Paranormal Axetivities
Paranormal Axetivities
Ghostly Tales and Haunting History of Gettysburg Pennsylvania
What happens when history and the supernatural collide? Discover the eerie allure of Gettysburg as we embark on a journey through its historic streets, uncovering tales that blur the lines between past and present. From the tragic story of Jenny Wade to mysterious happenings at the Gettysburg Hotel, the echoes of the Civil War are more than just historical footnotes—they're an invitation to explore the unknown. Imagine stepping into a basement from the era, its walls whispering secrets long buried.
Join us as we navigate both self-guided tour, and a formal ghost tour, where history comes alive in unexpected ways. With an audio tour painting vivid scenes of the battlefield's past and a spirited guide leading us through tales of the supernatural, the night unveils a side of Gettysburg few get to see. Reflecting on personal experiences, including a chilling incident at our hotel, we stitch together narratives of history and hauntings that keep this town's legacy alive. Whether you're a history buff or a seeker of the paranormal, this episode promises a memorable adventure through one of America's most haunted towns.
Follow Paranormal Axetvities:
www.facebook.com/axetivities
https://twitter.com/axetivities
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paranormal-axetivities-a449761b3/
https://www.instagram.com/paranormal_axetivities/
Sources:
https://thoughtcatalog.com/jeremy-london/2019/05/14-creepy-incidents-that-happened-at-the-gettysburg-battlefield/
We're all familiar with Gettysburg, pennsylvania, not to be confused with Gatlinburg, tennessee. As my wife often does. We learned about the Civil War in history and a lot of us visited Gettysburg on our 8th grade field trip. But what really happened in Gettysburg is something that can never really be taught in a classroom. Last year my wife and I took a short Labor Day weekend trip to Gettysburg. But before we get into that, let's hear some quick facts about the bloodiest town of the Civil War.
Speaker 1:For as popular as Gettysburg is, it only took place for three days, lasting from July 1st through July 3rd of 1863. The battle is widely considered to be the turning point of the war, ending the Confederacy's aspirations for independence, and it was the bloodiest battle of the entire war, with over 50,000 combined casualties. So 50,000 casualties over three days. That is quite a bit. And the paranormal community? They will tell you that that much energy and angst in that short amount of time will definitely leave a stain over the land. Amount of time will definitely leave a stain over the land. Whether you know, whether the battle lasted a year or three days, that much energy and that much despair will definitely leave an impression. One of the more popular destinations in Gettysburg is the Jenny Wade House. Despite the battles that roared through the town for those three days, only one civilian died in the conflict and that is Jenny Wade. So out of 50,000 overall casualties, only one civilian. It's still not what you want, but it absolutely could have been worse for civilians at that time, but unfortunately for Jenny Wade she was the one civilian and while she was in her home mixing dough to make biscuits, a straight bullet passed through two doors and struck her in the back. Visitors now report hearing Jenny and several other children roaming the house. Some have said that they distinctly felt sudden rushes of cold air and the sensation of little children grabbing at their legs.
Speaker 1:Another popular destination is the Gettysburg Hotel. The hotel was used as a hospital during the Battle of Gettysburg. It is reportedly haunted by a Civil War nurse named Rachel, who wanders the rooms and digs through their guests' drawers and luggage, often taking out clothes for them to wear. Other spirits that allegedly haunt the hotel include a wounded soldier named James I'm going to butcher this last name, but James Cuthbertson I guess and a lady who dances in the ballroom. So when I was in Gettysburg we stayed across the street from this hotel and I didn't see anything when I was looking through the windows, but I definitely felt a presence while around this hotel. But no personal stories from this hotel from me anyway.
Speaker 1:And then another popular Gettysburg address is the Gettysburg College. This college was used as a hospital for both sides during the war. The most horrifying haunted story to come out of this college originated in the early 1900s, at least in my opinion it's one of the most horrifying hauntings. Two female employees say that they got into the elevator and pressed their chosen floor, only to be whisked down to the basement. There they witnessed a gory civil war operating room where doctors were frantically working on wounded patients. As one of the doctors noticed them and started walking toward them, the elevator suddenly brought them above ground again. When they later returned to the basement, the gory hospital scene had vanished. And that sounds like something out of a horror movie, and if I ever did witness that I'd probably have a heart attack. So those are some fun facts and some popular ghost stories from the town.
Speaker 1:So let's get into the trip that I took last year. So we only stayed in Gatlinburg for two nights and spent our third night in Washington DC. We got to Gettysburg early and stayed at one of the only four buildings left from the Civil War, which is called the Downtown at Lincoln Square. But if you're familiar with the area you know it's actually a roundabout circle, not a square, but I digress. Our room happened to be on the first floor and our windows looked right at the square and we were right across from the Gettysburg Hotel and we were right next to another building that was left from the Civil War and that building is actually where Abraham Lincoln stayed the night that he gave his famous Gettysburg Address. Shortly after we got to our room we discovered that we had an accessible basement. That was not in the description of the room and it took a little liquid courage for me to get down there, but after that we did explore it and it was definitely interesting. Not a lot down there. It was primarily used for storage and a big part of it was empty. Took a picture didn't capture any paranormal things, but it was definitely a unique place to visit. Knowing that it was there during the civil war. It definitely warranted a moment of silence from myself and also our first night there.
