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The Gettysburg Files THE FARNSWORTH HOUSE Day 3 Wednesday April 23, 2003 After we checked out of the Cashtown Inn, we hit a couple of gift shops and then we went to the Jenny Wade House. Since that is the subject of its own article, I won’t mention anything here. After we left there, we went back to the Military Park to find the P. Noel rock. We were successful and we also realized that I probably had sat on it the night before. It had been right under our noses the whole time. We traced our fingers in the inscription by daylight. Hey, you never know, right? However, nothing happened. Her spirit was probably too tired from laughing at us the night before. We still had some time to kill before we could check in at the Farnsworth House so we decided to find the Sachs Bridge by daylight too. We had attempted to find it the previous night also but we were not successful. With me being the co-pilot, we were lucky to have found our way out of the parking lot. After our excursion in the park, we headed to the Farnsworth House. We were driving along when Amy stopped and pulled over to the side of the road. “Wow, I just saw the strangest thing,” she told me. She described seeing a man, dressed in a Civil War type outfit, kneeling by a tree stump. She said that the odd thing was the uniform was khaki, not blue or gray. She also said he was holding a long rifle. I saw nothing myself. Amy got out of the car to take some pictures. I followed her, trusty digital camera in hand. We each took several pictures. I picked up nothing on the digital and we would have to wait for hers. A few minutes later, we were on our way. For the record, when she had her film developed, there was a bright orb right where she saw the man. Unbelievable. She saw the man and captured the orb on film. I had not seen him and did not get anything on the camera. This makes me wonder whether spirits have the ability to pick and choose who sees them. I now believe they do. It also helped me out with another area I was never sure about. I always wondered whether one orb equaled one spirit or whether several orbs could be a single spirit. I now believe in the one orb, one spirit theory. Also, we later found out that some Confederate soldiers did indeed wear khaki uniforms. I consider this significant because if it can be said that she experienced a hallucination, the likelihood is that she would have seen the man wearing Confederate gray, not a color she did not know they wore. We checked into the hotel a short time later. Amy bought a rubber ball as a gift to Jeremy. According the innkeeper, people often left toys for Jeremy. In many cases, those people would find those toys in areas other than where they were left. They also sometimes moved around seemingly on their own right in front of the people as if being played with by unseen hands. We were hoping that Jeremy would play with the ball in front of us. If we were really lucky, that would happen in front of the camcorder. There is always hope. The Sara Black room was every bit as beautiful as had been described to us. It was classic Victorian and featured a canopy bed. The bathroom was huge. It was in that room that Jeremy is said to have died. For that reason, we placed the ball in the middle of it. The trick was for me to navigate around it without actually tripping on, crashing into the beautiful claw footed bathtub and joining Jeremy in the spirit world. If you know me, you know that is no small task. We were pretty tired so we took some time to rest before heading out again. It is hard to really appreciate Gettysburg in just three days. There is so much to see there and we knew we would not be able to see it all. To really appreciate it would take at least a full week and it would be a crammed full week at that. So as much as we wanted to keep moving, we had to rest. We also knew we would have to go back there again. Later on, we grabbed a bite to eat and then set out for the Sachs Bridge. We had found it earlier and knowing that the area closes at dark, we wanted to get there while there was still some daylight. We could then stay until it got dark and leave before we broke any rules. Well, stretched rules anyway. The day had been sunny but windy and cold and the night would be the same way. As we reached the bridge, the wind was howling. We walked around for a short time, just taking in the sights and running the camcorder. I was saddened to see how much graffiti there was on the bridge. This was a piece of history. Soldiers from both sides used this bridge in the days leading up to the battle of Gettysburg. Three Confederate soldiers had been hung there for desertion. It deserved a better fate than to be marked by “who liked what appendage” or how “so and so wanted to have sex with so and so.” The markings were crude and in some cases, out and out filthy. There wasn’t even anything funny, just crude. Apparently some of the youth of Gettysburg have too much time on their hands. They are also not the wittiest of people. They certainly have no appreciation of history. At one point while we were walking, I turned off the camcorder to save the battery. As we walked, I heard what sounded like a man speak in between Amy and me. I glanced at her and heard it again. I asked Amy whether she had said