Paranormal Musings: Hunting for ghosts at an old Confederate hospital in Gettysburg

Whether you believe in ghosts, there’s one thing that’s undeniable: the pain endured by so many young men during the battle of Gettysburg. Phyllis Greineisen gives ghost tours with the Sleepy Hollow Ghost Tour Company. “Where’s someone to say a kind word over them? No one did it. They put um into a hole and covered them up. And these are the souls that I think are lost” said Greineisen.

Phyllis believes some of those souls are at the Farnsworth House in Gettysburg. She shares stories about the house, which once served as a confederate hospital. A place where many men died. “I’ll go anywhere. I’ll walk anywhere. I have no fear of anything cause I honestly believe, I don’t want to say they protect me, but they know I honor them” said Greineisen.

The owners of the Farnsworth House say they are haunted by at least 12 ghosts, including a young boy named Jeremy. The thought of having an actual experience with one seems farfetched, but Ghost Hunter Jim Avery said it has happened. “Touching them on their shoulders or pulling their hair or tugging on their jackets” is the most common way that a ghost will make contact said Avery.

Avery said the most common place to be touched is in the basement where they once stored the bodies of confederate soldiers. Avery said they housed as much as 21 bodies at a time in the basement. When FOX 43 reporter Eames Yates was down there he didn’t have his hair pulled and wasn’t touched, but there could be a reason for that.

“It seems that they predominately touch women and I’m thinking that’s because they are male soldiers and it seems kind of funny and people laugh but they haven’t seen a woman in a hundred and fifty years” said Avery.

But Yates was looking for that kind of experience. So he got ghost hunting gear including an EMF meter, digital surface thermometer, vining roads and night vision. Another ghost hunter that Yates worked with, Harry Young, introduced a more low tech approach. “A pendulum. If you take a look at this there’s nothing overly special about it. It’s a piece of polished stone” said Young.

As the night wore on things did start to get stranger especially with the Pendulum. Yates made every effort not to make it move, but sure enough it began to slowly spin. Young said that represented a connection. Yates felt that he may of moved it and that he couldn’t be sure.

Yates’ cameraman, Avery, Greineisen and Young all left the house, leaving Yates completely alone… But as the night continued he felt that truly may not be the case. “It is one twenty AM and I was lying on my bed and I heard what sounded like an animal above me. And I don’t know if it is an animal. I’m hoping it is an animal but I definitely heard it twice” said Yates.

Yates did not sleep one minute in the Farnsworth House and he left believing something unexplainable does exist there.