Civil War Haunted House

From: 
Story type: Ghost
Location: 
Source: 

Let me start by saying that due to legal restrictions
(my butt along with several others would be sued) that I
cannot specify exactly where the house is and certain details will have to be hazy. But this is a true story none the less.

Background
This happened 18 years ago, at the time I had just
graduated high school and was working a part time job. My part
time job was working for a friend of mine who was a
student at a nearby university, his major was psychology with a
minor in parapsychology (this pertains to the story). My job
was to work camera's and equipment when the university sent
out crews to investigate supposed haunting's in the
Midwest. I, like all of the crew had tested high on all of their psi tests,
which is why we were chosen. At the time of this incident
we had investigated approx. 60 haunting's over a 3 year period, of which about 10 had legitimate ghosts/specters, etc.

The story behind this house was that during the Civil
War the owners were Union Sympathizers and supposedly helped with the Underground Railroad (although this part is unverified). One night after the war had when
returning from a local function celebrating the northern victory they we attacked by Southern Sympathizers and brutally murdered, the house was burned and the murderers we never caught. Now the following information was passed to us with a request for investigation. After the house was restored, supposedly to this day you could stand outside the house late at night and see a strange glow in the upstairs windows, smell smoke in the house, hear noises, etc.  (None of this was told to the team so as not to compromise the investigation)

We chose to start the afternoon of June 23rd (anniversary of the murders), we arrived around 1 PM and started setting up our equipment. We set up 2 cameras aimed at the front of the house hooked to VCR's, 1 standard and 1 thermal lens.
Same for the back of the house. These cameras would be monitored by crewmen at all times to make sure there were no malfunctions.

The front door opened to a staircase directly across from the door, a parlor on the right and a hallway next to the stairs on the left leading back to the dining room and kitchen and entrance to the cellar, the staircase ascends to all three floors. The second floor contained drawing rooms, studies, library, etc. The third floor contained bedrooms.

Equipment Setup
All camera placements were based on where manifestations
were supposed to have taken place. Two cameras were placed in each location, 1 standard lenses, one thermal lenses. A total of 24 cameras were setup with all
but two hooked to a motion/thermal triggering device. The two cameras that were not hooked to these devices were in the third floor hallway where the crew was to be located and would be running constantly for an accurate time lapse. On
the first floor we had Camera 1/2 aimed at the front door, and Camera 3/4 aimed into the front room covering the entire room. Camera 5/6 was aimed down the stairs from
the landing between floors 1 and 2. Camera 7/8 was aimed from the second floor down to the landing between the first and second floor. Camera's 9/10 and 11/12 were aimed
from the top of the stairs down the second floor hallway. Camera 13/14 was aimed up the stairs to the landing between the second and third floor, Camera 15/16 was aimed from the third floor to the landing. Camera's 17/18 and 19/20 were aimed down the third floor hallway (these were the constant running cameras). Camera 21/22 was in
the master bedroom and Camera 23 and 24 were being carried around and used by two of the crew working in shifts of 30 minutes each. In the third floor hallway we set
up our table, coolers, tapes, spare equipment, etc.  This was to be our command location since it showed generally the lowest activity level.

We completed the setup about 6:30 PM so we decided to get dinner, we left 2 people to monitor the outside cameras and 2 to monitor the inside. Returning about 7:30 we relieved the 4 left behind and they went out for dinner, returning at about 8:30 (before full dark).

The Incident
Everything was going along pretty quiet, we were playing poker in the hall on 3, until about 1 AM. At that time the camera's down on the first floor started running, one of the
guys (We'll call him MJ) went to check it out because earlier we had a mouse cause a camera to run for about 5 minutes while it was eating, MJ was walking down the steps
to the landing between second and first when the camera pointed down to the first floor started running, MJ froze because he could see nothing. All of a sudden he smelled
lavender like someone passed wearing perfume. The camera pointing to the first floor had stopped but the one pointed to the front room was still running. At this point we
all heard the cameras that led upstairs progressively start, (the one pointing to the landing was still running because of MJ). The followed a path all the way up to the third
floor, at which time they came into view of the hall camera. While this was happening none of us were moving, I was sitting on a cooler at the table. About 2-3 seconds
after the stairs camera stopped, I was flipped off of the cooler and on to my back as if someone had run me over. The first floor camera was quiet now and MJ joined us on three. The camera in the Master Bedroom was running now. After about 5 minutes it stopped and then all the lights went dim. We are not sure who reacted first but someone smelled smoke, the type you get when you have a strong fire.  So not taking any chances we got out of the building and called the Fire Department. When they showed up, the lights were back on and when they investigated they found nothing burning. It was then that we found out that the smoke smell was part of the haunting (the Captain told us he
received at least 1 call a month from the staff reporting a fire and they had to check it to make sure it wasn't the real thing). We decided at this point to call it a night, leave the
cameras running and sleep in the van.

The Aftermath
The next day we gathered all of our equipment and went back down to the University to review the tapes of what we assumed was going to be our most embarrassing fiasco,
since we saw nothing during the whole episode. We first reviewed the outside tapes, which came up with nothing until the very end, first you saw us all come barreling out of
the building and then you see the mysterious red glow that was supposed to be in the upper window. The second tape we reviewed was the first floor tape, it showed (other
than our comings and goings) what looked like two people walking in the front wall (we found out later that is where the door used to be, and then they stop and then one
of the figures starts moving around moving an arm like it was dueling (we assume that this was the ghost of the man), the second apparition (will refer to it as her) moved
suddenly off camera after a few moments. After about 5 minutes the apparition disappeared, we assume this is when he was killed. The tapes from the stairs showed her progressing up the stairs (right through MJ at one point, which we guess is why he smelled lavender) to the third floor. Now you could see all of us clearly on both the regular and thermal tape, but the apparitions only showed on the thermals. At three, she
paused for a second, which we guess either she was looking back down or catching her breath, and then she ran down the hall right through me and the cooler knocking us
over. Something we discovered watching the tapes, we assumed that when I fell over that I had knocked over the table, but the table started to flip before I even was moving. 
It was contact with her that caused the table to flip. She then ran into the Master Bedroom. In there she sat stopped, we again are assuming she sat down because her shape change slightly. After a few minutes she got up and moved as if to get out of the room and then he movements because erratic. After viewing the tape several times we reached the conclusion that she was brutalized before she was murdered. Then the lights went dim and a red glow was showing up, in the background you hear us talking about smoke and hear us leaving the building. Both sets of tapes from here out for about the next 5-10 minutes show a fire in the building but none of our stuff is burned by it. Then is stops, then only thing after that is shots of the firemen coming in and inspecting the building, and then us arriving the next day.

Whether you believe it or not, I was there and I believe. And personally, that's enough for me. Thanks for listening and have a nice day.