At Portsmouth, R. I., there was a camp established during the late war,
186-. There was a graveyard in one corner of the enclosed grounds, where
several soldier-boys had been buried from the hospital, and here a guard
was nightly stationed.
Of course there were many stories told around the campfires, of ghosts and
spirits that flitted about the mounds at the dead hours of the night,
circulated particularly to frighten those stationed at that point on
picket duty.
The body of a soldier had recently been exhumed and placed in a new and
more respectable coffin than the pine box coffin furnished by Uncle Sam,
in which he had been buried, and the old one was left on the ground.
Partly to protect himself from the inclemency of the weather, and quite as
much to show his utter disregard of all ghostly visitors, my informant
secured the old pine coffin, "washed it out, though it was impossible to
remove all the stains," and, driving a stake firmly into the ground, he
stood the coffin on one end, and, removing the lid, used to stand therein
on rainy nights.
"When it did not rain, I turned it down, and my companion and myself used
to sit on the bottom.
"One day a soldier-boy had died in the hospital, and his friends came to
take the body home for Christian burial. It was necessary to remove him in
a sheet to the place where they had an elegant casket, bought by his
wealthy friends, to receive the remains.
"That very night I was on duty with my friend Charley S., when, near
midnight, seated upon the empty coffin, with my gun resting against the
side, and my head resting in the palms of my hands, I fell into a drowse.
[Illustration: A GRAVE SENTRY.]
"Waking up suddenly, I saw something white through the darkness before me;
for it was a fearfully dark night, I assure you. I rubbed my sleepy eyes
to make sure of my sight, and took another look. I discerned a form,
higher than a man, moving about over the mounds but a few yards distant.
It had wide side-wings, but they did not seem to assist in the motion of
the body part, which did not reach to the ground. I thought I must be
asleep, and actually pinched my legs to awake myself before I took a final
look at his ghostship. There he stood, stock still. I listened for my
companion, without removing my eyes from the white object before me. Still
I was not scared, but meant to see it out. I knew I could not see a man
far through that impenetrable darkness, for there were no stars nor
moon to reveal him. I would not call for help, for if it was a farce to
scare me, I should become the laughing-stock of the whole camp.
[Illustration: A GHOST IN CAMP.]
"Just then I heard the grass crackle, and I knew Charley was approaching
in the rear. Still there hung the apparition. I arose from the coffin, my
eyes fixed on the object before me, picked up my musket, took deliberate
aim at the centre of the thing, and just as I cocked my rifle, I heard
Charley set back the hammer of his 'death-dealer.' He, too, had discovered
the very remarkable appearance, whatever it was; and now the guns of two
'unfailing shots' covered the object. In another second it had suddenly
disappeared! I then spoke, and we ran forward, but found nothing! Where
had it gone so very suddenly? It had vanished without sight or sound. We
gave up the search; but still I did not believe we had seen anything
supernatural.
"There was no little discussion in camp on the following day on the
subject. Charley said but little. I could not explain the remarkable
phenomenon, and a splendid ghost story was about established, in spite of
me, before the mystery became unravelled.
"A tall fellow, who worked about the hospital, and who assisted in taking
away the corpse, was returning with the sheet, when he thought he would
give the sentry a scare from his coffin by throwing the sheet over his
head and stretching out his arms like wings. His clothes being black, his
legs did not show; hence the appearance of a white object floating in the
air. Hearing the guns cocked, he instantly jerked the sheet from his head;
winding it up, he turned and ran away. This accounted for it becoming so
instantaneously invisible.
"'Yes,' said the sentry, 'and in a second more you would have been made a
ghost!'"