Ghosts of Gettysburg - Photographic Proof!

[bmattock]

Having just returned from vacation, I am taking one additional day off work (doing errands as well) to review my photos - I took a lot, using film and digital cameras. This was the last shot I took of Town Square in Gettysburg, PA, with an Olympus D-40 Zoom digital point-n-shoot. I have resize this photo and adjusted the levels and applied USM. However, the original is here:

Original Gettysburg Ghost Photo

I give you my word that the original photo at the link above (2.5 megs, use caution) is unmolested by me in any way - just as it came out of the camera and was transferred to disk and later to my web account. I have adjusted it not at all.

It was raining lightly when I took this photo, and my camera's internal flash went off. You'd think that you were looking at reflections of raindrops, right? But hmmm, I've taken photos in the rain before, never got this result. Raindrops just don't reflect quite like that - in fact, you seldom see them at all with a digicam.

And there are LOTS of ghost-hunters in Gettysburg - so many people died there under violent circumstances, after all. Even right where I was standing, the battle raged on. Lincoln stood not teen feet from where I took this photo, and stayed at the hotel I was standing at the base of.

And I have seen now lots of photos of these 'orbs' in so-called 'ghost' photos:

http://www.ghostweb.com/orb_theory.html

http://www.unexplainable.net/ghostpictures.html

http://www.hollowhill.com/real-ghost-photos/fake-orbs-downpour.htm

http://www.paranormaltexas.net/ghost_theory.html

Well, I guess maybe my ghost orbs are from rain after all. What a bummer! Man, I was getting tingles.

But it's kinda cool, eh?

Happy Halloween,

Bill Mattocks

 

[rover]

I think I wanna come back as a spirit orb after I move on.

 

[Stephan]

Flare is a magical thing 😀 I'll come back as a corner-vignetting monster 😀

 

[bmattock]

The spirit orbs don't like it when you mock them. Now all your socks will come up mismatched in the dresser drawer. Well done, unbeliever!

 

[Stephan]

I'm currently wearing a blue sock left and a black sock right... dammit he's right, I've been mockign them for too long. I must sacrifice an Elmar for my sins ! 😱

 

[XAos]

Looks like rain ON the lens to me. In fact they all look like refractions of the two street lamps. However, I DO have a laundrygeist in my house that rearranges my socks, the monster under my bed (she grabs at bare feet that pass by on the way to the shower) but is quite harmless outside of the occasional scratch or play biting.
I included a drawing of it as my avatar.

 

[bmattock]

The spirits will not be mocked!

However, they can be purchased at a reasonable price at our Offishul Gettysburg Civil War / War Between the States Tourism Booth. Get out your plastic and move along, citizen.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

PS - Nice monster under the bed. We have three, and two dogzillas.

 

[dcsang]

Seeing as how this is a "ghastly" thread (yuk yuk yuk), I took a photo some years back with a little Canon S10 P&S digital camera.

I was in a cemetary here in Toronto and one of the mausoleums in the cemetary had its windows open so you could see into the mausoleum but couldn't enter (the doors were locked). I set the cam up on the tripod and shot a couple "long" exposures (somewhere around 2-8 seconds max) I didn't note anything "weird" in the mausoleum but there were some old dried out roses laying on the little "altar" table inside.

Imagine my surprise when I got home and downloaded the image and looked carefully above the altar on the back wall. There was some sort of writing there that I hadn't noted before. Not carved into the stone wall but something that was not visible to the naked eye in the mausoleum itself.

I couldn't make out what it said but it was there and it wasn't just random scratches on the wall since the marks looked to be in the form of a few words.

Even weirder?? after I printed the photo out and burned the files to CD for safe keeping - the CD eventually became corrupted no more than a month after the burning. The files, at that point, had already been deleted from my computer.

*insert creepy Twilight Zone music here*

Dave

 

[rover]

My son was afraid of the monsters under his bed so I bought two big plastic allegators who now reside under there and keep the peace.

 

[bmattock]

Seeing as how this is a "ghastly" thread (yuk yuk yuk), I took a photo some years back with a little Canon S10 P&S digital camera.

*insert creepy Twilight Zone music here*

Dave

Dave,

My experience is spooky too (yikes). We stayed with friends of ours in a circa-1700's farmhouse that has been made into a B&B - it was a field hospital during and after the battle in Gettysburg. It was a very nice place, we loved it. Very comfortable and etc.

The night before we checked out, we had the place to ourselves - some other guests had already left. That night, some new guests arrived. I met them, but they didn't tell me what they were up to visiting Gettysburg. I presumed just tourists like ourselves.

Later that day, after we checked out, one of our party asked if anyone heard anything weird the night before. I had - I had woken and heard what sounded to me like horses hooves outside the house, and men's voices talking loudly - and a cart over cobblestones. She turned white. She asked if I was joking - I wasn't.

She had heard what she described as chains being dragged through the walls the night before - it sounded to her like a dumbwaiter being pulled up and down. Similar kind of sounds, no?

And interestingly - she had overheard our new visitors who had just checked in the night before - talking amongst themselves and asking if they should set up the ghost-detection electronics before they went to bed.

Strange stuff.

I don't believe in ghosts - I'll keep an open mind if I meet one, though. No point in being stubborn.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[bmattock]

My son was afraid of the monsters under his bed so I bought two big plastic allegators who now reside under there and keep the peace.

That should do the trick! I had a former Marine DI as a father - he assured me that no monster would ever enter a Marine's house without permission or we'd be eating monster stew that night.

But he also told me that my mother had been the bearded lady in the circus when he met her, so I guess he lied a lot.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[RJBender]

I've had park rangers at Ft. Barrancas at the Pensacola NAS tell me they have seen a ghost there. I have an old photo from the fort. I'll try to find it and upload later.

