Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: And Welcome back to Coast to Coast George Noriy with
Speaker 2: Courtey mcinvale. As we talk about her work Civil War
Speaker 2: Ghosts of Georgia Volumes One and two. What brought you
Speaker 2: to studying the Civil War specifically, Courtney?
Speaker 3: So it was always an interest of mine, and my
Speaker 3: father was an avid Civil War sort of you know,
Speaker 3: I guess historian himself in history major, and when I
Speaker 3: was young he had me memorize all the Southern generals
Speaker 3: by the time I was age five by photograph alone.
Speaker 3: So I was always fascinated in Civil War history. And
Speaker 3: as I sort of researched the Revolutionary War in one
Speaker 3: of my earlier books, I just kept coming back to
Speaker 3: the Civil War. It was a four year period where
Speaker 3: six hundred and forty thousand casualties took place, over ten
Speaker 3: thousand battles, nearly three thousand soldiers. There was just too
Speaker 3: much there to look away from.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the tragedy with well over six hundred thousand as
Speaker 2: your men fatalities, it was just horrible, and I would
Speaker 2: guess with those amount of deaths, there's got to be
Speaker 2: a lot of different places of hauntings all over the place.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, you know, these battlefields, of course, are one of
Speaker 3: the places that I gravitate to the most. That's where
Speaker 3: all this energy resides from where they met their end,
Speaker 3: but also where they were colliding with each other in
Speaker 3: this tension, in this hand to hand combat, and a
Speaker 3: lot of spirit activity seems to remain there.
Speaker 2: Now with these hauntings, do you think these spirits don't
Speaker 2: know that they've passed on.
Speaker 3: It depends to be honest. You know, I'm the battlefield,
Speaker 3: I think more than any other place I've ever investigated,
Speaker 3: you can encounter those types of spirits who don't know
Speaker 3: they've moved on. And usually you can tell that if
Speaker 3: you're going out to gather evidence and you get voices
Speaker 3: or EVP recordings and you hear someone saying hell or
Speaker 3: I'm hurt or something like that. It's almost as if
Speaker 3: they see you, but they think you're part of their time,
Speaker 3: which makes me think that they don't know they're dead.
Speaker 3: But more often than not, I think a lot of
Speaker 3: the haunting activity is also residual that we're still hearing
Speaker 3: sounds from that time. We're hearing the cannon fire the gunfire,
Speaker 3: maybe their battle cries, but it's not necessarily an active haunting,
Speaker 3: you know, where a ghost of saying hello, help me.
Speaker 3: It's more the energy is staying there. I think both
Speaker 3: happen on the battlefield a lot.
Speaker 2: Would you say, though, that these war sites are more
Speaker 2: haunted than other sites.
Speaker 3: I would because of the way energy works. When you
Speaker 3: have tens of thousands of folks who are in a
Speaker 3: life or death situation and are dying here on these
Speaker 3: battlefields or in the you know, surrounding houses that we're
Speaker 3: serving as hospitals, that energy has to go somewhere, and
Speaker 3: oftentimes it's going to go right into the landscape that
Speaker 3: it's taking place in.
Speaker 2: It is truly remarkable.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, it's fascinating. And you know, you can talk
Speaker 3: to lots of folks who are just visitors tourists to
Speaker 3: these places, a lot of them being national parks and
Speaker 3: state parks, and they'll even say, even if they aren't
Speaker 3: really paranormal enthusiasts or there for those sorts of reasons,
Speaker 3: they'll say that they can feel it when they go
Speaker 3: through there. They feel a reverence, they feel something somber,
Speaker 3: they feel an anxiety. The energy changes when you drive
Speaker 3: or walk through these places even today for everyone.
Speaker 2: Have there been historical stories cordinly of hauntings or strange
Speaker 2: things happening around Civil War sites?
Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh. Yes. And the stories started happening with
Speaker 3: the soldiers themselves. So we have to remember a lot
Speaker 3: of these soldiers went into the war thinking they were
Speaker 3: going to be out in months, maybe a year. This
Speaker 3: was on both sides. And so they're going through this
Speaker 3: war too, three four years in and they've lost lots
Speaker 3: of people. So they start, you know, as they're going
Speaker 3: through these battlegrounds, sometimes more than once, reporting that they
Speaker 3: see the spirits of their fallen comrades, that they see
Speaker 3: the spirits of generals that have died in the war
Speaker 3: trying to lead them forward and help them. And one
Speaker 3: of the most compelling paranormal stories that starts, you know,
Speaker 3: in Gettysburg is the twentieth main reports that they saw
Speaker 3: General Washington on his horse leading them, you know, to
Speaker 3: the point where they're pushing Confederates down from Little Roundtop.
Speaker 3: But they, of course couldn't have really seen him. He
Speaker 3: died nearly one hundred years prior to the war, but
Speaker 3: they report that he's there leading them his ghost, and
Speaker 3: all the paranormal stories just start to abound from during
Speaker 3: the battles, from before the battles and to.
Speaker 2: The current day, stories of people seen and witnessing marching
Speaker 2: soldiers who have all died.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, oh yeah. Gettysburg and Antietam are really sort
Speaker 3: of two battlefields that are famous for that. Chickamauga. It
Speaker 3: happens there as well. A lot of the folks that
Speaker 3: report seeing this do happen to be reenactors, which kind
Speaker 3: of gives an interesting perspective on it. So they're there
Speaker 3: for living history engagements. They're dressed in the full gear,
Speaker 3: and they will stay overnight and they'll report having encounters,
Speaker 3: sometimes full fledged conversations with regiments they believe to be,
Speaker 3: you know, other reenactors, only to wake up and find
Speaker 3: that those folks are gone. They were never there. They'll
Speaker 3: hear gunfire that they swear as another reenactor. But it's not.
Speaker 3: That happened a lot at Chickamauga when I was writing
Speaker 3: about it in North Georgia, and you know, they see
Speaker 3: them as you know, vividly as they saw each other.
Speaker 2: It must be sad to uncover some of these stories.
Speaker 3: It is, I I will not lie. When I write
Speaker 3: these books, I have had moments where I have had
Speaker 3: to take a break and just there's tears in my
Speaker 3: eyes because I'm reading stories of fathers looking for sons,
Speaker 3: brothers looking for each other, best friends, losing each other,
Speaker 3: animals that have died after you know, defending their men
Speaker 3: in war. And you know, it tears at your heart
Speaker 3: strings and and makes you feel for them as if
Speaker 3: they're standing right with you, which maybe they are, but
Speaker 3: it does, you know, it does pull out your heart strengths.
Speaker 2: All this could have been avoided if they had only
Speaker 2: realized that all people are created equal.
Speaker 3: Yes, And you know what though, I would I would
Speaker 3: venture to say, after writing about men from Connecticut and
Speaker 3: men from Georgia on both sides of this, you know
Speaker 3: American Civil War, that the men fighting it, they got that.
Speaker 3: You know, I uncovered tales of them helping each other,
Speaker 3: helping save each other on opposite sides of the lines.
Speaker 3: It's these people who were at the top, pulling the
Speaker 3: strings right, who were saying, this is what you need
Speaker 3: to do, This is you know why this other side
Speaker 3: is a threat to you. They're feeding this sort of
Speaker 3: propaganda to them. But the men there, they saw each
Speaker 3: other as humans. They didn't want to be doing this.
Speaker 2: Now you've also looked at spirits versus time travel. Tell
Speaker 2: me about that.
Speaker 3: It was something that sort of occurred to me when
Speaker 3: I was researching these battlefields, and when I was hearing dunfire,
Speaker 3: when I was hearing drum music, when I was hearing
Speaker 3: all of these things, or I was feeling as if
Speaker 3: there were people rushing by me when I was there
Speaker 3: on a quiet night, or when no one was there
Speaker 3: during a rainy day. I thought, what if it's not
Speaker 3: just a residual haunting of energy remaining, but what if
Speaker 3: some of these places absorbed, you know, this energy and
Speaker 3: almost become a time slip, and and we have these
Speaker 3: paranormal encounters. Are we experiencing of thinness in the veil
Speaker 3: between our times? Because time isn't linear, right, we just
Speaker 3: put linear constructs on it to understand it. So is
Speaker 3: it entirely possible that when we're at these places, we're
Speaker 3: experiencing a step back in time? And that could explain
Speaker 3: some of the encounters were getting, perhaps even better than
Speaker 3: a residual haunting would explain them.