Speaker 1:We took our own tour of downtown after the sun went down. Most of these historical buildings had a plaque to describe the significance of the building and what it was used for during the Civil War and what happened there as the war progressed. So we kind of took our own little private tour and, man, it was probably more interesting than the actual tour that we paid for the next night. But the next day we did take a self-guided tour of the entire town along with the battlefield, which is really interesting. I'm antisocial these days, so I think I enjoyed that more than than the uh, an actual tour guide would have been. Basically we just drove around from site to site, the audio kept up with our location and basically just told us the significance of that area and what happened there and the people involved and all of that good stuff. Not a ghost tour. It was more historical than anything ghosty, but I definitely recommend doing something like that if you ever get to Gettysburg. And then that night we did take a paid ghost tour of the town with the tour guide. A lot of these locations we had already looked at the night prior doing the plaque tour.
Speaker 1:That we just kind of walked around the city, but we saw some new things too that we didn't miss the night before the tour was very stereotypical, showman-like the tour guide, great guy not matching him at all. I understand you have to have the showman part of it to draw people in. He had the lantern, he had the style, all that good stuff. Definitely a cool dude and enjoyed it. It was a pretty small group, just my wife and I, then a few others, so we really got to talk to the guy and really spend some time and look around at all of the buildings and kind of take in what happened there. A lot of these buildings were still standing during the war and it was kind of cool. You still see some damage from the Civil War. You know they do a good job by keeping everything restored so it's not falling apart but still looks good. And then a lot of these buildings are in use today. You know the courthouse I remember just off the top of my head was a big one where a lot of paranormal sightings happened and it's still being used as a courthouse.
Speaker 1:So during that tour we did learn a few things. You know we talked about the Inland Square a little bit, which is the hotel that I stayed at, the only ghost story from that building. Before I tell you my story here in just a few minutes. But the only story from that building is that there is a ghost cat that some guests say they see or they hear or feel a cat run across their bed and laying in the window that is right in front of the street. I did not witness that. That is the one story from the Lincoln Square and just out of pure coincidence, the tour did end right in front of my building, so that was kind of kind of fun.
Speaker 1:So after the tour is where things get interesting. I'm not sure if going to this ghost tour amped it up, and if you guys know anything about me and Denae which if you've listened to this show I think we're over 50 episodes now you would know that we are pretty open to it, but I'm also closed off to it a lot as well. So this kind of depends on what my mood is and what is going on at that time. But it's possible that maybe just doing this tour amped it up or I don't know. Let the paranormal entities involved open up to us or let them know that we're part of it. I don't know. But so after the tour we got back to our room and everything in town shuts down at like 9 to 10 pm Because apparently Pennsylvania is communist about drinking. I don't know what's going on. We like to drink and everything closed pretty early and it was like a weekend, so that kind of surprised me.
Speaker 1:Anyway, so before this tour started we had started the movie National Treasure because we were going to DC the next day. So we were like, hey, let's watch National Treasure for fun. So we started it and then we had a pause. It did the ghost tour and came back, so we finished that movie and then while this movie was on, I was kind of talking bad about the tour guide, necessarily talking bad about him, but just kind of making fun of the showmanship part of it.
Speaker 1:So I don't know if maybe that pissed off the ghost or I don't know, but right after the movie ended, I mean literally the movie ended and then the TV just turned off. We didn't hit stop, we didn't hit anything, the TV literally turned off as soon as this film ended. We had the fire stick plugged in. So it's not like we were moving DVDs or anything, we were literally just streaming it through the internet and it just went off. When trying to turn it back on, it would turn on and then immediately shut off. So this from you know experience. It kind of acted like it had a power surge, but everything was plugged into a surge protector and it wasn't anything abnormal.
Speaker 1:So and TV did not work for the rest of that night or the next morning before we left I'm not sure if it worked after we left, but that timing was odd. So we got there the day prior, tv worked fine all that afternoon, all that evening. We got there the day prior, tv worked fine all that afternoon, all that evening Worked fine the next morning, throughout the next day, and then that night, until after our tour finished, what we were watching, and then it just shut off, thought that was interesting, and then. So after that, you know, whatever, and I'm the kind of person who has to have TV on when we go to bed, so we're just going to use our smartphones, you know. So I just threw on whatever we were watching I think it was Friends at the time Threw on Friends and just let it play by the pillow, and I was already kind of freaked out at this point, just because I thought that was odd. I wasn't really expecting any ghost activity At this point. I was kind of busy with work and we weren't really expecting any ghost activity At this point. I was kind of busy with work and we weren't really in the ghost thing right now, which sounds silly, because we went to Gettysburg, pennsylvania, but it was more for the historical facts and not really to do a ghost tour or a ghost investigation, I should say, because we just did a ghost tour so I wasn't really expecting to have anything happen. And then so that TV thing kind of creeped me out a little bit.
