Please Help Me Maam by Holly Elizabeth
The story “Please Help Me Ma’am” by Holly Elizabeth recounts a ghostly encounter during a Gettysburg investigation. At the Peach Orchard, a ghostly Confederate soldier begged the author to deliver a letter to his wife, unaware he was dead. With guidance, the soldier was informed of his death and encouraged to cross over, leaving behind audible sobs captured on tape. The story culminates with an eerie anomaly: two flags by a stone marker, one fluttering despite a windless night.
The second stop on Bev’s last tour of Gettysburg a few weeks ago on September 6, 2003 was the Peach Orchard. It was dusk and the purple with pink sunset was magnificent, looking out over the fields. Beverly began chatting with a few spirits, and taking readings with our group. Then, everyone dispersed across the Orchard to do their own hunting [or conversing, as the group seemed instead as the ones being hunted]. I was drawn away from the direction where the others headed. I was walking close to a stone marker near the edge of the Orchard when I heard him.
“Ma’am, can you hear me? Please help me Ma’am, I need to get a letter to my wife. Could you take this letter with you? I need to get her word that I’m alive here in Gettysburg,” he prompted, with a slight drawl.
I heard him before I could see, but when I looked over he was a young confederate, probably in his late 20’s. When I didn’t answer right away, he continued on. “I could smell your lovely perfume all the way on the other side of the field, and I knew there was a woman here,” he told me.
I could hardly believe what I was hearing. [And seeing!] This ghost was asking me to deliver a letter to his dead wife, informing her that he had survived the battle and that was alive in Gettysburg, PA. He didn’t know he was dead, and he thought that I was one of the women who traveled to that site in search of a loved one.
I guess that’s when my inexperience kicked in because, I wasn’t sure what to do, so I told him nicely that I couldn’t help and walked back to the group. I explained what had happened to Bev, hoping for her input. She took my arm and led me back to where the man appeared to me, explaining that I needed to tell him that he was dead. We hurried back towards the stone marker in search of the soldier. The other investigators came along with their equipment to see if we could catch evidence of the spirit [and probably blew him away with a kaleidoscope of energy]. Standing side by side, Bev and I began explaining to the ghost that he did die during the battle of Peach’s Orchard, and that his family had long passed as well. This took several tries because the man didn’t really comprehend the altered state he was in. When he realized that he would never see his family again, I saw the man sit on the ground with his head in his hands crying. It was heartbreaking, but necessary.
“This is imperative: If they do not seem to know, you must always tell them quite sternly that they are dead, and that you can not possibly help them. If you do not do this at the time when you first communicate,” she warned, “then they may attach to you, and you will have picked up –believe me– something you’d rather not have.”
I told the group what I was seeing and hearing, as their thermometers and magnetometers gave supporting evidence of his presence: something different was here. Beverly told the man to cross over to the light and there he would find his family. Once she explained that, I felt that the man had left us, probably on his way to find his wife.
A few minutes later one of the other investigators played back his recording of our conversation with the ghost. It was thrilling! I had seen and heard the man crying, and, low and behold, on the tape recording there is audible sobbing in the background. None of the other investigators were making any sounds during our talk. It was the soldier’s cries that were captured!
Two American flags were stuck side by side in the ground next to the stone marker. Investigators watching Bev and I said that one flag was completely still, while the other waved in the wind. Except there was no wind or breeze at that time. I wasn’t taking any pictures while we were talking, but I hope that one of the other investigators got a photo of this ghost.
SOURCE: v4 MGSA Oct 2003
