Ghostly Gettysburg I

From the Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot News:

Gettysburg historian and ghost hunter Mark Nesbitt shares secrets of the search for the paranormal in his latest book, "The Ghost Hunter's Field Guide: Gettysburg & Beyond" (Second Chance Publications, $10.95). Nesbitt will sign copies of the 128-page book, which also looks at Adams County hot spots for phantasmal encounters, from 1 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Civil War and More store, 10 S. Market St., Mechanicsburg. "A new way of looking at Gettysburg is emerging" since the 1991 publication of Nesbitt's first book, "Ghosts of Gettysburg: Spirits, Apparitions and Haunted Places of the Battlefield," he said. Beyond the historical significance of the July 1-3, 1863, battle between Union and Confederate armies, "Gettysburg has become a place of mysterious, sometimes unexplainable stories of out-of-place noises and smells, of sights that are out-of-time and of strange experiences in what should just be a jumble of rocks or a benign open field," he writes. The battle left 51,000 soldiers dead, wounded or missing. The carnage, according to Nesbitt, makes the area ripe for unexplained occurrences. "Gettysburg is well known for its paranormal activity and for good reason. More people died young and suddenly, under tragic circumstances, at a high level of emotion than anywhere else in the entire United States."