Ghost at Shiloh

So, for the past few days, my family and I have been vacationing in Memphis. Both my parents are Civil War buffs. We have quite a few artifacts in the house: over a dozen buttons, two swords, and two guns.

So, my parents wanted to stop at the Shiloh battlefield. They've dragged us to many battlefields on these family vacations, so it was something that I was actually looking forward to. Its a very pretty area of Tennessee. For those of you who don't know about Shiloh and its history, here's a link to the Wikipedia page-> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shiloh

now, I had the Southern Values UH class last year, and we had to read Confederates in the Attic, which was a very good book and I would recommend it to anyone. The author visited Shiloh and a whole chapter is dedicated to it. He talked about rumors of ghosts, so, of course, I was paying extra attention when we visited, but I never actually expected to encounter anything.

We had not been in the park long when we came upon one of the longer lines of Confederate artillery. My father loves cannons, so we stopped the car and got out. My brother ran off down the line. My mother, father, and I stood and read the plaque explaining that the line was originally made of 62 cannons and that they held their position for however many hours and so on, and that the artillery battalion next to us was from Alabama. Now, it had been overcast all day, but the wind either low or completely still. The line of cannons sits at the edge of a wooded section, so there were many leaves on the ground which would stir around with the wind.

However, as we were standing there, the wind died down abruptly and the air was very still. I would love to say that this was when i felt a chill in the air, or something equally as creepy, but I didn't. But, my father and I both turned our heads back towards the woods at the same time. Remember that there was no wind at this time. As I looked back, a few leaves swirled up, as if someone had kicked them, except there was no one there, of course.

"Oh, look," my father said, "There's a Confederate soldier." My mother rolled her eyes, but as he was talking, the a new set of leaves began to swirl as the others dropped, much like they would look if someone had been walking through them. They almost formed a tiny tiny whirlwind, only about 6 inches off the ground. And the whirlwind moved. Toward us. I stepped back, instinctively, but it passed us without pausing. No other leaves were moving, the trees were still, and there was absolutely no wind. The swirling leaves kept going past us for about 20 feet, moving slowly and deliberately, as if marching into battle, my father commented. Then, it paused for a few seconds near a large oak tree and eventually dissipated. All three of us stood and stared at the spot for a few minutes.

My father then quietly remarked that he must have been an Alabamian on his way to battle.

I know that when written, the story doesn't sound like much, but witnessing it was a very surreal experience, and I swear that later, I saw several flags moving through the woods and disappear without emerging onto an old road that was in their path.

It was kind of spooky, but more than that, it was reverent, to actually think of the peaceful field where we were standing as it had been 150 years ago in the middle of one of the bloodier battles of the Civil War.

its the first time that i have experienced something for myself that i have not been able to explain away logically.