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Unexplained Cases | Haunted Battlefield Farmhouse

Written by: Darren Dedo
Case Filed: 05/13/19 - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Executive Producer: Rick Garner




Gettysburg: a sleepy Pennsylvania town with a violent past. The town and its surrounding areas were the sight of the bloodiest battle in the Civil War between Northern and Southern troops. Now, it is supercharged with paranormal activity.
After hearing stories of the paranormal in Gettysburg over the past 20 years, the Unexplained Cases team packed up our gear and headed for Pennsylvania. We teamed up with the Gettysburg Paranormal Association / Gettysburg Ghost Tours to investigate near Culp’s Hill. Dan Kulick explains why this location is historical and haunted.

“We call this the Battlefield Farmhouse. It was built right along-side Culp’s Hill over here on my left-hand side. Culp’s Hill was one of the bloodiest battles during the during July 1-3, 1863, due to the fact it saw battle three straight days, day and night. Those guys couldn’t even see their hands in front of their face and all of a sudden they are fighting over here on the hillside and someone kept shooting at them so they kept shooting back.”

Historians say the battle for Culp’s Hill was important because Union soldiers had to dig in and fight to protect their main supply line from Confederate Forces. The battle was intense and bloody. Both sides suffering mass casualties.

“The house was used as a field hospital for the Union during that time. They are bringing the guys back off the field over here to the house. Stacking arms and legs behind the house like cordwood. Not out of disrespect, but out of haste to try and save as many lives as possible.”

We chose to investigate inside and out of the farmhouse. With only a fence separating us from the battlefield, we took our night-shot cameras to see what we could see. Immediately, we experienced an unusual sound. It sounded like someone brushing their fingers against the iron fence. However, with a tree several yards away having its branches touching the fence, that sound could've been created by the wind moving the branch. More notably, I had a fully charged battery when Rick and I began filming but within a couple minutes of being outside that battery was almost drained. Was a spirit from the battle of Culp’s Hill reaching out to us? Unfortunately, the evidence was inconclusive. So, inside we went to find out who or what is haunting the Battlefield Farmhouse. We got some help from amateur ghost hunters Brian and Jen Miller.

Early on in the investigation during an Ovilus session we connected with a possible Civil War spirit. The device uses a word bank that spirits can use to communicate with the living.

Several times, the device said "Walter." When asked, no words were given that verified we were speaking with Walter. However, when the device said "highway" several times over a span of several minutes, Dan asked if the spirit could say the word highway again. "No."


Everyone chuckled as not only was that a direct response but it's rare to receive "yes" and "no" answers. "That's the first time I've hard it say 'no'!"

We also caught on video a strange light anomaly around the time we had been supposedly chatting with Walter. We compared it to dust we captured on video and determined this object was not the same. So, could Walter have been a Civil War soldier who was killed on Culp’s Hill or died here in what was the Union Field Hospital? It's certainly possible. To look for more paranormal evidence we went upstairs to a spooky and creepy part of the home.

In the middle of the floor were bouncing balls and baby dolls.

“We had a bunch of young ladies up here during an investigation with us," recalls Dan. "They would actually take the ball and roll it into the center of the circle and say can you send it to Jenny? The ball would go to the center of the circle and then roll over to Jenny. Then, they would send it back into the center and would say can you roll it over to Sara? It would actually roll to the person.”

So, we used those dolls and ball as trigger objects to get the children who supposedly haunt this part of the farmhouse to come out and show themselves. Apparently, they didn’t want to play. But, according to Dan, the other spirits who haunt the home can get a little touchy feely.

“Couple different things that happened to me in this house. Standing in the back-hallway downstairs, I was walking up this direction and something tapped me on my shoulder. I turned around and said, 'Do you guys have any questions?' There was no one there. But I was definitely tapped on the shoulder.”

Unfortunately, Dan’s buddy decided to NOT reach out and touch someone on this evening. But all hope was not lost. We still had many parts of the downstairs that needed to be investigated. If we couldn’t see them we hoped to hear from them instead during an EVP session. The goal was to capture an Electronic Voice Phenomenon, essentially a disembodied voice using our digital audio recorder

I asked several questions such as if they were in the Civil War, did they fight for the north or south, and if Walter was still in the house?

Sadly, Walter or whomever it was didn’t say a peep. In fact, upon reviewing the evidence ,dead quiet. However, our ghost hunting crew was pretty happy with the results.

Jen Miller said, “I thought it was really great! We got some good stuff when we first go in here. It got quiet after that. He got a few spikes on the meter you had. Brian Miller continued the story, "It went up to the same temperature. It’s kind of cold in here. Spike of 3.1 at one point it was 5.7 upstairs. We were hearing Walter, Mike, we were hearing highway at one point we asked him how old he was and he said he was 40.”

Many lives were lost in the Fight For Culp’s Hill. It was a turning point for Union Forces in the battle of Gettysburg – a sounding defeat for the confederacy. Now, nearly 160 years later, some of the spirits of the men who lost their lives in this area remain in this farmhouse – contacting with the living – letting them know they haven’t left Gettysburg yet.

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