More Ghosts of Gettysburg: Spirits, Apparitions and Haunted Places of the Battlefield

Since my first trip to Gettysburg I have always been drawn back to that hallowed ground. There is indeed a spirit about the place and whether it is ghostly spirits, awe born of the sacrifices made there or a combination of the two, Gettysburg is a mystical place. Mark Nesbitt is a former Park Service employee who was stationed at Gettysburg and had several odd experiences during his tenure. His experiences, along with those of his fellow Park employees convinced the Ohio native that Gettysburg was a very haunted place. With that in mind, Nesbitt started to collect ghost stories and his collection soon led to this book and it's predecessor. There seems to be no lack of material to be found in this place where so many died such horrible deaths in July of 1863. Mr. Nesbitt does an excellent job of providing his readers with eyewitness accounts, the single most important facet of a book like this. All of the accounts given are backed up by at least one other person's experiences and all of the accounts are of a recent nature. He also hits a good balance between exploring the history and possible origin of the haunt and telling the story of the people who have recently experienced the ghost. There are no stories found in this book that contain pages of history and then one little paragraph about the ghost, which is a flaw found in so many books of this type. This is a pitfall that I'm sure that Mr. Nesbitt had to work hard to avoid because it would have been very easy for him to ramble on about the battle itself for pages and pages. I say this because the author appears to be a student of the battle who definitely knows his stuff. There are unfortunately a few negative aspects that I found in this book but they weren't all that distracting. For one thing, Mr. Nesbitt tends to wander off all too often into the realm of philosophy, which is somewhat understandable in a book like this. Nesbitt however gets carried away on occasion and just about looses his focus. He also gets a little wordy at times and it seems as if he may be trying to impress academic types with his big words and flowery sentences. If this is the case he comes off as trying just a little too hard. For the most part though the stories found in this book are excellent and have been chosen wisely. I must admit that I am a little skeptical about his psychic friend's trip to the Triangular Field and I think that Nesbitt was reaching a little when he connected the psychic's back pain to General Reynolds' mortal wound. This was about the only chapter though that I could find any fault with and I particularly enjoyed the story about the picture of General Stuart that kept being mysteriously smashed in the Carlisle Barracks. A father-in-law never forgets!

All of these ghostly tales are little gems, and they're great for retelling. You'll find yourself not only immersed in ghosts but a little American history to boot. My hat's off to Mark Nesbitt. Well done!

Former Park Ranger Mark Nesbitt has over the years gathered many ghost stories from other park rangers, visitors and people who live in the area. Nesbitt tries to gather factual data on the stories he receives so he can offer a background as to why these ghost stories may have evolved. His stories are usually quite interesting and do not just talk about battlefield soldiers, civilians alike are also involved in famous ghost stories in Gettysburg! Buy all 5 books, there worth it! Each has many short stories that are easy and fun to read.

Very good ghost stories of the spirits that reportedly haunt the battlefields of Gettysburg. I couldn't put it down! His other volumes in the same series are equally good! Very well told stories.

All four books that Mark has written about the Ghosts of Gettysburg are wonderful. I love his writing style. Every time I walk through the streets of Gettysburg on a cool evening, I catch myself looking back over my shoulder at houses that I have passed...Is there a face in that window?