something but she looked at me and informed me that she had not said anything. I then told her what I heard. Unfortunately, I could not make out what had been said. It sounded like two words at the most both times and I could not make it out. Leave it to me to come across a ghost who mumbled, assuming it was a ghost and not an insect or some such thing. Then it dawned on me that I had just shut off the camcorder. Just my luck; I run it for an hour and nothing happens and the second I turn it off, I hear a voice. This could mean two things. For one, there is the same sense of irony in the spirit world that there is in this physical one. The second thing could be that I am schizophrenic and hearing voices. It’s always a possibility, I guess. A short time later, I was looking through the digital at a tree near where I heard the voice. At the base of the tree, there seemed to be a light wavering. I took a picture but it showed nothing. When I looked at it without the camera, I could see nothing unusual. I looked through the digital again and sure enough, there it was again. I called Amy over and gave her the camera. She did not know what to make of it either. When I looked through the camcorder, nothing showed up. Finally, I put the camcorder right up against the digital screen and although the quality was poor on the playback, at least I got it. I walked over to the spot and Amy took some pictures. We then switched places. Anyone who goes through our photos will probably wonder why we have about fifteen shots of the base of a tree. After that, we just hung around waiting for it to get dark. Once it did, some orbs showed up. I got one on the bridge itself and a couple in the woods. Then suddenly, I got the best orb shot I have ever seen. It shows several of them in a bright white and the most amazing thing was that they appeared to have comet tails on them as if they were moving very fast. I had seen some shots like this that others had taken but I have never even come close to getting one myself. Needless to say, I was beyond thrilled. I immediately took another shot and captured several more orbs although none like the ones with the comet tails. The next shot I took showed nothing. I called Amy over and showed her the pictures. She shot a few herself and also got some orbs. I thanked the spirits for their cooperation. I had been getting good shots all week and I was quite thankful but that one shot was spectacular. We walked around for a little while longer and then decided to move on. It was now fully dark and we did not want to violate any rules. Thanks to the trouble caused by teenagers, rules had to be put in place. That screws it up for everybody. Once we were in the car, we decided to make the call to our spouses. We were heading out to the Military Park again and we would be getting back too late to call. Amy called Dave first; then I called Pat. I could not wait to tell her about my prize shot. As I was talking to her, she asked me who was in the car with us. I told her that we were alone and kept raving about the picture. For the second time, she asked me if anyone else was in the car with us. Again I explained that we were alone. She told me that she was hearing several voices in the car. I assumed that we were picking up interference over the cell phone. At that point, she asked us what we were going to do. I told her that we were going back to the Military Park. In the background, she heard a male voice say: “They’re going to see P. Noel. They know where they are going.” When she told me that, I was quite surprised. I was also pleased. It seemed that we had a traveling companion with us. Well, there was plenty of room in the car. Once we reached our destination, we went right to the rock. Once again we traced our fingers in the inscription. Once again, nothing happened. We took some more pictures and captured a few more orbs. Unfortunately, it was getting very cold and the wind was whipping so we cut our visit short. On the way back to the Farnsworth, we stopped and got ourselves some hot coffee to help us defrost. Once we were settled in, we went through all of the pictures. I was still amazed by that one shot. My biggest fear now was that something would happen to it. I could see myself deleting it by accident, or some such thing. After that, we went outside to take some pictures outside the Farnsworth. We both caught a few orbs there as well. After that, we went back inside and sat around for a while hoping to see Jeremy or some evidence of him playing with the toys that were left for him by other guests. However, if he did, he did so after we fell asleep. Getting up for breakfast the next morning was difficult. We were both very tired and more than a little sad that our trip was nearing its end. I did not eat much that morning and it was an effort to load up the car. We were allowed to go up to the attic to look around. We both took some pictures but nothing came out on the digital. It seems to work best outside in the dark. Amy got a couple of good shots up there. After that, we made one last trip to the cemetery. We placed two flags we had bought on two graves. Sadly, we started the trip home. After three and a half wonderful days, our Gettysburg trip was over. There will have to be more. |
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