Email: Sister reports Confederate soldiers in a Gettysburg basement
Art Bell reads an email from a listener about the listener’s sister, who is described as having inherited family psychic abilities. She was asked to smudge a house in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. According to the email, while blessing the house the sister went into a dirt basement and reported seeing a rifle in her face and then two frightened young Confederate soldiers huddled together. The residents asked her to return for more smudging, but she declined. The owners abandoned the house months later. The reading ends with the line [quote withheld]
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 2006.mp3”, starting at 2:10). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
Art Bell reads an email from a listener who describes events involving the listener’s sister. The writer says the sister [quote withheld] and was asked to come to a house in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, said to be over 100 years old, “to smudge it.” The writer states that a family had recently “aborted” there (the transcript word is unclear) and that after they moved in they began to experience strange activities. As the sister walked through the house blessing and smudging it, she continued down into a dirt basement with four residents and her son. There, according to the email, she threw up her arms and gasped, which stunned everybody present. She was experiencing, the writer says, a long, thin rifle in her face, and she thought she was about to be shot before realizing she was seeing a vision. Turning to her right, she saw two young Confederate soldiers huddled together with much fear on their faces. She began to pray for them, told them to go to the light, and said they had been there a long time and would be all right. The writer says the sister described the evil she felt as “absolutely indescribable.” The residents told her there was some improvement after the smudging and wanted her to return for additional smudging. But the writer says fear of the evil presence and of the young soldiers kept her from going back, and that she tears up to this day and cannot discuss the vision without crying. The house’s owners abandoned the house a few months later and moved back to their old neighborhood in Maryland. The reading ends with the line [quote withheld]
Reported events, in order
- 0:05
The email writer states that their sister inherited psychic abilities from their mother and their aunt.
- 0:10
The writer says the sister was asked to come to a house in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, said to be over 100 years old, to smudge it.
- 0:25
According to the email, a family had recently come to the house (word unclear) and began experiencing strange activities after moving there.
- 0:32
The sister walked through the house blessing and smudging it, continuing down into the dirt basement.
- 0:40
In the basement, with four residents and her son present, she threw up her arms and gasped, which the writer says stunned everybody.
- 0:47
She reported experiencing a long, skinny rifle in her face, thought she was about to be shot, and then realized she was seeing a vision.
- 1:06
Turning to her right, she saw two young Confederate soldiers huddled together with much fear on their faces.
- 1:11
She began to pray for them and told them to go to the light, saying they had been there a long time and would be all right.
- 1:17
The writer says the sister described the evil she felt as absolutely indescribable.
- 1:22
The residents told her there was some improvement after the smudging and wanted her to return for additional smudging.
- 1:30
Fear of the evil presence and of the young soldiers kept her from returning for any additional smudgings.
- 1:39
The writer says the sister tears up to this day and cannot discuss the impact of the vision without crying.
- 1:45
The owners of the house abandoned it a few months later and moved back to their old neighborhood in Maryland.
- 1:52
The reading ends with the line [quote withheld]
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- hearsay· 0:05
The writer says their sister inherited psychic abilities from their mother and aunt.
- hearsay· 0:25
A family in the Gettysburg house reportedly began to experience strange activities after moving there. The specific activities are not described.
- observation· 0:47
The sister reported seeing a long, skinny rifle in her face and thought she was about to be shot before realizing it was a vision.
- observation· 1:06
The sister reported seeing two young Confederate soldiers huddled together with much fear on their faces.
- observation· 1:17
The sister said the evil she felt was absolutely indescribable.
- hearsay· 1:22
The residents reported some improvement after the smudging and wanted her to return for more.
- interpretation· 1:30
The sister’s fear of the evil presence and of the young soldiers is given as the reason she did not return.
- hearsay· 1:39
The writer says the sister tears up to this day and cannot discuss the vision without crying.
- host statement· 1:52
The host says the story is true.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
A secondhand email describing a close relative’s experience. Closeness to the source is moderate (8 to 13). The detail is decent but has no dates or particulars that could be checked, and the sequence is consistent. Ordinary suggestion in a Gettysburg setting is not addressed, and the claims escalate without much separation of what was perceived from what was concluded.
