The 7th is made of phantoms

[tbw]

Over the years many stories have been told about apparitions and other paranormal activities on and around the Battlefield. If you would like to share a personal experience or relate something that has already happened, then please feel free to add it here.

While there may be some who view such things in an improper light, no one will impugn your character here, of that I assure you. Some believe, others do not, and like this battle, some believe, and others do not; so as with all things unknown, perhaps we should discuss what isn't known to find out what is known.

[melani]

Well, not my personal experience...but Apt. C is said to be haunted. I believe it's the one where the seasonal looked up one night to see a man with a big mustache sitting at her kitchen table--and then he vanished. She slept with the lights on that night. The next day she was looking at photos, and suddenly said, "That's him!" It was Benny Hodgson.

Apt. C has been used as the Friends' base camp several times when they are acting as trail guides--there is a picture on their website of my daughter and me sitting on the sofa with Jerome Greene. One of the people I worked with had lived in Apt. C as a seasonal, and she never saw anything--but the towels in the bathroom acted rather strangely. If she hung a wet towel over the shower curtain rod, she would always come back to find it on the floor, even if she had carefully middled it over the rod so it couldn't slip. If she folded it and hung it on the towel bar, it stayed put. Anybody know if Benny Hodgson was a neat freak?

[tbw]

The Benny Hodson story is one of my personal favorites. It gives credibility to the apparitions appearance, either that or she had seen a photo of him and made the whole story up. Now I for one don't believe that she made up the story. The other one I like is the story of a visitor who is momentarily transported back in time and witnesses a part of history... LBH history of course.

As for the towels, I think I would test that one, perhaps placing a clothes pin just on the underside of the towel so that it wouldn't show and attaching it to a shower ring or the curtain itself. If that thing was on the floor the next morning... i'd be outta there!

[joewiggs]

I have experienced a spiritual phenomenon that has no rational explanation other than it occurred, personally, to me. On one of my trips to the battlefield, I walked down the trail that led to the South Skirmish Line area. As I traveled downward on this path I suddenly realized that Last Stand Hill was no longer visible nor was any part of Custer ridge as well.

I was stunned by the sudden exclusion of the familiar landscapes that were present a mere second ago and, the inexplicable terror I felt as though I had entered an area in which reality ceased and memories of the violence that occurred here became a new and different reality. I felt an overpowering silence and fear that I did not understand. Was it the fear that the men who traveled down this path must have experience as they fled for their lives?

It would be all too easy to chalk up my experience as a delusional quirk of a man engrossed with the history of the area.

[Cutter]

Driven by the terror of death, running towards unknown grounds, all places of safety gone. There are phantoms.

[joewiggs]

I just placed you on my "Good Guy" list. Some people, sadly, would have chosen to reticule the prospect of para-normal activity on the battlefield. While no one can prove us right, Cutter, no one can prove us wrong either.

[Cutter]

Yup, more to the world then meets the eye. If specters are born of violent death, what better place then LBH?

[Cutter]

hey Joe, you might find this interesting- www.hauntedhouses.com/states/mt/little_bighorn.cfm

[joewiggs]

I can't thank you enough Cutter! I throughly enjoyed the site. ;D

[melani]

LBH is said to be the second most haunted battlefield in the U.S., the first being Gettysburg. There are actually three volumes of ghost stories about Gettysburg. Often people think they see reenactors, but there's something just a little bit weird about them--and then they vanish.

There is a whole section of ghost stories on the Friends website: www.friendslittlebighorn.com/ghosts-along-the-little-bighorn.htm They include the story about three Sioux warriors on the ridge, and a whole bunch of weird stuff in the Stone House.

In the late 1980's, there was a dig going on in the valley below Reno Hill, and they found the bits and pieces of the guy who may have been Botzer, who has always been one of my favorites. (Godfrey, in a letter to Jennie Barnitz after Washita, described him as "an extremely faithful man.") Suddenly the entire crew hit the ground as shots and screams erupted all around them--then stopped. There was nothing--just that momentary noise.

Somebody else--a horse person--said that she had smelled the distinctive odor of the sweat of frightened horses on Reno Hill.

Whenever a great trauma happens, there is something left behind--vibes or something, don't know how to describe it. Every now and then, some of this comes out and somebody picks it up. Some people are more sensitive than others.

Joe, your comment on the line of sight from the Deep Ravine Trail to Custer Hill is very illustrative--the terrain around there is very deceptive. When I first went out there with my folks as a college student, I took a lot of photos, thinking I would label them later. But when they were developed, all I had was a bunch of pictures of unidentifiable grass--and it all looked sort of flat, though I knew it wasn't. And remember, the soldiers had never seen this place before--they had no clue where they were, or anybody else. To the Indians, it was their back yard.

[joewiggs]

Malani

Whenever a great trauma happens, there is something left behind--vibes or something, don't know how to describe it. Every now and then, some of this comes out and somebody picks it up. Some people are more sensitive than others.

Joe, your comment on the line of sight from the Deep Ravine Trail to Custer Hill is very illustrative--the terrain around there is very deceptive. When I first went out there with my folks as a college student, I took a lot of photos, thinking I would label them later. But when they were developed, all I had was a bunch of pictures of unidentifiable grass--and it all looked sort of flat, though I knew it wasn't. And remember, the soldiers had never seen this place before--they had no clue where they were, or anybody else. To the Indians, it was their back yard.

[/quote][/blockquote]
Malani, thank you so much for the link to the "Friends". I enjoyed it! Regarding "vibes" I could not agree more. If I am not incorrect, matter can not be destroyed, it can only be altered to another form. It may be that this altering is, essentially, what we refer to as "Ghosts."

Thank you for understanding my feelings while descending the SSL. It was very real to me. Your last paragraph may be, ultimately, the most definitive answer as to why the Indians won that I have heard in a long time!

[tbw]

I have experienced a spiritual phenomenon that has no rational explanation other than it occurred, personally, to me. On one of my trips to the battlefield, I walked down the trail that led to the South Skirmish Line area. As I traveled downward on this path I suddenly realized that Last Stand Hill was no longer visible nor was any part of Custer ridge as well.

I was stunned by the sudden exclusion of the familiar landscapes that were present a mere second ago and, the inexplicable terror I felt as though I had entered an area in which reality ceased and memories of the violence that occurred here became a new and different reality. I felt an overpowering silence and fear that I did not understand. Was it the fear that the men who traveled down this path must have experience as they fled for their lives?

It would be all too easy to chalk up my experience as a delusional quirk of a man engrossed with the history of the area.

It's interesting that you mention this as the only place I can think of would be where the trail meets the head of Deep Ravine proper. When me and my wife visited there several years ago, the same aura (if that's what one wants to call it) does overcome one. It is an eerie feeling thats for sure.

[joewiggs]

I remember reading somewhere that energy can not be destroyed, it can only be altered. Great fear is such an overwhelming emotion that it just may classify as intense energy.
Those men were trapped, scrambled for freedom in an accelerated frenzy that resulted only in an excruciating death. Could the frenzy/fear still hover above the ravine waiting to be set free when the bodies are ultimately found?.

[joewiggs]

Our collective fascination for this historical event speaks volumes. We are being touched by those who have preceded us to the great beyond.

[davel]

The first time I visited the LBH battlefield, I felt a tremendous amount of energy as I approached Last Stand Hill and turned to my wife and said "there are ghosts here". I've visited most of the major battlefields of the Civil War, including Gettysburg, Antietam and Shiloh and have been awed while walking the Hornet's Nest, Bloody Lane or Little Round Top, but have never experienced the "aura" that was there, my first time at LBH.