Speaker 1:So bedtime I wake up in the middle of the night and I hear the toilet flush. So, like our room was set up, you walk in, it's the living room area, then you go in the hallway, there's our bedroom and then right next to the bedroom is the bathroom. And I wake up in the middle of the night. I don't really feel or reach for Denae, but I do hear our bathroom flush. I'm not sure what time it was. I didn't look at the clock, but I swore I heard it flush. It was right next door, it sounded very loud and as I'm thinking it's Denae, I'm still awake. And then like a minute goes by. I'm like, well, where is she? So at that point I do reach over and there she is sleeping next to me. Never left once. And then that kind of left me uneasy. And then I do hear and so after that I don't sleep very well for the rest of the evening.
Speaker 1:And then throughout the night I, clear as day, hear the toilet flush a few more times, and I guess it could have been know another person, because basically this hotel functions. It was basically like a, like a house, you know. You walk in and then there's multiple rooms, this little building. So I'm sure the walls are thin, so it could have been other rooms, I don't know, but it sounded very close and it sounded just like um, it was like our toilet, it was right next door and the room across from us was the front office. So I know nobody was in there because they were closed. So if it did come from another room it would have come from upstairs and this did not sound like it came from upstairs. It sounded like it was right next to my bedroom. So that was number two. All the same evening, after this paranormal ghost tour, then here's where I was ready to go, not like oh, I'm scared shitless, but it was kind of weird.
Speaker 1:So the next morning we're packing up it's like 8 or 9 am I'm in the living room, right by the front door and Nene is back near the bathroom doing what she's doing packing up her stuff. And I'm putting all of our bags right next to the front door. And as I'm and there at the front door, I hear right by my head three loud, distinct bangs, like three loud knocks on the wall that's right next to my head, like boom, boom, boom. It sounded like somebody was literally banging on the wall next to where I was standing, right next to it, and I can hear the vibration of the knocks. I can see the wall kind of moving. So I'm like what the fuck? So I open the door like I'm thinking I'm not really thinking anything at this point, but I hear the big bangs. So I open the door and look out. There's nobody there. The front office is open and there is somebody in that front office, but the door is closed. So it wasn't anybody in the hallway knocking on our wall. And so I'm thinking maybe it was Danae. It's like maybe she's banging on something. So I called her. I'm like, hey, did you hear that? And she's like hear what? So then I told her what had happened and she said nope. So all right. So I don't know what that was.
Speaker 1:I feel like it was paranormal because it just gave me that. Before that I still had that uneasy feeling because of how not well I slept the night prior, the TV breaking, just hearing the flushing of the bathroom throughout the evening. And then now it's daytime, 9 am, and I'm right by the door and just bang, bang, bang. Even thinking this has been a while now and even thinking of it now, I'm like whew, that might be one of the more closest things it kind of reminded me of. If you guys remember, I did an episode a while ago where I heard three bangs on the wall next to me when I was recording. I was in mid-sentence and I heard three bangs. It was kind of like that, but it was a lot louder and a lot closer to my ear and I was like, well, I think, I think that's it. So that's definitely, in my opinion, paranormal and that was all I have. So those are the three stories that happened to us while in Gettysburg, all our last night, all after we did the paranormal tour guide and, coincidentally, right after I was kind of talking smack about that tour. So I don't know if I, like, woke something up, pissed something off because I was talking smack, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But I do want to go back and I do want to do an actual ghost investigation. You know, this time we were just there to visit, happened to have some things happen. I I didn't have any of my ghost stuff on, I think I brought it just in case. But I know I didn't use the MF meter, I didn't use the spirit box, I didn't really do anything investigative. So that needs to change. I do want to go back. I do want to stay at the same hotel and get the same room because of the basement and actually do a ghost investigation there and see if we can figure out who was knocking on the wall next to me and who was flushing the toilet all night and who broke the TV or made the TV stop working our last night there. So I don't even think it was broken. I about guarantee, I haven't asked, obviously, but I would bet money that after we left it worked just fine. So I don't know.
Speaker 1:But that is my latest experience at Gettysburg, pennsylvania. I definitely recommend the town. Take a visit and even if you're not into paranormal. I recommend it just as a history. I know we have listeners outside of the US, but as a US citizen, it's a pretty big, important part of our history. S but as a US citizen, it's a pretty big, important part of our history. And if you like history, definitely get to Gettysburg, pennsylvania. It's a very pretty area. Lots of you know lots of shops, lots of gift shops and places to eat that kind of stuff. So definitely enjoy it. But if you do, if you're into the paranormal, bring some stuff with you, because that place is definitely containing some paranormal entities. So that is all I have.
Speaker 1:I hope you enjoyed the show. Be sure to check out our other episodes from Paranormal Activities. Basically, you can find us anywhere you get your podcast, from Apple to Google to Spotify, to I don't even know know I use Spotify. So whatever you use, be sure to check us out. On social media, I'm going to try to get more active on there. I hate social media. I'm old, but I am going to try to get on there a little bit more often here. So hope you enjoyed it. Until next time, let's all try to figure out what's going on the other side together. I'm.
