Does a Woman Soldier Haunt a National Cemetery?

Women soldiers went to extreme measures to blend in while in the ranks, their true identity hidden.  However, there may be one female fighter who is finally trying to make herself visible, an act she so desperately tried to avoid 150 years ago.


According to Tally Johnson in his book, Civil War Ghosts of South Carolina (p. 40-41), he has personally observed a "small ball of greenish-yellow light" hovering above the headstone of Florena Budwin, grave number D-2480 in Florence National Cemetery.  You can read more about her by clicking HERE.  I go into more detail about her in my book, Behind the Rifle.

Mark and I did not experience anything out of the ordinary when we visited Florence National Cemetery, but we have been to quite a few other Civil War sites where we got some eerie photographs.

This first one was taken in Gettysburg in June 2013, when Mark and I were there for the 150th anniversary reenactment (BGA).  Before the event, we did some touring which ended up taking us into the night.  The park was just about to close when we were driving on South Confederate Avenue approaching the Round Tops, and we were trying to get out before we ran into a ranger.  Mark decided to slow down, stick his arm out of the window, and snap a few pictures.  They all turned out "normal" except for one. 

This one was taken at Stones River National Cemetery in February 2014.   It was cold, rainy, gray, and nearly dusk when Mark snapped the picture.  And while it didn't turn out too clearly, you can see a figure, which I circled.

We didn't see anything when we were there, and we actually made another trip back just to see if we could have mistaken it for a monument, or whether an optical illusion was the cause.   There are no monuments in that area, and we tried to recreate the image to no avail.   The conditions were different, and we didn't get the angle quite right, but it's fairly close.  It may be an optical illusion from the break in the bushes/trees, but we couldn't see it when we went back.  Plus, you can clearly see the figure is in front of the tree trunk or overlapping it.

One more....  This one was taken in March 2011, inside Beauvoir, Jefferson Davis' post-war home,  on the beach in Biloxi, Mississippi.

I have no idea what the pictures show.  The anomalies may be explained by technological glitches or some other phenomena.  They're still pretty interesting nevertheless!

Until next formation.....rest.