Speaker 2: Has anybody ever said that they stumbled into a time
Speaker 2: warp or a portal, yes, yes and no.
Speaker 3: So during you know, different reenactors and even during the
Speaker 3: Civil War, people would kind of report that there would
Speaker 3: be a change of scenery, that things would look different.
Speaker 3: They swear they saw things that were supposed to be
Speaker 3: there and weren't, and then suddenly they snapped back to
Speaker 3: when they were with their regular folks. And actually one
Speaker 3: of the most compelling accounts of that is during the
Speaker 3: filming of the movie Gettysburg, which was filmed in the
Speaker 3: nineteen nineties and it was based on a book called
Speaker 3: Killer Angels. There were some reenactors that were sitting up
Speaker 3: at little roundtop and a man came and started handing them,
Speaker 3: you know, musketballs and bullets, and they thought, oh, do
Speaker 3: we need this. You know, the man was dressed like
Speaker 3: they were. He looked a little rugged character. And they
Speaker 3: finally brought it to their directors and producers. They said,
Speaker 3: where did you get this, And they said, oh, this
Speaker 3: man handed it to us. They looked all around for him.
Speaker 3: They were in his time, he was in theirs. And
Speaker 3: then they said, we didn't send these to you. And
Speaker 3: they looked at their bullets, their musketballs, and they said
Speaker 3: these are antiques, these are originals. There's no way you
Speaker 3: could have had these a bridge between time.
Speaker 2: Right there, you know, And where did he go?
Speaker 3: Right right? You know? And for him the war was
Speaker 3: still happening, it was still real. These were people he
Speaker 3: was providing ammunition to. So who was in whose time
Speaker 3: at that point? Were they in his or was he
Speaker 3: in there?
Speaker 2: How many people who participate in the tours have relatives
Speaker 2: who may have died in the Civil War.
Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh, so many. So it's really interesting for
Speaker 3: me because I live in Connecticut and almost all of
Speaker 3: my ancestors were Confederate because my dad was from Making Georgia,
Speaker 3: And so all the folks that I meet up here
Speaker 3: have ancestors who died in the Revolutionary War, who left
Speaker 3: Connecticut and fought for the Union in the Civil War.
Speaker 3: And I have my ancestors who are on the other side.
Speaker 3: And sometimes I wonder if the spirits are laughing at
Speaker 3: the other side, you know, about the juxtaposition of me
Speaker 3: being in Connecticut with them being from Georgia in the South.
Speaker 3: But every single person on my tours has ancestors, whether
Speaker 3: they know it or not, who participated in some sort
Speaker 3: of war, especially in early America.
Speaker 2: Corney, do you get reports of other kinds of paranormal
Speaker 2: activity around these sites, like UFOs or anything like that.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, a lot of times, especially if these battle
Speaker 3: sites are near bodies of water, people do report those
Speaker 3: sorts of things, and battle sites will often be near
Speaker 3: bodies of water or rivers or something of the sort,
Speaker 3: only because the men who were fighting had to have
Speaker 3: a water source to be able to survive, and that's
Speaker 3: how they helped navigate in many cases, and a lot
Speaker 3: of times it's at these water sources that people report
Speaker 3: seeing unusual objects and lighted objects in the sky, and
Speaker 3: so that's compelling to me. But again, I have this
Speaker 3: strange theory that, like you know, and I don't know this,
Speaker 3: this is just something that came to mind, is what if,
Speaker 3: you know, especially at these battle sites and things like this,
Speaker 3: when people have an alien or UFO encounter, what if
Speaker 3: those are also time travel just of the future, and
Speaker 3: we're just not understanding what we see or how we're
Speaker 3: perceiving people or things from the future, and it's just
Speaker 3: another part of that time slip.
Speaker 2: Has anybody ever captured any sounds on tape?