R.J.

 

[jlw]

I've had park rangers at Ft. Barrancas at the Pensacola NAS tell me they have seen a ghost there. I have an old photo from the fort. I'll try to find it and upload later.

R.J.

How do they know it's a ghost, and not, say, a dimensional projection transmitted by the uber-beings of the planet Zoron intended to simulate a ghost?

 

[RJBender]

Seeing as how this is a "ghastly" thread (yuk yuk yuk), I took a photo some years back with a little Canon S10 P&S digital camera.

I was in a cemetary here in Toronto and one of the mausoleums in the cemetary had its windows open so you could see into the mausoleum but couldn't enter (the doors were locked). I set the cam up on the tripod and shot a couple "long" exposures (somewhere around 2-8 seconds max) I didn't note anything "weird" in the mausoleum but there were some old dried out roses laying on the little "altar" table inside.

Imagine my surprise when I got home and downloaded the image and looked carefully above the altar on the back wall. There was some sort of writing there that I hadn't noted before. Not carved into the stone wall but something that was not visible to the naked eye in the mausoleum itself.

I couldn't make out what it said but it was there and it wasn't just random scratches on the wall since the marks looked to be in the form of a few words.

Even weirder?? after I printed the photo out and burned the files to CD for safe keeping - the CD eventually became corrupted no more than a month after the burning. The files, at that point, had already been deleted from my computer.

*insert creepy Twilight Zone music here*

Dave

Dave, you can go back with some flowers and ask a custodian to unlock the mausoleum for you. That should give you enough time to reshoot the interior.

R.J.

 

[RJBender]

How do they know it's a ghost, and not, say, a dimensional projection transmitted by the uber-beings of the planet Zoron intended to simulate a ghost?

I thought it was odd that US government employees were telling me about the haunting. They said they could catch glimpses of someone going around the corners inside the scarp gallery. One ranger said he thought it was a Civil War reenactor at first , until other park rangers told him about the apparition. The story is that a Confederate solder was hanged in the fort for falling asleep at his post.

R.J.

 

[bmattock]

How do they know it's a ghost, and not, say, a dimensional projection transmitted by the uber-beings of the planet Zoron intended to simulate a ghost?

Occam's Razor.

Of course, the same theory would postulate that swamp gas is a preferable theory to 'ghost' but whatever works, works.

 

[bmattock]

I thought it was odd that US government employees were telling me about the haunting. They said they could catch glimpses of someone going around the corners inside the scarp gallery. One ranger said he thought it was a Civil War reenactor at first , until other park rangers told him about the apparition. The story is that a Confederate solder was hanged in the fort for falling asleep at his post.

R.J.

I doubt the Confederates would hang anyone on their side - they needed men! However, who knows. Besides, when I was in Gettysburg taking that photo, do you know what was behind me? The HOUSE OF BENDER! How weird is that?

http://www.gettysburg.com/gca/gcvbbook/shopping/hofbend.htm

 

[doubs43]

Bill, I wish I'd known you were going to Gettysburg. I know a fellow there who lives on a farm in the Park and is as knowledgeable about the area and events as anyone can be. His name, oddly enough, is Jeff Davis and he has links, I believe, to the 79th PA Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

My GGGrandfather's unit, the 38th VA, was part of Armistead's Division and was among those who penetrated Union lines the deepest during Picket's Charge. Fortunately, he didn't join the 38th until afterwards! (My Great Grandfather was already alive but it's still good that my GGGrandfather survived the war.)

Walker

 

[bmattock]

What a shame! Oh well, we had a great time and learned a lot anyway. Next time, though, I'll let you know ahead of time - we do intend to go back someday. My own illustrious progenitor, Major Charles Porter Mattocks of the 17th Maine (teacher at Bowdoin College and looked up to his mentor, Chamberlain of the 20th Maine) was in the Wheatfield during the battle. He won a CMH later in the war and wrote 'Unspoiled Heart' afterwards about the experience.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[ch1]

Having just returned from vacation, I am taking one additional day off work (doing errands as well) to review my photos - I took a lot, using film and digital cameras. This was the last shot I took of Town Square in Gettysburg, PA, with an Olympus D-40 Zoom digital point-n-shoot. I have resize this photo and adjusted the levels and applied USM. However, the original is here:

Original Gettysburg Ghost Photo

I give you my word that the original photo at the link above (2.5 megs, use caution) is unmolested by me in any way - just as it came out of the camera and was transferred to disk and later to my web account. I have adjusted it not at all.

It was raining lightly when I took this photo, and my camera's internal flash went off. You'd think that you were looking at reflections of raindrops, right? But hmmm, I've taken photos in the rain before, never got this result. Raindrops just don't reflect quite like that - in fact, you seldom see them at all with a digicam.

And there are LOTS of ghost-hunters in Gettysburg - so many people died there under violent circumstances, after all. Even right where I was standing, the battle raged on. Lincoln stood not teen feet from where I took this photo, and stayed at the hotel I was standing at the base of.

And I have seen now lots of photos of these 'orbs' in so-called 'ghost' photos:

http://www.ghostweb.com/orb_theory.html

http://www.unexplainable.net/ghostpictures.html

http://www.hollowhill.com/real-ghost-photos/fake-orbs-downpour.htm

http://www.paranormaltexas.net/ghost_theory.html

Well, I guess maybe my ghost orbs are from rain after all. What a bummer! Man, I was getting tingles.

But it's kinda cool, eh?

Happy Halloween,

Bill Mattocks

I would recommend you go to the the new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art here in NYC which detals the history of photographic "evidence" of the supernatural.

And after all, isn't Halloween just around the corner? 😀