A Visit From Ole Pete

Witness: Robert Janson
Location: Sharpsburg, Virginia
Date of Encounter: 2001

The old Piper Farmhouse is located on the actual site of the Civil War battle of Antietam (this is the original house and is a Bed & Breakfast now).

This house is said to be haunted by the ghost of General Longstreet, CSA, who supposedly used it as his headquarters during the battle. "Ole Pete" is reported to walk the house and usually appears at 1 AM in the morning. Numerous entries in the guest book report seeing and even talking to the General.

My wife and I stayed there one night in the upstairs bedroom that was part of the original building. After we checked in, we were told that no one else would be staying there that night and there would be no staff on hand until the next morning. After retiring that night, we chatted about the possibility of a visit and with that there was a terrible scream outside that went from the front of the house and around to the rear. Our thoughts were that it was a wounded soldier. I looked out a back window but saw nothing, but it was an unsettling start to the night.
Later, after falling into a fitful sleep, I was awakened by the sound of a door slamming hard. The sound came from the downstairs. I happened to glance at the clock on the nightstand and it showed 1:00 AM. The exact time of most all of the sightings! Waiting very expectantly there, both my wife and I heard the creak of the steps coming up to our room, then the rattling of the old fashioned door latch. But nothing after that but silence.

A restless night sleep followed and the next morning we mentioned the episode to the cook who served breakfast. She just shrugged her shoulders and said Pete wanted to talk to someone.

Another strange thing… before we left, I wanted to take some pictures of the outside of the farmhouse. I took one of my wife sitting on the front step, another to the side of the house, and another of the house from a more distant view. One more photo was taken of a large barn on the road looking away from the farmhouse. When I had the pictures developed, the only one that turned out was the one looking away from the house — none of the ones looking at the house came out at all. Just blank.

We have had other experiences during our tours of the Civil War battlefields but none quite like this.