May 13, 2005
A Visit From Ole Pete
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Robert Janson, Sharpsburg, Virginia, 2001,
info@ghostvillage.com
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.
