How Haunted is Gettysburg?

There is an entire section of the tourism industry dedicated to luring in visitors with its haunted history. Ghost hunters and fans of the paranormal love the idea of possibly capturing photos or video of some unexplained presence or seeing or hearing it with their own two eyes.

The United States has a ton of haunted attractions. A lot of those haunted getaways center around our war history. Areas where blood was shed, often by brutal methods or on a massive scale, are tied into the idea that spiritual presences are left behind – which makes total sense. One such place is Gettysburg, PA.

I visited Gettysburg some years ago. And while I knew that ghost tours were offered there, I didn’t expect them to play up the paranormal angle quite as much as they did. So, how haunted did I find Gettysburg? Read on to find out!

Outdoor attractions at Gettysburg

I visited Gettysburg on a warm and sunny July day, staying overnight in order to take advantage of one of the nightly ghost tours that they offer. The town is one giant tourist attraction with hotels, parking lots, and maps to each of the museums, battlefields, cemeteries, and other attractions. It feels very touristy, like a reconstruction of a place from the past rather than a place where people actually live, work, and play.

The first area I visited was the site of Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. This is really just a series of metal plaques along the roadside. From there, I ventured into the National Soldier Cemetery. The cemetery is full of old gravestones, the tall, flat kind that you see in drawings and old cartoons. Again, on a bright, sunny day, there’s nothing eerie about the cemetery. It’s just your average graveyard with monuments to war heroes dotted throughout.

The main attraction is the battlefield where the actual fighting took place. I remember an old history teacher showing us the bullets that he found while walking the battlefield during his visit years ago.

I didn’t venture too far into the battlefield, but the landscape is very unassuming. It’s just a hilly field with trees dotted throughout. Any signs of a deadly battle are long gone aside from some old canons positioned along the edges of the field. I figured the creepiness would appear once the sun went down.

The Jennie Wade House

That afternoon, I booked a tour at the Jennie Wade house, a museum that’s dedicated to the only civilian casualty of the war. There, a guide dressed in period clothing escorts the group throughout the rooms of the house.

Jennie Wade was killed instantly when a stray bullet from the battle came through the door and struck her in the heart as she was baking bread for the Union soldiers. Her sudden death makes it plausible that Jennie could have stayed behind to haunt the home long after the Civil War ended, her life having ended as soon as it began. She also left behind a fiancé who died shortly after Jennie and likely didn’t even learn of her death before he encountered his own.

The home is very old with creaky floorboards, narrow steps, and old furniture preserved in as accurate a state as it would have been when Jennie lived there with her family. The tour is more historical than paranormal, though the guide did share a few stories to put the group on edge.

In one room, there is a hole worn in the door. Legend has it that single women known to stick their finger through the door have received a marriage proposal within one year. Well, nine years after placing my finger through the hole, I’m still single. So, I’d like to see the statistics on this legend.

There are many artifacts preserved and kept in a cabinet in the home. One artifact is a piece of blood-stained wood that was stained by Jennie’s blood when she was shot. It was unsettling to see that a piece of wood could remain bloodstained decades later, and it plays into this belief that Jennie may have left a piece of herself behind.

The creepiest room in the house, as it is in every house, is the basement. Jennie’s basement is a rock wall cellar with a dirt floor and a creepy mural on the wall. This is where they really play up the paranormal activity and warn the group that they may feel a tug on their clothes while sitting there and listening to the guide’s spiel. Unfortunately, the only thing I felt was a cool draft which was a welcome relief from the summer heat.

Devil’s Den

Just before dinner, I traveled to the outskirts of the town to Devil’s Den, a large rock formation where the second day of fighting took place. The rocks are easy to climb, and, while sturdy, the view from the top is dizzying.

Devil’s Den gets its name from a large snake that used to occupy the area. I remember reading signs in the area that explain that the Confederate soldiers were bitten by snakes when they camped out on and under the rocks.

The location already had the reputation of being haunted before the battle. It is the site of a battle among Indigenous American tribes long before the Civil War. But because it was broad daylight and dozens of people were touring the area at the time, I, sadly didn’t see or sense anything paranormal from any spirits of the past.

Downtown Gettysburg

Touring the town and old buildings gives you the historical, time travel feel that it advertises. But the crowds and the merchandising also take away from that ambience a bit. Not that I found Gettysburg to be super crowded like an amusement park or large city, but it distracts from the mood needed to see and experience anything supernatural.

A lot of the souvenirs in the shops sport the tagline “Haunted Gettysburg.” You’ll find ghosts stationed outside of restaurants or painted on the ground. It’s cute but also a bit in your face, like entering a haunted house attraction. It brings the excitement but not the authenticity that this logo is trying to relay.

The ghost tour

There are multiple ghost tours in Gettysburg. Some are kid friendly. Some are for adults only. The one I went on was an actual ghost “hunt” where the group is given tools to use during the tour. We were provided with a handful of meters and stones and radios that were meant to detect sounds or presences or even allow the spirits to announce themselves to the group.

At the start of our tour, we traipsed away from the busy town and into the back roads and woods along the battlefield. Our guide was very enthusiastic but also played up the activity in order to give us a good show rather than just telling us true historical facts about the area or allowing any activity to appear on its own.

At one point in the woods, the guide scrolled through the stations on a radio, telling us that the ghosts might speak to us through the radio waves. If we overheard a random word or phrase, it might be a ghost trying to communicate. He even mentioned having communicated with the spirit of a little girl at that spot in the past.

At one point, we thought we heard a little girl’s voice greet us with a “hi.” The guide proceeded to talk to her and then keep scrolling through the radio. But what would the ghost of a little girl be doing out in the woods along the road in Gettysburg?

I took several photos while in the area and caught a few orbs in the dark with my now obsolete digital camera. But disappointingly, it wasn’t the paranormal experience I’d hoped to get. We were more distracted by the tools than really taking in the scenery and atmosphere.

Being in a group of 20 or so also downplayed the spookiness of the situation. And the guide admitted that he was taking us to areas that were off limits at night, and his paranoia caused him to round us up like cattle every time we stepped too far off the path.

Is Gettysburg Haunted?

In the end, I left Gettysburg with zero paranormal experiences. No self-respecting ghost would haunt such a busy town or these ancient buildings, no matter how old or creepy they look. The area is well preserved and heavily trafficked. So, it gives the place a historical feel rather than a haunted one.

If they downplayed trying to convince us that we were having a paranormal experience or that we were in a haunted town, maybe the town would live up to its haunted reputation. But a good ghost story needs privacy and for the person being spooked to be caught off guard, not armed like a Ghostbuster and seeking out spirits. So, I feel like the soldiers, the Indigenous Americans, and Jennie Wade are all resting peacefully in the fields, the cemetery, and their homes.

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