THE PHANTOM ARMY OF THE CIVIL WAR
by Frank Spaeth in Fate magazine
It's the middle of the night. The air is filled with the sounds of battle - the roar of cannons and the screams of soldiers. The shadows of phantoms in blue and gray lurk in every corner. War rages all around. It isn't just any war, but the Civil War, the most costly war in terms of lost lives-and lost innocence-in United States history.
Many Civil War battlefields are rife with stories and legends of ghostly soldiers and phantom armies, but there is one Civil War battle that isn't relived on the battlefield. Instead, the horrors of war come to life in the New Orleans mansion of a famous Confederate general.
The Beauregard-Keyes house, located in the French Quarter of New Orleans, has a long, colorful history. Built in the 1820s, the mansion has been home to many famous people, including novelist Francis Parkinson Keyes. The ghostly rumors, however, surround another important figure.
General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard moved into the mansion shortly after the Civil War ended, although he may have resided there with his family during the war as well. Forced by illness to retire, Beauregard, a member of a prominent family in the New Orleans area, came home. He had graduated from West Point in 1838 and fought in the Mexican War. He was in command of the Confederate forces that fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861. A year later he led his troops at the Battle of Shiloh.
Shiloh was one of the most brutal battles of the Civil War. Over 23,000 men-10,000 Confederate and 13,000 Union-lost their lives in two days of intense fighting. Although the Union was the technical victor, the Battle of Shiloh was important to the Confederacy as well, for it stabilized their western position. In any case, the emotional scars of the battle were forever etched on every soldier who lived through-and died in-the Battle of Shiloh.
Nowhere the eternal remembrance of Shiloh be more apparent than in the Beauregard-Keyes house. By day this beautifully restored Southern mansion, designated a National Historic Place, is a thriving inn. Guides in period costume entertain guests, showing them the house's intricacies. But late at night, those wandering around may be greeted by another, less pleasing spectacle. Over the years, stories of a ghostly battle reenactment have circulated. Some nights at approximately 2:00 A.M., strange events take place in and around the mansion's ballroom. It takes on an otherworldly feel. The lavish furnishings seem to fade away, replaced by wide open spaces - battle grounds - and the hearty spirits of Beauregard's troops at the Battle of Shiloh. General Beauregard enters the battle from the ballroom's large double doors, riding his great white steed.
Legions of men under his command struggle against other spectral forces. Eventually the Confederate phantoms begin to show the wear of battle. The seemingly healthy ghosts change. Well-conditioned limbs become broken, mangled, and useless. Soldier's faces are wiped away, leaving fleshless skulls with hollow eye sockets. The stench of rotting death fills the hallway. Men groan in agony and cry for help. But even in death, the men can't escape their fates. Suddenly, daylight comes and silence falls over the area. The soldiers fade away. Their eternal battle will continue some other night.
Psychically sensitive people have been overwhelmed by feelings of anguish, confusion, and despair while visiting the hallway and ballroom of the Beauregard-Keyes house-emotions which most witnesses feel resonate from its spectral soldiers.
Psychic Luann Wolfe, who has visited the site of the actual Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee, says that these kinds of feelings are common in places where a tremendous loss of life has occurred. She felt the horror emanating from the Shiloh battlefield and has received similar readings at other battlefield sites as well.
Although many visitors claim to have witnessed this incredible ghostly battle, one woman questions the authenticity of the stories. Marion Chambon, director of the Beauregard-Keyes house, says that she does not know of anyone who has personally experienced the return of Beauregard's army. But, she adds, "This is a old house and it can get a little creepy, not scary, at times. In the winter when it gets dark early, the house - or something - can sometimes 'spook' me, and for no reason I lock up very quickly and leave." Chambon says, "If we do have ghosts or spirits here, then they are happy ones, and they leave us alone and we leave them alone."
Chambon is skeptical about the phantom army, but she has an open mind toward the possibility of other ghostly happenings around the house. She cites a book entitled The Beauregard-Keyes House, by Samuel Wilson Jr. This book shares another ghostly tale.
Apparently, General Beauregard and his wife had planned a grand ball in the house. Unfortunately, the general was called away on business and the ball never took place. It is said that every once in a while the ghosts of the Beauregards return to the ballroom to host the ball they planned but never gave.
Chambon relates a story that adds some credibility to the phantom ball tale. A young girl rented out the apartment below the ballroom one night. According to Chambon, the next morning, when the girl was asked how her night was, "She stated that she did not get much sleep that night because of the music and sounds of furniture being moved."
Was it the sound of long-deceased reveling debutantes coming to the ball that never took place? Or was it the sound of the hallway transforming into a battleground for ghostly soldiers? No one can say for sure, but many people have left the Beauregard-Keyes house feeling that there is more inside than the simple furnishings of a renovated Civil War mansion.
