he was standing next to a man named Clarke from Company D “who was killed while sitting astride a cannon loading and shooting.” Research shows that Private Rueben W. L. Clarke of Company D was killed on the second day of the battle. Then, surprisingly, we heard, “Touch Amy?” This indicates that this ghost soldier was aware of his surroundings and the people in the area, meaning a direct interaction was taking place. Could this be Private Cole?
Shelley said she heard cannon fire and called out a string of EVP: “They come quick!—Yes they do!” Amy asked if they could stop the cannon firing and the response Shelley received was, “There is someone behind you!—Sitting in front.” When asked what was in front of them, the reply was “Humphreys.”
Historical records indicate that elements of the First Brigade commanded by Brig. Gen. Joseph B. Carr of Humphrey’s Division would have been within sight and may have been in front of some of the men of Wright’s brigade’s right flank as the Second Georgia Battalion and the Twenty-Second Georgia advanced up the slope. Amy called out roll call: “Pvt. J. M. Baker, are you here?” Listening on the ghost box, Shelley answered “Yeah.” “Pvt. J. W. Gorvie, are you here?” “That’s me—Hi!” “Robert W. Rutherford are you here?” “Died.” “Col. E. J. Walker (commander of the Third Georgia), are you here?” “No!” was the surprising answer. Amy followed up with, “Where is he—If not here where is he?” “He’s happy.” Amy then asked, “Why?” Shelley looked really surprised and said she was hearing many voices singing, as if a choir of angels was performing.
I joined Amy and Shelley as they were coming back up through the field toward the top of Cemetery Ridge. I stood off to the side and observed their interaction with the ghost soldiers through the double-blind ghost box method. Amy got Shelley’s attention and pointed out that a group of Union reenactors was marching with the flags. These men, who carried the flags and the guards with them, are referred to as the Color Guard. Amy spotted them on the road at the top of Cemetery Ridge. The Color Guard was just even with the Copse of Trees heading toward the large Pennsylvania monument. Amy recognized that they would be moving directly through the area that Wright’s brigade had occupied and she suggested that we can use that to our advantage. I nodded my head in agreement, wondering how the Georgia boys would react to the Union reenactors marching their colors through this area.
As Amy finished talking and moved toward the reenactors, the ghost box came alive. I felt a surge of energy in the area, as if a large group of men were hurrying to stop a flood. Shelley started to call out what she heard. “Bring it!” one soldier cried out. As they moved closer to the Color Guard, a number of voices called out, “Run them off!—Burn ’em up!” Shelley had no idea what questions Amy was asking as she called out a string of answers. Amy asked: “Do you want to run the North off? Get the Yankees?” “Kill ’em!”—“Go after these Yankees?”—“Shoot, damn it! Take a shot!” As the reenactors passed the Copse of Trees, Amy asked, “What are the orders…orders?” “Hurry!”—“The Yankees are coming!”—“Shoot ’em! … Move! … Go!”—“Do you see the Yankees?”—“Yeah.” Upon review of the ghost box audio, you can hear men fighting in the background when these answers were given. After this exchange, there was a pause and Shelley called out the words from a ghost soldier, “They’re hunting.” Hunting is a term used when the enemy’s line has been broken, they are in retreat and now the soldiers are looking to pick off any stragglers or anyone wounded that might still be a threat.
As I was listening to Shelley calling out what she heard from the ghost box, I thought, “Is this the point where Confederate Brig. Gen. Ambrose Wright had to make his fateful decision … to hold and possibly lose his command while waiting for support he knew in his heart wasn’t coming, or to give the order to retreat and save what was left of his command? With her intuition in full swing, Amy asked the final question.
“General Wright will you give the order?” Suddenly a man’s agonized reply, “No!” I asked Amy what she was thinking when she asked that final question and she told me she wanted to know if he would give the order to charge the oncoming Yankees.
As I stood there, an image of heavy, thick smoke rolling over the area with men seemed to move in slow motion surround me. Then it exploded into fast motion. The butternut and gray holding the ridge and the field beyond, the Rebels streaming back as the Union countercharged and began to envelop the Rebel flanks. Just as suddenly, it was gone, but it had taken my breath away. I knew without a doubt that Wright’s brigade had accomplished what Wright had claimed, “We were now complete masters of the field …”
After reviewing the historical evidence, the Official Reports, firsthand accounts, letters of recollection, and then tying in the paranormal evidence from the various investigations, a clear picture has developed:
On July 2, 1863, just around six p.m., the brigade of Gen. Ambrose Wright of R. H. Anderson’s Division stepped off from their assigned position toward the Codori House. At the Codori House, the Fifteenth Massachusetts and the Eighty-Second New York gave brief resistance and then retired from the field, streaming past Brown’s Battery on the slight rise in front of the stone wall at the north base of Cemetery Ridge. Wright pushed his men forward, hot on the heels of the retreating Union soldiers. Lieutenant Brown waited until the last minute to fire his guns and pull them back. During this action, Lieutenant Brown was shot in the throat. One or two of his guns were left behind and taken and another two got stuck in the opening at the stone wall while trying to flee from the advancing Rebels. Under fire, Wright formed his men as best he could and stormed the wall. After a brief struggle, the Confederates broke the Union lines close to where the existing monument to the Fifteenth Massachusetts is standing today, and stormed the guns on the ridge. A group of Yankees advanced, most likely the Sixty-Ninth or Seventy-First New York from General Webb’s brigade, toward Wright’s left flank where the Forty-Eighth Georgia and the Forty-Eighth Mississippi were fighting desperately to keep the Confederate left flank secure. The musket fire was hot, and lead was flying as men dropped on both sides. Wright turned to see what this new threat was and noted, yet again, that he had no support. To his front, a large force of Confederates followed the Fifteenth Massachusetts and the Eighty-Second New York to the field just north of the Leister House, where the Union troops reformed. Lines were hastily formed by the charging Confederates of the Twenty-Second Georgia and the Second Georgia Battalion. Muskets belched forth death at point-blank range. The edge seemed to be with the Georgia troops when suddenly, on the left and right flank, fire erupted and dozens of men fell as a thick, acrid smoke filled the air. The Rebels broke rank and fell back to the top of Cemetery Ridge. It is at this point that General Wright made his final decision. Since no support had come forward, he decided that he could either charge the Union reinforcements advancing on his beleaguered brigade or retreat and yield the ground and guns that he and his men had fought so hard to gain. The moment came, and Wright called for his men to retreat.
Jack and I believe that the evidence, both historical and paranormal, is overwhelming. Wright most likely claimed the field at the top of Cemetery Ridge, and his troops advanced farther than any other Confederate troops in the three days of fighting. The High Watermark should be a monument to Wright’s brigade and the one regiment from Posey’s brigade (the Forty-Eighth Mississippi) in the field at the southern base of Cemetery Ridge. Their story was just waiting to be told. Now the ghost soldiers on both sides of the conflict who asked us to tell their story have been honored, and perhaps now they can rest in peace.