From "Haunted Ground: Ghost Photos from the Gettysburg Battlefield" by Hollister Ann Grant

In the late 1990s, when Jack and I were living in Washington, D.C., we’d escape the city on weekends. We’d get up before dawn, jump in our little green Hyundai, grab some coffee and donuts at the Safeway, and drive 90 miles north to Gettysburg. Jack was an avid Civil War buff and always had five or six books going about the battle. We’d spend hours retracing troop movements and photographing the boulder-strewn hills.

One Saturday Jack told me he’d read about a haunted field behind Devil’s Den. The Den is a spectacular group of boulders on the southern side of the battlefield. Brutal fighting took place there on the second day of the three day battle.

“People say a ghost interferes with cameras and video equipment,” Jack said.

The idea of a camera-wrecking ghost made me gleeful.

“Oh, wow, let’s go, then,” I told him.

We were using a film camera at the time. I can’t remember the brand, but the camera was fairly new and took good quality photos. The batteries were new, too. I’d purchased them the day before and remember peeling the package open and fitting them inside the camera.