1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, 2 00:00:06,080 --> 00:00:10,119 Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vobam. Here in the summer of 3 00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:13,080 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three, more than a hundred and sixty five 4 00:00:13,119 --> 00:00:17,200 Speaker 1: thousand Union and Confederate troops amassed in the rolling farmland 5 00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:21,279 Speaker 1: around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle that took 6 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:24,760 Speaker 1: place over three blood soaked days, would claim more than 7 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:29,760 Speaker 1: seven thousand lives and tally an astounding one hundred and 8 00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:36,080 Speaker 1: twelve casualties, including the dead, wounded, and missing. Although more 9 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:38,360 Speaker 1: than a hundred and fifty years have passed since that 10 00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:41,280 Speaker 1: epic battle, the bloodiest of the Civil War and a 11 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:44,800 Speaker 1: key turning point for the Union cause, the emotional imprint 12 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:48,559 Speaker 1: of so much death, suffering, and mourning is hard to erase. 13 00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:52,519 Speaker 1: Some believe that the painful memories seared into the soil 14 00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:55,440 Speaker 1: and streets of Gettysburg have made it the most haunted 15 00:00:55,480 --> 00:01:00,720 Speaker 1: town in America. One particular battle field site is legendary 16 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:05,240 Speaker 1: with ghost hunters and paranormal investigators. Known as the Devil's Den. 17 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:09,520 Speaker 1: This boulder strewn maze, located between the rocky hills known 18 00:01:09,560 --> 00:01:12,800 Speaker 1: as Little Roundtop and Big Roundtop, was a site of 19 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:16,120 Speaker 1: fierce fighting and heavy casualties and is rumored to be 20 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:20,759 Speaker 1: home to several restless Confederate spirits, one of whom hates cameras. 21 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:25,560 Speaker 1: The name Devil's Den predates the Civil War, though the 22 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:29,440 Speaker 1: origin is uncertain. As still it's not hard to imagine 23 00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:33,960 Speaker 1: why the spooky moniker stuck before the article. This episode 24 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 1: is based on How's to Work. Spoke with Mark Nesbitt, 25 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:39,039 Speaker 1: who worked as a park ranger in the Gettysburg National 26 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:42,319 Speaker 1: Military Park before starting a second career as a paranormal 27 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:47,440 Speaker 1: investigator and owner of Ghosts of Gettysburg Tours. Nesbitt says 28 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:49,600 Speaker 1: that he used to get the Willie's when he had 29 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:53,240 Speaker 1: to do security checks on the otherworldly landscape after dark. 30 00:01:54,320 --> 00:01:57,680 Speaker 1: He said, the Devil's Den looks like some giant just 31 00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:00,760 Speaker 1: dropped these huge boulders the size of how is down 32 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:04,400 Speaker 1: onto this one spot on the battlefield. On a sunny day, 33 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:07,320 Speaker 1: it's not too bad. On a cloudy day, it's kind 34 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:12,720 Speaker 1: of ominous. At night, it's just ridiculous. The fighting at 35 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:17,360 Speaker 1: Devil's Den was intense and dictated by the unusual topography. 36 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:20,440 Speaker 1: On the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg five thousand, 37 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:23,320 Speaker 1: five hundred Confederate troops attacked the left flank of the 38 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:26,640 Speaker 1: Union position on Little round Top, and to get there 39 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:30,040 Speaker 1: they first had to take Devil's Den, where the maze 40 00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:33,600 Speaker 1: of boulders, many some twenty feet or six meters tall, 41 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:38,080 Speaker 1: made it nearly impossible to see the enemy, and Nesbit 42 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:40,760 Speaker 1: said it would have been scary. You turn a corner 43 00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:44,680 Speaker 1: and there's somebody with a bayonet. The turning point of 44 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:47,679 Speaker 1: the battle for Devil's Den came with a siege from 45 00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:51,239 Speaker 1: the Confederate First Texas Regiment under the command of Major 46 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:55,640 Speaker 1: General John bell Hood. The famously rag tag group of 47 00:02:55,639 --> 00:02:59,400 Speaker 1: soldiers faced heavy casualties. Hood himself was shot in the arm, 48 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:03,440 Speaker 1: managed to silence three of the Union's four heavy artillery 49 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:07,040 Speaker 1: guns and flush the remaining Union soldiers from Devil's Den. 50 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 1: Once in position, the First Texas installed sharpshooters between the 51 00:03:12,040 --> 00:03:17,600 Speaker 1: boulders to pick off Union officers on Little Roundtop. Casualties 52 00:03:17,639 --> 00:03:20,040 Speaker 1: from the fighting at Devil's Den totaled more than one 53 00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:23,080 Speaker 1: eight hundred for the Confederates and more than eight hundred 54 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:27,160 Speaker 1: for the Union. One swampy section of open land between 55 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:30,400 Speaker 1: the boulders and Little Roundtop earned the name the slaughter 56 00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:33,680 Speaker 1: Pen for how many soldiers from both sides were gunned 57 00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:38,760 Speaker 1: down in crossfire. The battle for Devil's Den is considered 58 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:42,320 Speaker 1: a Confederate victory, although the South would ultimately lose the 59 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:45,520 Speaker 1: larger Battle of Gettysburg the next day after the failure 60 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:48,800 Speaker 1: of the infamous full frontal assault known as Pickett's Charge. 