Speaker 3: I have, so when I visit I you know, sometimes
Speaker 3: I bring equipment, but oftentimes I just bring myself. Some
Speaker 3: of the national parts don't love you to bring equipment,
Speaker 3: so I just bring myself and my cell phone and
Speaker 3: I'll usually put on my voice Memos app, and you know,
Speaker 3: see what happens. And I have heard with my own ears,
Speaker 3: drums playing, I've heard gun fire. I have recorded all
Speaker 3: of this just with the voice Memos app on my phone,
Speaker 3: you know, going in my pocket. It is as real
Speaker 3: and as loud as if you were there in the time.
Speaker 2: Cortney, would you say that other tragic areas and events,
Speaker 2: not necessarily civil war, but maybe World War one, World
Speaker 2: War two, or whatever catastrophes we have occurred, could also
Speaker 2: be haunted.
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 3: One of my other passions, you know that I kind
Speaker 3: of gathered when I was younger, was Irish history, Scottish history,
Speaker 3: you know, my Celtic ancestors as well. I love sort
Speaker 3: of genealogy, and when I was studying in Ireland, I
Speaker 3: got really interested in Irish rebellions. And you know there's
Speaker 3: a site there kill manhum Jail, you know, from the
Speaker 3: Easter Rising, where a lot of these men were executed,
Speaker 3: and that is a huge source of activity and energy.
Speaker 3: I visited Scotland where the Battle of Kladen took place,
Speaker 3: where the Scottish Islanders were rising up against the British,
Speaker 3: and I had incredible experiences there. One of the things
Speaker 3: that matches at all these locations, though, whether it is
Speaker 3: kilmnhum Jail, whether it is the Battle of Kolad, and
Speaker 3: whether it is the Battle of Gettysburg, a lot of
Speaker 3: the most profound experiences happen during the times that the
Speaker 3: battle actually happened. And I usually find that out after
Speaker 3: the fact that if I hear or see something in
Speaker 3: certain area look up later, that that's when that clash
Speaker 3: actually happened, was during that time of day, which I
Speaker 3: find really fascinating.
Speaker 2: Do you ever get reports of divine intervention, angelic or
Speaker 2: even higher.
Speaker 3: Yes. Actually, there's a man from Georgia who he believes
Speaker 3: he was a walking miracle, and he did believe that
Speaker 3: angels and soldiers who had died saved him. He was
Speaker 3: in the Battle of Antietam, and he was in a
Speaker 3: place known as the Sunken Road, which more frequently is
Speaker 3: known now as the Bloody Lane. He was shot five
Speaker 3: times and he kept getting up time after time after time,
Speaker 3: and then a bullet went through his cap and he
Speaker 3: fell into his cap and he bled through it, which
Speaker 3: means he didn't suffocate on his own blood. So he said,
Speaker 3: the Yankees, you know, helped with that. But then when
Speaker 3: he was brought, you know, to a hospital to die,
Speaker 3: he immediately woke up and said, you think I'm going
Speaker 3: to die, but I won't, and he miraculously recovered. He
Speaker 3: spent the rest of his career studying near death experiences
Speaker 3: and telling people that the other side helped them to survive.
Speaker 2: What creates the difference when you write these stories, how
Speaker 2: do you distinguish when what you're going to use?
Speaker 3: Ah, that is? That is you know, one of the
Speaker 3: hardest things is you have all of these souls, all
Speaker 3: of these stories. So for me, it's a very spiritual experience.
Speaker 3: I like to read through as many letters and accounts
Speaker 3: as I can, and of course if something jumps off
Speaker 3: the pages and they had an encounter, absolutely, but sometimes
Speaker 3: and I got started even doing the Civil War books,
Speaker 3: you know, really going forward with it after postponing it
Speaker 3: and taking the idea around because I had a dream
Speaker 3: where these two soldiers appeared to me in a dream,
Speaker 3: and I had no idea who they were. I just
Speaker 3: remember seeing two young boys and they were in Union uniform,
Speaker 3: and they said they were brothers, and they had a
Speaker 3: grave near where I lived. And I woke up and
Speaker 3: I did find two brothers who died in Andersonville Prison
Speaker 3: in Georgia, buried really next to where I lived, basically
Speaker 3: in the cemetery close by. And sometimes I think those
Speaker 3: boys helped make sure that I told their stories and
Speaker 3: the stories of all these other folks.
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