by Mark Nesbitt
Federals attempted to bring artillery up, but the wheels just crushed the dead and wounded alike. For a while they were successful. At a range of about 140 feet, solid shot blasted through the Confederate breastworks. But artillery horses were doomed at such close range and soon the guns had to be abandoned, up to their wheel hubs in mud.
Confederates also used their artillery, firing point-blank into Union soldiers who were ranked eight to ten deep, cutting gaps in the tight formations and leaving nothing but a crimson mist. Still, Northerners closed those gaps, but were hindered by the heaps of dead blocking their movements.
It was soon realized that flat-trajectory artillery was a danger to the attackers as well as defenders, and so Federals brought up mortars, lofting shells high in the air to land behind the Confederate works. Their bloody effectiveness became grim amusement for some New Jersey troops who bet on what body part would be blown over the parapet next. A mortar shell landed near the 16th Mississippi’s flag, decapitating one soldier whose body remained standing, blood pumping out of the neck like some surreal fountain.
Wounded were buried alive under the dead, and both sunk into the ochre quagmire at the Mule Shoe. Darkness brought a little relief, allowing Union units to withdraw under the cover of night. But firing continued past midnight. At 3:00 A.M., Confederates in the salient got the order to withdraw to a new line across the base of the Mule Shoe. It had been built with the time bought with the lives of those who now could not withdraw.
Dawn exposed evidence of what was arguably the bloodiest conflict of an already bloody war. Men were pulled out of the waistdeep mud by their extremities, still breathing. Wounded were extricated from underneath mounds of hardly recognizable, expired humanity. The dead were described as nothing but lumps of meat or clotted gore. The wounded had a chance to move out of harm’s way; the dead simply were hit time and time again. In some places the dead were piled four deep. Again, from the welter an arm would wave or a hand would gesture and the corpses would be lifted and a wounded man would emerge. One man found a comrade who didn’t have four inches of space on his body that hadn’t been hit. His friend counted eleven bullet holes through the soles of his shoes. With the Confederate retreat, the Federals were left with the Mule Shoe, and the Confederate bodies were merely tossed into the trenches and covered over.
The final tally from May 12 was appalling: Some 9,000 Federals became casualties on that day; the rebel army lost about 8,000.
Spotsylvania Ghosts
The town of Spotsylvania is actually a T, where the road from Fredericksburg intersects with the road from the Wilderness to the road to Richmond. It doesn’t seem like much, but it was Grant’s route to get around Lee’s army and head toward Richmond, and Lee had to prevent that from happening. The county courthouse at Spotsylvania is what made the bucolic area important to locals; the important T in the road is what made it the focus of one of the bloodiest battles in the Civil War.
The Spotsylvania Confederate Cemetery is the final resting place of nearly 600 soldiers killed in the battles throughout the Fredericksburg area.
Some of the older ghost stories come from residents of the area. Deb Pederson, who has lived in the area all her life, related that her mother had told her that when she was a teenager, she would go down to the courthouse and battlefields on the nights of the anniversary and see the armies marching in the distance. Deb’s greatgrandfather, she believes, was extremely sensitive to the paranormal. He claimed he could see the dead walking. Near Marye Road he saw slaves walking around their house and in the fields; many nights he would awake and say they were in the house.
Deb’s grandmother may have been somewhat sensitive as well, but didn’t talk about it much. There were times when she was frightened, Deb said, “due to the things she might have seen but didn’t understand.” She refused to go to funerals or be alone in the house at night and often slept with the lights on.
Even Deb’s experiences seem to prove that something supernatural has been going on in Spotsylvania County. When she was a teenager, Deb was staying at her grandmother’s house. She was the only one home. It was summer and the temperature was nearly 100 degrees. She remembers that the air was still and the big leaded window in the bathroom was being held up with a stick. She was blow-drying her hair. Suddenly she heard her name being called: “Debbie, Debbie!” At that moment, the window fell with a crash. She ran out of the house and sat in the yard until her grandparents returned, too scared to return to the house alone.
She has had candles move or fall over in the house on their own. “The best one is when things go and come back. I was missing a ring once. I stood in the middle of the floor and said, ‘Look, I want my ring back, please bring it back by morning. That is all I ask.’ The next morning it was laying on the dresser.”
Escorts in Black
Sometimes a search for a ghost story in one place leads to a story in another place. I was interviewing the curators of the Spotsylvania County Museum, located in the old Berea Church in Spotsylvania. Located near the battlefield of May 1864, across the road from the old jail and having been there at the time, it became a makeshift hospital for the wounded from that horrendous battle.
There’s a graveyard out back as well. If there were any ghost stories associated with the building, the staff was keeping mum about them.
I asked the lady minding the place if she had any ghost stories. No, she said, but she had one from Fredericksburg. She lived at the corner that would place the building right in the crossfire of Union soldiers attacking the Sunken Road and Confederates defending it. The house, however, was not there at the time of the battle. Many people believe that if the structure wasn’t in existence during the time of trauma, it couldn’t be haunted. Nothing could be further from the paranormal truth. Often it is the site upon which the structure sits that is haunted.