61 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:54,240 Speaker 1: Gettysburg is full of ghost stories. Half of the town's 62 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:57,640 Speaker 1: original four hundred buildings are still in use, including many 63 00:03:57,720 --> 00:04:01,120 Speaker 1: that doubled as makeshift morgues and hospitals for the tens 64 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:03,920 Speaker 1: of thousands of war dead and wounded who flooded the 65 00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:07,320 Speaker 1: town in the days after the battle. According to residents 66 00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:10,960 Speaker 1: and visitors, many of these troubled souls have hung around 67 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:15,560 Speaker 1: a Nesbit has chronicled hundreds of paranormal tales in his 68 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 1: multi volume Ghosts of Gettysburg book series, including several unexplained 69 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:24,560 Speaker 1: encounters that occurred at Devil's Den. One young woman was 70 00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:27,320 Speaker 1: climbing around the boulders with a friend when she felt 71 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:30,440 Speaker 1: a hand to grab her by the ankle. Reaching up 72 00:04:30,480 --> 00:04:33,400 Speaker 1: from a darkened fissure below was a young man in 73 00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:36,719 Speaker 1: a Civil War uniform. She screamed for her friend, but 74 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:40,760 Speaker 1: when she looked back down the man was gone, and 75 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:43,640 Speaker 1: more than one visitor to the Devil's Den has claimed 76 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:46,359 Speaker 1: to meet a mysterious figure known to some as the 77 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:50,839 Speaker 1: Helpful Hippie. According to Nesbitt, years ago, a woman told 78 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:53,200 Speaker 1: him and his fellow park rangers that she had gotten 79 00:04:53,240 --> 00:04:55,920 Speaker 1: turned around during an early morning visit to the Rocks 80 00:04:56,240 --> 00:04:58,919 Speaker 1: when a man appeared behind her, seemingly out of nowhere 81 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:02,159 Speaker 1: and pointed off the distance, saying, what you're looking for 82 00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:08,400 Speaker 1: is over there, and then he vanished. When Nesbitt's coworkers 83 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:11,480 Speaker 1: asked what the man looked like, she described a disheveled 84 00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:14,960 Speaker 1: figure in a floppy hat, shoulder length hair, bare feet, 85 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:19,080 Speaker 1: and ragged clothing, and Nesbitt said, us park rangers are 86 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:22,440 Speaker 1: sitting there going, I can't believe she's describing exactly what 87 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:25,280 Speaker 1: a Texan looked like at the Battle of Gettysburg, and 88 00:05:25,320 --> 00:05:29,159 Speaker 1: she wouldn't have known that as a tourist. Another woman 89 00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:31,520 Speaker 1: approached Nesbit at a book signing and said that she 90 00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:35,640 Speaker 1: had had a similar experience. Twenty years later, while exploring 91 00:05:35,640 --> 00:05:38,320 Speaker 1: the Devil's Then alone, a raggedy man in a floppy 92 00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:41,560 Speaker 1: hat suddenly appeared and pointed to her. University of Texas 93 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:46,000 Speaker 1: sweatshirt first, Texas, he exclaimed, before disappearing as quickly as 94 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:50,919 Speaker 1: he came. Other visitors to Devil's Den and nearby battlefield 95 00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:55,039 Speaker 1: sites have complained that their camera and phone batteries inexplicably 96 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:58,000 Speaker 1: fail when in the area, only to start working again 97 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:02,080 Speaker 1: when they leave. Nesba has a theory for the technical glitch, 98 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:05,919 Speaker 1: which he himself has experienced more than once. The culprit 99 00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:09,080 Speaker 1: Nesbitt believes is a famous photo taken at Devil's Den 100 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:13,160 Speaker 1: of a fallen Confederate soldier lying beside his sharpshooter position. 101 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:17,280 Speaker 1: The well known image, it was later discovered, was staged 102 00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:21,200 Speaker 1: with a real corpse. Historians found a numbered sequence of 103 00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:24,560 Speaker 1: images featuring the same dead soldier in a different location. 104 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:29,280 Speaker 1: Some enterprising Civil War photographer saw a photo op and 105 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:32,360 Speaker 1: dragged this poor kid forty yards or about thirty six 106 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:37,120 Speaker 1: meters to pose as a sharpshooter, and Nesbitt said, if 107 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:40,279 Speaker 1: there's a disgruntled spirit in Devil's Den that has animus 108 00:06:40,279 --> 00:06:45,680 Speaker 1: towards photographers, it certainly would be this guy. For its part, 109 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:50,080 Speaker 1: the American Battlefield Trust, which preserves historic Civil War battle sites, 110 00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:54,400 Speaker 1: gives little credence to Gettysburg ghost stories. It claims that 111 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:57,400 Speaker 1: these ghost stories only started circulating in the nineteen nineties 112 00:06:57,520 --> 00:06:59,920 Speaker 1: when folks realized they could make money off of ghost 113 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:04,279 Speaker 1: tours and books. In an article on their website debunking 114 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:08,919 Speaker 1: myths and misconceptions surrounding Gettysburg, the American Battlefield Trust wrote 115 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:11,920 Speaker 1: by all means believe what you want to believe, but 116 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:14,880 Speaker 1: please know that if water gets on a camera lens, 117 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:18,760 Speaker 1: it's water, not a ghostly orb. If sun shines into 118 00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:22,600 Speaker 1: a camera lens, it's called sunlight, not an energy sphere. 119 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:30,280 Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article the Ghosts of 120 00:07:30,280 --> 00:07:33,400 Speaker 1: Gettysburg's Devil's Den on how st works dot com, written 121 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:35,840 Speaker 1: by Dave Brous. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart 122 00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:37,960 Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot com, and 123 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:40,920 Speaker 1: it's produced by Tyler Klein. For more podcasts from my 124 00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:44,000 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or 125 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:45,600 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite show.