Our New Home on Chancellorsville Battlefield

Witness: Tammy
Location: Fredericksburg, Virginia
Date of Encounter: August 2012

We were lucky enough to be able to purchase a home that was built on an original part of Chancellorsville Battlefield. We are huge history buffs, so this was a dream come true for us! To celebrate we had a summer BBQ, and a great uncle of ours told us we should relic hunt our property around the base of big trees as Civil War soldiers were known to lean up against them and leave things behind. The next day we did just that and found what turned out to be an old ketchup bottle (maker name on the bottle) and 1/2 of an old milk bottle. We were so excited! We washed them up and brought them inside.

Research showed mothers at that time would pack their war-bound sons ketchup as it was thought to help keep them healthy and prevent disease. But…

…the next day as I was down stairs and I distinctly heard very heavy footsteps up stairs go down our long hallway from one end of the house to the other. I brushed that off… until about two nights later when I awakened to what felt like I was being choked. I tried the best I could to get out the words “help.” It was enough to wake up my husband who said, “Honey wake up – you’re dreaming.” At that instant the choking stopped and I gasped, “No, I’m not dreaming!” My husband thought I was crazy, as he does not believe in ghost, but that weekend he learned his lesson!

I came home late from work one evening and fell asleep on the couch. The next morning he came down stairs and asked me, “Did you get in the bed last night?” After I told him no, he called me a liar. He said, “You got in bed last night and rubbed my back.” I was insistent and said “No I didn’t.” He turned white as a ghost. We returned the bottles back to the ground and haven’t had a problem since.