A Haunting at Gettysburg

According to Haunted America Tours.com, Gettysburg is the most haunted battlefield in America.

At the Bloody Angle on Cemetery Ridge among many monuments erected in memory of various regiments and their exploits of heroism on the Gettysburg field of battle, there stands, on the spot a small stone marker dedicated to 22-year-old Lt. Alonzo Cushing, commander of Battery A, 4th US Artillery.

Cushing was one of the defenders at The Angle on the third day of battle, during Pickett's Charge. It is this humble marker which is the centerpiece for the following account of my own Gettysburg ghost story.

Quite a few years ago now, my sister Lora and I paid a visit to Gettysburg. We were at the "Bloody Angle"--not too far from the point where the 7th Michigan fought near the Copse of Trees that marks the approximate center of the Union position on the third day of battle, at Pickett's Charge.

At dusk, I was waiting near our car, parked on Hancock Avenue, for my sister. She was some distance away, reading another monument. It was nearly dark, and we were among the last visitors to leave the area. I was perhaps 100 feet or so to the right (north of) and behind the Copse of Trees. As I stood looking west, out beyond the stone wall, across the field toward the Emmittsburg Road and the Confederate advance, I noticed that a small square stone about 15 feet to my left had taken on a peculiar, faint reddish glow. Although it was still light enough to recognize objects, night was fast falling, and I glanced around, expecting to see that the direct beam of someone's vehicle headlights, or the flashlight of a walker, perhaps, was causing the illumination.

However, there were only one or two other cars still parked along Hancock Avenue, and all were dark. I looked behind me, toward Taneytown Road, which was as far away in the opposite direction as was Emmittsburg Pike, thinking the light from some car passing there could be the cause, although this was unlikely. But I could see no lights--not even moonlight-- in any direction that could have been shining or reflecting on the little stone, causing its strange appearance. As I watched, the red glow, which seemed to come from within the stone itself, as if it were being superheated like metal in a blacksmith's forge, became stronger, and fully visible in the deep gloom of the approaching night. In astonishment, I stared at the stone, for how long, I'm not sure, but I'm guessing it was maybe fifteen of twenty seconds, at which point, the glow began to slowly subside, and then passed away entirely, leaving the marker as it had been, cold, dark and gray. It was not until later, when talking to one of the locals, that I learned the story of Lt. Cushing

Please learn more details to Lt. Cushing's service in this battle here: sources:

https://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alonzo_Cushing