One can only imagine how many men were killed or wounded in the small footprint upon which the house was built, but from eyewitness reports, the soldiers said it was like someone poured barrels of blood out on the slope up to the Sunken Road; the grass became so slippery with gore the men had trouble walking on it.
But what the woman described was not confused or caring soldiers coming to inspect whoever was living now in the very space where they had died. It seemed to be more sinister.
She said that for about a month or more she would be awakened by this group of “beings” dressed in long black robes and black hats, who seemed to want to escort her from her bedroom. Periodically she would rise and begin to leave with them, but could only get to the door of the bedroom before they would vanish.
She said she was not the only one to have seen them. Her daughter saw them a number of times and so did a friend who slept over.
There are, in the world of the paranormal, what are called “Shadow People.” They are dark figures, sometimes recognized only because they are darker than the light reflected off the dark background. There intent is unknown, but they apparently come as escorts. To where one can only speculate. Some literature has them dressed in long capes or folded robes. Rosemary Ellen Guiley, author of a number of books on witches, demons, and ghosts, adds one more telltale piece of clothing most reports have them attired in: hats.
EVP Findings at the Bloody Angle
I have been involved in several paranormal investigations in and around the courthouse area and the battlefield. One day, my wife Carol and I were the only ones at the Bloody Angle. It was so quiet that I decided to attempt to gather some EVP. I started the recorder and addressed some of the soldiers whose names were on the monuments in the area. I was pausing between questions when there was a loud noise from across the open fields in front of us. I stopped the recording, amazed at what I’d just heard. I asked Carol if she’d heard anything from the area in front of us. She said yes and I asked what it sounded like to her. “I don’t know. A tree falling?”
I heard it differently. A crash, yes, but having been to many reenactments it sounded
to me like the crash of musketry. I quickly replayed the recording, but it did not pick up the crash. And we did not hear any chainsaws in the vicinity.
On a previous investigation on July 18, 2005, at the Bloody Angle I captured additional EVPs. In the first, I address the men of the 15th New Jersey who fought at the angle. There is a gruff answer for the first question and no answer for the second.
During the second EVP, I addressed the men from Ohio who fought there as “Buckeyes.” After the first question, “You fought here didn’t you?” at 5 seconds, I hear an affirmative answer. After the second time addressing them, after I say I’m proud of them at 9 seconds, I hear a soft, “Thank you, sir.”
Psychic Investigations at the Bloody Angle
Over the years we have taken mediums to the Bloody Angle. In September 2007, psychic Patty Wilson, who had never been to Spotsylvania before and knew nothing about the battle in that particular area, gave me her impressions when we visited. She said she has never seen anything so bad, and she has spent many hours on the Gettysburg battlefield. Here are excerpts from my notes during the investigation:
Men are running, walking, stepping on bodies. . . . The leaders pushed them on. . . . Stupid moves made—bad decisions. . . . One man says that he doesn’t belong here—Union—he has a head injury, his cheekbone is gone. He’s from Ohio and he’s not with the men that he started with. He was moved with 4 or 5 other guys. He’s in his 30s, married, dark hair, children, from the Lake Erie area.
Another young man bled to death under the tree. He’s Confederate—only 17 or 18. He and his family were going to Texas (Austin) to settle and have land of their own—they made it without him. He came here to fight Meade. Patty got the name Jimmy (James) Ray. He was singing a song about Texas when he died. 39th Regiment.
According to Jeff Campbell, a local journalist who did some historical research on Patty’s impressions, “fight Meade” checks out because he commanded the Army of the Potomac at Spotsylvania. Grant, as overall Union commander, chose to ride with Meade’s army, and took part in planning many of its battles, running his orders, of course, through Meade. Jeff could not find any “39th Regiment” that fought at Spotsylvania. There was, however, a J. F. Wray who fought with the 5th Texas, which is listed as a unit at Spotsylvania.
The men all fought until their bullets were gone, and then stabbed and beat each other. They couldn’t stop fighting and killing. They’re screaming for help and water. They still want to kill. Very little water, so many are thirsty. It was warm and the middle of day. They took canteens from the dead—some were offended by that. Some laid there for days without help. Samuel Westmont—from northern Alabama, 33rd Regiment
According to Campbell, this does not check out with the historical records.
Patty heard the name “Seth.” She also got “Appleton, Portsmouth, Arkansas,” but this does not check out with the records either.
Patty then sensed that one man took water from his friend who he thought was dead, but he wasn’t—the friend cursed him when he took the canteen. The man felt guilty and his friend was very upset. Carol was using a crystal pendulum to verify answers, and at this point it stopped swinging and just quivered. Patty said his girlfriend’s name is Elizabeth. She married someone else when he didn’t return. Patty tried to help him cross over, but he wouldn’t go to the light because he was too guilty about the water and couldn’t forgive himself.
Another man told Patty that he wanted to apologize for frightening a little girl. Apparently the girl was a young psychic and was visiting the battlefield. She could see him, but he got too close and she could see his injuries. She ran screaming to her parents.
