My team was in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for our soccer tournament when we decided to go on a ghost tour. At first I didn’t want to go, but when I heard all my friends were going, I decided to give it a try. We were going to tour a house where Jennie Wade lived. She was a young adult, living during Civil War times. The story goes that Jennie was very helpful to injured soldiers and townspeople. One day she was baking bread for the Union soldiers in the house on Baltimore Street and she was struck by a bullet that came through her wall. She died instantly. Jennie was the only civilian killed during the battle at Gettysburg.
Our tour started out in the middle section of the house. There were real bullet holes in the wood where the guns shot. I tried to stay in the middle of the group, because it was really creepy. Our tour guide, who was a retired history teacher, was telling us the history of the house when chains began to swing. No one was touching the chain and it started swinging quicker and quicker. The rocking chair was seen moving too, and nobody was sitting in it! We walked up the steps to see the second floor. The air grew colder than it was before. We once again saw the shaking of the chains. Some of the parents told us that they felt a cat brushing up against their legs… but there wasn’t a cat in the house! Perhaps it was a ghost! My mom and my friend’s dad stayed behind. They both told us that once we left the chains started swinging in circles and swinging violently! Our tour guide had mentioned stories of the haunted house we were in.
One of the stories was about the workers. On a normal day the house needed some work done and the owners called in workers to work on the house, not telling them it was haunted. They were alone and noticed some odd things. They heard people walking around, when they were the only ones in the house. There were chairs moving and chains shaking. In fact, they could not take it any longer and left without finishing the job.
When we got to the other side of the house, our guide was amazed. The pictures on the walls were rearranged from earlier that day and one of them was missing. The chairs were also in a different order than before. Our guide told us that these kinds of things happen in this house.
She took us down to the cellar. This was one of the most frightening things about the tour. She turned off the lights and told us to look around as best as we could. We saw a white ball in the corner of the ceiling and a black shadow moving along the wall. I was so freaked out! My friend took a picture of the ball. He showed it to all of us and it was on his picture phone.
Our guide told us about the orphanage across the street. Kids where beaten and killed there during the Civil War. Their spirits felt sad and some of them went to the house where Jennie Wade was killed, because she was a kind spirit. The kids were known to be seen in the house. They had even named the kids. The kid named Lilly was often seen jumping on the bed. This place is one of the most haunted places in America.
