As I get ready to leave for Gettysburg for the 2012
Horrorfind Convention, I’m reminded of this ghost story. I have to admit out of
all the stories I’ve been told since I started writing paranormal suspense
novels, this is one of the strangest.
Even before I start to relate the tale, I have to disclose
that Brad is a total skeptic, he does not believe in anything supernatural or
paranormal, and this is his story. He tries to explain this event as a mass
hallucination. I even find that hard to believe, but that’s just me.
When Brad was a young boy, as opposed to the young man he
has become, he visited the Gettysburg battle field with his Boy Scout troop. Of
course this included a stop at Devil’s Den. Now that area of the battle field
has its fair share of ghost sightings, but he didn’t see anything unusual at
the rocks.
The troop enjoyed their time exploring the large rocks and
then started to follow a trail that led up to Little Round Top. Brad explained
that when he was a boy more trees had grown up in this area and were later
removed to make the battlefield more authentic to the period of the actual
battle. I seem to remember hearing this myself. At the time his troop followed
this path, it went through some thick trees and came out in a clearing that was
bordered on both sides with split rail fences.
When the troop stepped into the clearing, Brad said it felt
like time had slowed down, and a golden retriever ran out across the clearing.
The dog seemed to move in slow motion. What must have only been a few minutes
felt like it spanned into hours as the dog bolted across the clearing and
entered the forest on the other side. When the dog dove into the brush time
snapped back into place. All the boys and even their adult leaders had
experienced that same slow motion feeling watching the dog.
The path did not continue past the clearing so they returned
to the road and followed another trail up to Little Round Top.
A few weeks later Brad returned to the battle field with his
parents and wanted to show them where he had seen the dog, but they could not
find the path that lead back to the clearing.
Although Brad did some research and discovered Golden
Retrievers were used to carry messages during the Civil War he still dismisses
the event as a mass hallucination.
After hearing this story, I did a little due diligence and
did in fact find references in the form of a quote from http://www.esdaw.eu/dogwork.htm ESDAW European Society of Dog and Animal
Welfare, “[t]he American Pit Bull Terrier was used in the American Civil War to
protect, [and] send messages”.
So it does appear that dogs were used in the battle fields.
I’m not sure what to think about all these ghost animal
stories I’ve been hearing, but maybe I will take a dog biscuit with to
Gettysburg this weekend, just in case.