Patty also got the name Ralph Jacobs from Pennsylvania.
Some of the material Patty was receiving may never be verified. What can be verified, however, is her description of the soldiers walking upon the bodies of those already slain, the way they fought with bayonets and clubbed muskets, the thirst of the men who fought for hours, and the wounded lying there for days without help.
Psychic Investigations at the Old Jail House
The old jail in Spotsylvania was used to house Union prisoners of war temporarily during the battle. We did several investigations of the original old jail. Here are my notes of Patty Wilson’s impressions:
Cell on the left—man (Jack) with a French accent (1857). A con man of sorts—”he came to do business and they put him in jail.” Nicely dressed. He didn’t die here. He’s angry that he got caught.
The Old Jail House at Spotsylvania temporarily housed Union prisoners of war.
Cell on the right—a black woman and black man (Joseph). The woman won’t speak—she’s scared to death. Joseph is missing the earlobe of his left ear (he says a horse bit it). He’s a free man, but she is not and trusts only him—they are connected in some way— she is his step-daughter. She’s very shy. [Patty got the date 1853.]
Joseph and the girl’s mother live in Ohio. His wife is ill and he promised to find her daughter and buy her freedom before her mother dies. He succeeded in buying her, but when they got to Spotsylvania they put them in jail until they could verify that their papers were legitimate—they didn’t believe Joseph. He’s very frustrated. He didn’t kidnap the girl; he bought her and is taking her home to Ohio. He is a nice, intelligent, articulate man.
When Patty asked who was the girl’s master, she got the name “Warrens” or something similar.
Joseph and his wife have tuberculosis, but Joseph is unaware that he has it. They were delayed several weeks and his wife died before they could return, otherwise they would have made it in time. Joseph is a bookkeeper—he owns his own land near the river in Ohio, in Leland.
There is currently no Leland, Ohio, but perhaps Patty misunderstood. Joseph also knew that I am from Ohio. As I always say, either our mediums have direct links to the dead or they are the most creative people since Shakespeare.
The old jail was used to house Union prisoners of war temporarily during the Battle of Spotsylvania. In my mind’s eye I could see the disarmed, dirty, exhausted boys in blue filing into the little jail and collapsing along the walls, first come, first served, for a seat on the floor.
On a subsequent investigation, we brought some people interested in knowing more about paranormal investigating. We supplied some of them with electromagnetic field (EMF) meters to detect anomalies. There is no such instrument as a ghost detector. Investigators use instruments to detect the anomalies that have historically been associated with ghosts, such as cold spots or hair on the arms or back of the neck rising. Once detected, the anomalies may be photographed or recorded as EVP. One of the women began tracing an EMF where we had never found one before—along the entire wall—but only about waist-high, about the height of a man sitting down leaning against the wall. She also found an EMF anomaly on the one-foot thick windowsill that continued to move back and forth.
The first thought was to check for electrical wires; there were none. In fact, several previous investigations yielded no anomalies like the one we were seeing. A check outside for underground wiring showed overhead wires, too far from the building to affect the EMF meters.
Psychic Investigations at Spotsylvania Court House
Finally, we were allowed to investigate the courthouse itself. Although not the courthouse that stood at the time of the battle, it sits in the original’s footprint. Patty Wilson again gave her impressions:
Used as a hospital, fields all around, woods, bodies. A lot of people are coming and going, lots of energy, people all over the place. Different than Antietam or Gettysburg—more hopeless, sad, defeated, too brutal.
Spotsylvania Court House.
Jeffrey, Henry—towards courthouse building, left to die. Henry Ward—gray clothes, leaning against the first column on right, has a gut wound, crying, lots of blood and pain. He’s saying “it hurts.” He’s from Tennessee 14th, Company B. He was a farmer. His wife and baby boy are waiting for him. He asked “is Eliza OK?”
Although the courthouse is a reproduction, the builders did keep some parts of the original building and incorporated them, such as the columns along the front of the building. Could they have retained the psychic energy Patty was picking up on?
In the offices of the newer courthouse where the circuit court clerk works, there are reports from employees today of random cold spots. They also smell cigar smoke wafting through the offices when no one is smoking.
Police sometimes come in to the courthouse after-hours to complete their paperwork. Concentrating on their work, they suddenly have their eyes drawn to the door, where they will see someone pass by. Although they check it out, they know that a search of the building would be fruitless because they always lock the doors behind them when they enter the courthouse at night.
Some people have reported feeling a chill or cold spot and then, suddenly, a nearby door will open or close. There is a tunnel or underground hallway that connects the new courthouse with the old. It is used to transport prisoners from holding cells to the courtrooms. According to employees who have to travel the underground passage, it is a very haunted area. And there may be video evidence to back up that claim.
In the new courthouse basement, where deputies bring the prisoners into the courtroom, there is a hallway that is monitored by TV cameras. Officers watching the monitors have seen individuals following the deputies, but when they inquire who was behind them, the answer is always a befuddled “no one.”
