Civil War Soldiers Never Left Stone House
– October 9, 2012 8:30 am
Editor’s note: This is the second is a series of stories in October that explores some of the more haunted places in and around Virginia’s Potomac Communities.
MANASSAS, Va. – When you hear about the Civil War you’ll often hear about the massive death toll, the carnage and the name of famous sites like Gettysburg, Pa.
But for those living in the Potomac Communities who want a taste of Civil War history, look no further than Manassas Battlefield National Park.
This theatre of war 25 minutes west of Woodbridge was site of the First and Second Battles of Manassas, and between 1861 and 1862 it was a launching point for the careers of several noted Civil War figures including Stonewall Jackson, Sherman and Custer.
And while this may have been the place of career-making battles, it was also the site of the death and wounds of more than 21,000 soldiers.
And according to several visitors and people involved with the Manassas Battlefield – some of these soldiers never left. Many people claim that they’ve seen ghostly spirits walking the grounds, and that they’ve heard sounds that mimic the sounds of gunshots.
“Of the structures themselves, the one that probably has the greatest association with ghost stories is the stone house. That big stone house was here at the time of the First and Second Manassas battles, it was used as a field station and it had all of the horrors associated with medicine in the Civil War era, particularly in the war. It was very ill thought out and ill prepared to handle the types and numbers of wounds that soldiers suffered, so obviously there would have been amputations and worse at this aid station,” said National Park Service supervisor Ed Clark.
In this stone house, on the second floor, there is also a Civil War story that is tied in with the home, as two gravely injured soldiers carved their names into the floorboards. The names are still visible in the floor of the house today.
While the Park Service has not yet been able to find a piece of irrefutable evidence of the ghostly encounters on the Battlefield, there are still several signs that the soldiers of First and Second Manassas have no intention of being forgotten.
“We often joke here at the Battlefield; we call it the ‘Vortex of Manassas’. Anytime something goes wrong, we find it going wrong in an extraordinary fashion and a grand example of that is our 150th anniversary last year. And the four days of our events were the four hottest days on record on the East Coast,” Clark said.
Have you had any experiences or photos that you’ve taken at the Manassas Battlefield? Share them with us!