Written Confession: Haunting Experiences During a Civil War Reenactment
The following written confession was submitted via email:
I would like to share with you a haunting my father and I had while doing a Civil War reenactment at Fort Ontario on Lake Ontario in New York State. The event took place on 16-17 April 2011, we were kicking off the 150th anniversary year of the Civil War by recreating the attack on fort Sumter. It was a miserable wet cold rainy weekend, this weekend they had Confederate reenactors camping out side of the fort in period tents and such and had the federal troops inside the fort in what is known as casemates. Casemates are where soldiers would go down to to fire out of the fort but be protected by the fort. They are cold and damp, when we got there everyone had already been set up so we had to take a the last remaining spot which was almost like a little walkway between the main open area if the casemates and a little alcove where another member from our unit was staying. That night we were going to fire off one cannon at 3 or 4 in the morning to signify when the confederates started the siege on Fort Sumter. My dad was going to have the other member of the unit who we were sleeping right next to named Chris wake him up for the early morning firing of the cannon. Well my dad says he woke up to the sound of someone walking around and coming towards him and shaked him awake and said "John (that's my father's name) time for duty wake up let's go" so my dad rolled over and responded "yeah yeah I'll be right up". Well my dad ended up falling back asleep and awoke what he guesses was a few hours later to Chris's alarm going off and him shuffling around. My dad goes "hey sorry I didn't wake up to do the night firing Chris I was just so tired I fell back asleep" Chris responded by saying "uhh John we didn't do that after you went to bed last night we decided against the night fire, this is the first time I'm waking up and it's 7 in the morning."
The next day my dad and I talked to the museum manager about finding a different spot to sleep that night. He let us sleep in the old officers quarters which is just on the other side of the forts gate. This is where the officers use to stay and live in, the building is 1800s period if not older, however it has all been redone and is modern carpet and tile flooring used for the museums offices and such (this will be important later). So we moved our stuff into the living room of that building that morning and prepared for the day. This was another cold, rainy, miserable day much like the first. We spent most of it in the building that housed the souvenir shop because it was a heated dry spot, and then we'd walk out to the ramparts at scheduled times and fire the cannons off. Once night fell we went to the officers house to go to sleep, this is the night I was haunted. My dad was sleeping on his cot and I was just curled up on the area rug on the floor in a sleeping bag. I don't remember around what time of night it was but it was late. I woke up to the sound of a screen door opening multiple times and slamming shut (some would think the wind) but as it would open and slam shut I heard the sound of men walking in onto hardwood floors with heel plates on. What heel plates are are pretty much tiny horse shoes that are nailed into the heel of shoes and boots from the 1800s because they were just smooth leather soles and the metal heel plates added some traction, when on hardwood they make a very distinct sound similar to what a horse sounds like. Although I said I woke up it was that weird half awake half asleep type of thing. As the night went on I heard multiple men's voices laughing loudly and talking as well as glasses hitting together as if there was a toast. It sounded like guys playing cards and drinking all night long, which many of the guys in our reenacting unit did so I thought nothing of it and just kept going back to sleep. As morning broke I woke up before my dad and I was just walking around the house and observing the different artwork and such. I walked to the kitchen and saw that the floors were linoleum tile and when you walk on it with heel plates it sounds nothing like what heel plates sounds like on hardwood flooring. So I thought that was weird but passed it off as maybe I was dreaming last night. I walk over to the door and noticed that it was a modern plastic screen door with the hydrologic piston so it doesn't slam and what I heard last night sounded like a wooden screen door slamming shut. Weird right? Around this time my dad woke up and saw me walking around very confused and goes "whatcha looking for buddy?" And I go "uhh nothing I just thought there were other people in here last night" my dad then goes "you heard that too?" We then shared that we both heard the same thing and that these floors were infact not wood.
We later asked the manager "Hey is this place haunted?" And he goes "What did you guys experience?" So we told him everything and he goes "Yeah it is a little bit. What you guys told me is very common. I didn't want to tell you what other people experienced before you told me because I wanted to make sure you guys were telling the truth.".
This Fort is old too. It was in the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, The War of 1812, Civil War, World War One, World War Two, and post WW2 it was a refugee camp for Holocaust Survivors.
