Fredericksburg GhostQuest Weekend
In January, the Ghosts of Fredericksburg Candlelight Walking Tours and the Richard Johnston Inn sponsored our first GhostQuest weekend in Fredericksburg, VA. We filled the Inn with "thrill seekers" who were treated to talks by Laine Crosby ("Working with a Medium" and "Remote Viewing"), Scott Crownover ("Spirit Photography in the Daylight"), and myself ("Ghosts of Fredericksburg" and "EVP"). Paranormal investigations of the Richard Johnston Inn, Lee's Hill Golf Course, Spotsylvania Court House Jail, and The Chimneys were included, and, as always, some remarkable results and evidence were collected.
The Fredericksburg area was the scene of four major Civil War battles: Fredericksburg, where they fought through the streets in December of 1862; Chancellorsville, in May of 1863, precursor to the Battle of Gettysburg; The Wilderness, scene of the first meeting of Grant and Lee in May of 1864; and Spotsylvania Court House, also in May of 1864, where they fought for 22 hours straight in the pouring rain. In the course of those four battles, some 100,000 men fell. Most of the wounded were brought back to Fredericksburg to be operated upon, suffer, recover, or die. It is no surprise the area is haunted.
The first night in the Richard Johnston Inn, the spirits treated us to booted footsteps, a doll with a nasty attachment, and an EMF meter that continued to register electromagnetic fields even when stationary on a table, meaning the entities were apparently moving to it.
In spite of the frigid temperatures, our group braved the elements for a lunch at Lee's Hill Golf Course and an investigation of the grounds. A preliminary investigation a year before yielded evidence of not only Civil War soldiers (Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and their troops wintered on the grounds after the Battle of Fredericksburg), but French and Indian War entities and Revolutionary War spirits. (Historian's know that Lafayette's troops marched through the area on their way to Yorktown, but we're still working on the F & I connection.) After a visit to some Confederate trenches on the golf course, Laine picked up an entity that she detected through heat. A check with a quick-read thermometer confirmed a rise in temperature in the area she indicated. We were fortunate to have Nancy and Patrick along who both spoke French and asked questions in that language. They were answered in French!
That afternoon we went to the old jail in Spotysvania Court House. Some of the participants were affected by the remnant emotions of a slave child in the room to the right. We knew that the jail had held escaped slaves in the pre-war era, as well as captured Union soldiers during the Battle of Spotsylvania. In the room to the left, one investigator began getting strong EMF readings all along the wall, up to about waist-height, but very little to nothing at all above that. She picked up low readings in the center of the room (again, only waist-high), and nothing by the door. At the window she picked up an EMF reading that moved from one side of the window sill to the other. Our conclusion: captured Union soldiers hustled in during the battle would have sat down and leaned up against the wall; others would have sprawled in the center of the room; none would have been able to lean up against the jail door. We believe we caught the remnant energies of the soldiers incarcerated there en masse. Scott Crownover and I investigated the wiring outside the building and found that it was at least twenty to twenty-five feet above the ground and could not have produced the readings low to the floor inside the building.
That night, we investigated The Chimneys, a building built in the late 1700s and used continually since then for everything from private residences to numerous restaurants. Photographs turned up orbs and some strange, misty substances.
The next morning, residents of the Richard Johnston Inn reported about the strange happenings from the night before. They apparently (and inadvertently) discovered a psychomanteum effect in one of the mirrors upstairs. (Dr. Raymond Moody revived the ancient "mirror-gazing" technique to see and communicated with the dead. He called his mirror-gazing room a "psychomanteum.") Participant Robin Lord, who was witness to the bizarre events, is writing up a description of just what happened. With her permission, we'll publish it in an update.
All in all, it was an exciting and edifying weekend. As in all our weekends, more and more data is being accumulated on the paranormal, this time from a new venue. More about Fredericksburg in a later blog!
