Ghost stories that prove Gettysburg is Pennsylvania’s most haunted city

Spooky legends and paranormal tours help fuel Gettysburg’s haunted reputation.

In July 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg in south-central Pennsylvania was a pivotal turning point in the American Civil War, with the Union’s win halting the Confederate march north. But the victory came with a heavy cost: more than 50,000 casualties over just three days.

The sheer scale of death and tragedy in such a small town gave Gettysburg a haunted reputation almost immediately. For generations, residents and visitors have reported eerie happenings on the battlefield and inside the homes and buildings that once served as makeshift hospitals or morgues.

Today, Gettysburg embraces its haunted legacy with a strong industry of ghost tours, haunted houses, and paranormal investigations. We’ve rounded up a collection of some of Gettysburg’s spookiest stories, from ghostly soldiers to restless civilians—as well as the Gettysburg experiences where you might encounter a ghost story of your own.

The battlefield

Gettysburg is widely considered not just the most haunted city in Pennsylvania, but in the entire country. It all started on the battlefield itself, now known as Gettysburg National Military Park.

“So much emotional energy was expended at Gettysburg,” author and historian Mark Nesbitt said on a 1996 episode of “Unsolved Mysteries,” referencing soldiers’ fear and anxiety. “You have to think that some of it must remain.”

Devil’s Den

Devil’s Den, a hill covered in large boulders, was a key position during the battle as the large rocks could provide cover for soldiers. Though the battle itself went to the Union, the Confederates’ First Texas Regiment briefly captured Devil’s Den, but with severe casualties.

Some visitors claim to have seen a barefoot man dressed in ragged clothing and a floppy hat appear around the boulders, sometimes even offering directions to lost tourists. The man’s description matches that of the “Ragged Old First,” the nickname for the regiment of disheveled Texas soldiers who fought at Gettysburg.

Visitors to Devil’s Den have also reported their cameras malfunctioning at Devil’s Den. Nesbitt, who wrote the “Ghosts of Gettysburg” series, believes this could tie back to staged photographs taken after the battle, when a dead Confederate soldier’s body was moved and repositioned around the Devil’s Den area for a number of different photographs. “If there’s a disgruntled spirit in Devil’s Den that has animus toward photographers, it certainly would be this guy,” he told HowStuffWorks.

Little Round Top

Little Round Top, not far from Devil’s Den, is a rocky hill on the Gettysburg battlefield. Some visitors to the site report hearing cannon fire or seeing apparitions of soldiers.

A famous legend surrounds the filming of the 1993 war drama “Gettysburg,” the epic four-and-a-half-hour movie depicting the three-day battle. As the story goes, several extras portraying Union soldiers were at the rocky hill of Little Round Top when they were approached by another man in a Union uniform who gave them ammunition. They assumed he was another extra handing out blanks. It wasn’t until later that they learned the man was not part of the cast or crew—and the rounds he’d handed them weren’t blanks, but live musket rounds dating from the Civil War.

Haunted landmarks

Many of Gettysburg’s hundreds of historic buildings and landmarks are purported to be haunted. Here are stories from some of the most famous ones.

Sachs Covered Bridge

Both Confederate and Union armies used the historic Sachs Covered Bridge, built in 1852, to cross Marsh Creek during the Battle of Gettysburg. The story surrounding the bridge says that three Confederate soldiers were hanged from its rafters, either by the Confederates for desertion or by the Union after being captured as spies.

Though the history is murky—and likely nothing more than a legend—visitors to the bridge at night sometimes claim to sense an otherworldly presence. People have reported the smell of pipe tobacco, unexplained cold spots, and unsettling taps on the shoulder with no one else around. Some visitors have even described seeing three floating heads appear and disappear randomly on the bridge.

Jennie Wade House

Jennie Wade was the only civilian killed during the Battle of Gettysburg. Just 20 years old, she was struck by a stray bullet while baking bread for Union soldiers in her sister’s home—now called the Jennie Wade House.

The house is said to be haunted by the ghost of Wade herself. Guests have reported sightings of a young woman in a long period dress, as well as the aroma of freshly baked bread wafting through the house. Many ghost tours stop at the Jennie Wade House, which is now a museum documenting Wade’s life and the experiences of civilians during the war.

Gettysburg College

Gettysburg College—originally known as Pennsylvania College—played a key role during the Battle of Gettysburg. The college’s Pennsylvania Hall served as a makeshift hospital where hundreds of wounded soldiers from both sides were treated—and where many ultimately died. Some say their spirits still linger.

One of the college’s most famous ghost stories dates to the 1980s. As the tale goes, two college administrators had worked late one night, and when leaving Pennsylvania Hall, their elevator bypassed the first floor and continued to the basement. The doors opened, and they were met with a grisly scene: a Civil War-era hospital with busy nurses, bleeding soldiers, and a surgeon ready to amputate a limb with a saw. Horrified, they repeatedly pressed buttons to close the elevator doors and ride back up. Yet when they had a security guard inspect the basement, it was empty, with no antique medical instruments in sight.

Did the administrators glimpse a scene from the college’s past? Or were their eyes just playing tricks on them after a long day of work?

Modern ghostly encounters

Gettysburg’s haunted history has given rise to a thriving paranormal tourism sector. You can take ghost tours of the small town or stay the night at reportedly haunted hotels.

Gettysburg ghost tours

For a town with fewer than 9,000 people, Gettysburg has an outsized number of ghost tour companies—about a dozen, by our count. Whether or not you’re a paranormal skeptic, you’ll enjoy a Gettysburg ghost tour for the combination of history and folklore.

The original Gettysburg ghost tour company, Ghosts of Gettysburg, was founded by Mark Nesbitt, the author of the “Ghosts of Gettysburg” book series; tours are based on his research. The company offers walking tours as well as self-guided audio tours, narrated by Nesbitt himself.

Other popular options include Civil War Ghosts, which offers an extensive list of ghost tour routes, both classic and those targeted to Civil War buffs, and Gettysburg Ghost Tours, which can bring you on lantern-led tours focused on cemeteries, old hospitals, or even the battlefield itself. If you’re more interested in the high-tech side of ghost hunting, you might take a tour with After Dark Investigations, which uses the same equipment you might see on popular paranormal TV shows.

Haunted hotels

If a ghost tour isn’t enough for you, you could spend a whole weekend in Gettysburg and stay the night at one of the town’s haunted hotels.

The Farnsworth House Inn is considered one of the most haunted hotels in the country, housing the spirits of Confederate snipers who were killed in the attic as well as the ghosts of several former residents. The bed and breakfast leans into its paranormal reputation, hosting its own ghost tours (as well as historic tours, where you can see where bullets from the battle pierced the home). For Halloween 2025, the inn is even hosting a reading with a well-known psychic.

Hotel Gettysburg, with its building dating from 1797, is another site said to be haunted by ghosts from the past. Some guests have reported apparitions of soldiers as well as that of a Civil War-era nurse. Nurse Rachel, as the ghostly nurse is known, is said to wander the rooms checking on guests and sometimes rummaging through their belongings.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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