I recently shared a post on Facebook about historic haunted houses which received some interest, so I thought for our first throw-back-Thursday I’d start with an excerpt from a “ghost story” from our very first issue back in Autumn of 2007

By L. B. Taylor, Jr. 

Union soldiers escape into the Potomac River (Library of Congress)

The Civil War battle of Balls’ Bluff, just north of Leesburg, should never have been fought. Ill conceived in its planning and preparation and disastrous in its execution, it turned out to be a debacle of gigantic proportions for the Union Army, from beginning to conclusion. The battle took place on October 21, 1861.

The awful extent of the Union disaster was described by author E.A. Pollard in his 1866 book The Lost Cause:

“ Such slaughter, such havoc, such mangling got living men was scarcely ever seen before. A whole army was retreating, tumbling, rolling, leaping down the slick heights. Hundreds plunged into the rapid current: many were shot in the act of swimming, and others drowned in the water, choked with the wounded and dead…All was consternation and dismay. The shrieks of the wounded and drowning mingled with the shouts of the victors and the rattle of musketry.”

More than 900 Union troops were killed, and many others wounded or taken prisoner Many of those who fell are buried at the Ball’s Bluff National Cemetery. And it is here that stories of strange, unexplained events have risen over the past 145-plus years.

Terrible, unexplained screams have been heard, a car held in place while frightened teens tried to flee after hearing them, spooky muddy handprints on the trunk. A violently shaking tree on a still day on the site of a confederate soldier’s grave, who was prohibited from being buried in his home cemetery because his faith prohibited participation in war, and was therefore buried among strangers. Additionally, phantom footsteps, inexplicable sounds, and sightings of shadowy figures have also been reported.

Read the entire article here.

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