Evidence for and against
- A specific place is given: [quote withheld]
- A concrete sequence inside the house: blessing and smudging, then [quote withheld]
- Named participants present: [quote withheld]
- The writer separates perception from realization: [quote withheld]
- The story is secondhand: the writer reports the sister’s experience rather than their own.
- No dates, no names, and no description of the earlier “strange activities.”
- Escalating language and an assurance of truth without supporting detail: [quote withheld]
- The phrase [quote withheld] is garbled and its meaning is unknown.
- All lines are labeled as the host, although the content is a letter being read aloud.
- 0:05
- 0:40
What the model inferred (not said on air): Scores by part: closeness to the source 10 of 25, detail 13 of 20, consistency 16 of 20, ordinary explanations 8 of 20, calibration of claims 6 of 15, for a total of 53. The limit of 60 for secondhand stories does not come into play. Scores reflect content only, not the reading.
The only support is the email’s word as read by the host. No photograph, recording, document, or second witness on air is present, and the named place is too general to check.
Evidence for and against
- A place is named: “Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.”
- A claimed set of witnesses is mentioned: [quote withheld]
- No physical evidence is claimed to exist in the transcript.
- No second witness speaks on air. The host reads the entire story.
- The [quote withheld] is reported secondhand with no detail.
- It is not stated whether any attachments, photographs, or names came with the email.
- 1:22
What the model inferred (not said on air): A score of 0 to 10 (the writer’s word only). A town is named, but nothing is offered that could actually be followed up, so the score stays at the bottom of that range.
The story has a rifle apparently pointed at the writer’s sister, frightened faces, a felt “evil,” and a family abandoning a house. But there is no physical harm, no threat aimed at the sister, and the story closes with an act of prayer rather than sustained dread.
Evidence for and against
- A weapon appears in the face of the person smudging: [quote withheld]
- Fear is described on the figures seen: [quote withheld]
- An unsettling assessment is reported: [quote withheld]
- The house is abandoned months later.
- The reported figures are frightened rather than menacing.
- The sister responds by praying for them and telling them to go to the light.
- The nature of the earlier “strange activities” is never described, so their tone is unknown.
- 1:17
- 1:45
What the model inferred (not said on air): Judged as the story’s effect on a listener: an intrusion into a dark, enclosed space plus the image of a weapon raises the score. The absence of harm or escalation in the second half keeps it in the middle of the range.
Model estimate: the Gettysburg and Confederate-soldier setup is a familiar ghost-story element. But the woman doing the smudging being confronted by a rifle and then finding the soldiers huddled in fear (rather than menacing) is a distinctive combination. The part compared with the rest of the archive carries little weight in the pilot.
Evidence for and against
- An unusual pairing of a ritual cleansing with a vision of frightened soldiers.
- The woman who sees the figures is the practitioner conducting the blessing.
- Confederate soldiers in a Gettysburg house are a stock ghost-story element.
- Other motifs (old house, basement, smudging, abandonment) are common.
- Novelty compared with the rest of the archive cannot be meaningfully estimated from a single pilot story.
- 1:06
- 1:12
What the model inferred (not said on air): The model score is 50 (familiar setup plus a distinctive detail). No comparison with the rest of the archive is applied here.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.60 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The writer’s secondhand written story (an email read aloud by the host); Claimed multiple witnesses (four residents and the sister’s son), none of whom speak on air; No photograph, recording, document, or physical trace claimed. The originality score blends the model's score (50) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- Expectation and suggestion in a setting linked to the Civil War (a Gettysburg house) could shape what a person doing a smudging expects and perceives in a dark dirt basement. Shadows and objects in low light could be read as a rifle and figures. · The location is given as Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the sister is described as walking into a dirt basement with others present when she [quote withheld]
- The “strange activities” reported by the family are not described at all, so ordinary house noises, drafts, or building sounds are not ruled out by the transcript. · The only description of the earlier activity is the unspecific phrase [quote withheld]
What stands out
The woman who claims to have seen the figures is herself the person performing a smudging and blessing. The figures she reports are the frightened ones, soldiers huddled together, rather than threatening ghosts. She also reports a rifle pointed at her face and a felt “evil.”
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.