Our story this week comes from returning listener, Chad Campbell from Chicago, IL. We first heard from Chad in episode #486 – Dead Man’s Planet. He told us then that he had other stories he wanted to share and this is a good one. Chad has titled this: The Civil War Ghost Of Utica
As I’ve said here before, though I’ve experienced many hauntings in my life, I don’t really ever SEE ghosts. There was that one time with the woman sitting on my couch staring at me, and there is this story. I want to thank Ron for giving me a place to share it.
September 2020, I was taking my wife to work as I did almost every night of the week. On the way, we drove through this little country town of North Utica, Il. On the way there’s a big hill going down into the town. We had been that way a ton of times, so we knew all of the little landmarks (Trees, road signs, mailboxes, etc.) Right behind the big green sign that said we were in Utica, there was a man standing there on the side of the road looking our way. Because he was something out of the ordinary I quickly looked over and got a good look at him for a brief second as we passed by. At that same time my wife saw him and she said, “OMG did you see that?”
I asked her what she saw and she said, “That Guy was a Civil War soldier!”
She said she saw a detailed face, but I didn’t. For starters, he was mostly white and glowing, like my headlights were really lighting him up, but they weren’t. I was drawn to his face because what I saw was just a blank, white, glowing area. He had his right leg up like he was resting it on something and had his rifle in his hand, holding it to the ground like a cane. Also, he had a Kepi hat on. It seemed like he wasn’t just white, but shades of light gray, though glowing. We had plenty of time so I turned the car around to get another look. When we got back to the sign he was gone.
I dropped my wife off and drove back to the site. I wandered around the area for a while but didn’t see any signs of a person or ghost having been there. This prompted me to do some research. I wanted to know what if any battles took place around the Chicago area. I couldn’t find a single one. What I did find was this:
Chicago was a stronghold of abolitionist sentiment and the springboard of Lincoln’s presidency. Chicago was blamed in many circles for bringing on the war, but also prospered. Its population almost doubled as thousands of immigrants found work in the city. It was the second leading war supplier next to New York. There were army bases in the area. Camp Douglas, located near Chicago, was one of the largest training camps for union troops, as well as Camp Butler near Springfield. Both served as leading prisoner-of-war camps for captive Confederates.
Well Ron, that was it. We purposely drove that way every night after that until she lost her job because of the pandemic, just hoping to see him again, but we never did. I’ve wanted to stop by at the house near where he was at to ask them if they had ever seen him, or if maybe they had a costume from the Civil War and they were just hanging out freaking people out, though I’m not sure how they would’ve pulled off the glowing and faceless thing, but I haven’t yet and probably never will.
Oh yeah, there is a very old cemetery in Utica. My father once told me, and he is not known for telling any tales, let alone tall ones, he once drove by there and saw a werewolf . But that is another story and I might add a very creepy one.
Chad Campbell – Chicago, IL
This Week’s Podcast:
On the podcast this week our featured story tells what The Hallmark Hall Of Fame says is a true story. Wyatt Earp has to settle a fight between an old friend and an angry town. I will leave it up to you to decide it is true. You can listen to this podcast on Thursday at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from Apple Podcasts, stream it on Stitcher Radio or on the mobile version of Spotify. Do you prefer the radio? We are heard every Thursday at 10:00 pm and Sunday Night at 11:00 PM (EST) on AMFM247.COM. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link
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