Civil War Ghosts

14. Stevens Hall

Gettysburg, PA

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In the years after the Civil War, many orphanages were opened around the country. One orphanage was located in Gettysburg, near the college. This story has been told throughout generations and many students attest to its truth. In 1866, Miss Humberston was the headmistress of the orphanage. The children loved her, as she cared for the orphans as if they were her own. When the lovely young Miss Humberston married, she decided to move away from Gettysburg with her husband to start a family of their own. A new headmistress was brought in, a Mrs. Carmichael, a widowed woman in her 50's. Stern and severe, she made sure that each of the orphaned children were obedient to her orders. Mrs. Carmichael began to issue strange and very harsh punishments to the children for any minor infraction. Misbehaving children were often sent to stand in the outhouse even on the most freezing of nights. Other strange punishments were doled out to the children. Local residents of the town of Gettysburg began to comment on hearing loud screams and crying children emanating from the orphanage. One night, three young female students were studying Latin in their third floor dorm room in Stevens Hall, the all-girls dorm of Gettysburg College, when they heard a soft tapping on their door. When they opened the door, they found a young boy that looked as if he could've step out of the pages of Charles Dickens' 'Oliver'. They quickly ushered him inside their room and shut the door. The young ladies questioned the shivering child about what he was doing in the Dorm. He quietly explained that the Headmistress of the orphanage was looking for him and would beat him and make him stand naked in the freezing outhouse if she caught him. The young ladies sympathized with the boy and let him stay in their room for awhile. Shortly after, another knock came upon the ladies' door, and they answered it. This time is was the dorm mother, Miss Treaves asking the ladies to come downstairs. Mrs. Carmichael from the orphanage was there and was demanding to inspect every room in the dormitory. The girls agreed, and said they would be down in just one minute. Scrambling around the room, the girls could not figure out a place for their poor young orphan to hide. In desperation, they opened the window and told the boy to hide on the ledge. They said he would be safe there, and that they would return shorty. The boy crawled to the ledge and the girls went downstairs into the living room of the dormitory, where the other students chatted quietly, whispering and laughing. Miss Treaves and the headmistress of the orphanage Mrs. Carmichael started to inspect the rooms. The three young ladies anxiously waited, each one looking nervously at the other. Finally, after what seemed like an extremely long time, Miss Treaves and Mrs. Carmichael returned. 'Thank you ladies', Miss Treaves said, "you may return to your room now. Remember, lights out in an hour." The three young ladies hastily returned to their room, anticipating the condition of their young friend. They opened the door and went to the window and opened it. The ledge was empty; the boy was not there. Horrified, they looked down below at the snowy ground. It was untouched, without footsteps or any markings in the snow. He was gone. The girls looked all over their room and found nothing. He had vanished. Years later, a young girl was up late in her third floor room in Stevens Hall, cramming for her American History test early the next morning. Something drew her eye to the frosted window and when she looked over, she saw the bluish face of a young boy hovering there, his eyes pleading for help. She rubbed her eyes and the phantom child was gone. She checked her clock. It was 1:30am, and she needed to sleep before the exam. She studied for a little longer, when once again she noticed the bluish glow of the boys face hovering outside her window. She shrieked and ran out of her room and down the hall. Her hand shook as she put a quarter into the soda machine. She sipped her cold soda and tried to calm down, convincing herself that it was only her nerves, stress, and a lack of sleep that were toying with her tired mind. When the girl felt a little better and slowly walked back to her room, she opened the door and everything was normal, no strange bluish glowing boy floating outside of her window. She exhaled and even laughed a little at herself. Then she froze. She noticed something that seemed to be written on the outside of her window in a child's handwriting: HELP ME