Civil War Ghosts

13. Pennsylvania Hall, Old Dorm

Gettysburg, PA

Book Now

One of the most gruesome and terrifying aspects of the Civil War was the conditions of the hospitals. Surgeons were decades away from antiseptics, and wounds to an arm or leg usually meant amputation. An amputated arm or leg was simply tossed aside, out the hospital window. Pyramids of amputated limbs quickly formed outside the windows of buildings that were designated as hospitals. In the heat of battle, hospitals were set up in any available space, field tents, homes, taverns, or schools. Pennsylvania Hall, located in Gettysburg College, was one of the places that served as a makeshift hospital during the Battle of Gettysburg. Pennsylvania hall, which was filled with the sounds of studious young men years before, became filled with the agonized screams of wounded soldiers, writhing in pain after having a limb amputated, or slowing dying in beds miles from their homes and families. After the war, the Old Dorm reverted back to a building for Gettysburg College administrators. One night, three young assistant professors decided to call it quits and head home after a long night of grading. They put on their coats, locked up their offices, and walked down the silent hall toward the elevator on the third floor. They entered the elevator and pressed "1." The doors slowly hummed shut, and began to descend. "3", "2", "1", "B." The elevator kept going into the basement, bypassing the first floor, even though no one pressed the button for the basement. The men looked at each other and wondered who would be in the basement so late? The elevator stopped and everything was still for a moment. Then, as the doors slowly creaked open, they could not believe the gruesome scene that was before them. 19th century surgeons rushed about a smoking room with saws and other instruments of surgery, their coats covered in dark red blood. They saw men screaming and writhing in extreme pain, lying on stained sheets in the beds, or sitting on the floor, dumbly staring at phantom limbs. A young doctor looked at the men standing in the elevator, his eyes seemed to be pleading for some assistance or a way to escape. As the young doctor began to walk toward the men in the elevator, the doors shut and the elevator rose, bringing them out of the subterranean surgery room. The number "1" lit up and the doors once again opened, this time to a quiet parking lot. The three assistant professors looked at one another, stunned by the horrific scene that had just been enacted before them. They rushed to the campus security and shared what they had just witnessed. The security officer, thinking that it could quite possibly be some sort of elaborate fraternity prank, brought them back to the elevator and they descended to the basement. The doors opened only to reveal a mop and a bucket, some cleaning supplies, and a table. The men looked at each other, knowing that no fraternity could set up an intricate scene like that and dismantled it so quickly without a trace. But the three professors would not forget the gory scene of death that was brought to life before them that night.