The Phantom Soldier

“Even legends often originate with the belief by the storyteller that they are actually true.”

                                        --R.A. Musick

This is a classic West Virginia ghost tale.

Ruth Ann Musick originally wrote it down. It was one of hundreds of ghost tales her students shared with her at Fairmont State College over the years.

During WWl a young soldier was called to serve sooner than expected. He was newly engaged to a sweet, beautiful girl he had known since childhood. She was the only child of the town’s wealthy merchant.

He bid a fond farewell to his family and fiancé and left for Europe where he was sent to Germany.

The older brother of this soldier jealous of his brother’s good fortune set out to win his fiancé for himself. After a year had passed he convinced her his younger brother didn’t really love her.

He then married her.

On Christmas Eve, the soldier returned unexpectedly. Amidst the cold dark mountain pines he knocked on his older brother’s door. His brother let him in but he was not pleased to see him. His wife was upstairs.

The two brothers talked for a short time and the older brother admitted he had married his wife for her money and position and that if he interfered--he would not hesitate to kill him.

The soldier left but a short while later he returned with a revolver and shot his older brother. He then left the house as quietly as he had come.

The young wife rushed downstairs as she heard the shot ring out. She found her husband bleeding on the floor. Before he died he told what had happened.

She informed the police what he had told her and they searched for several days but the soldier had vanished without a trace.

One Christmas day a telegram arrived addressed to her husband. It announced that his younger brother had been killed in action on December 21^st.

The Telltale Lilac Brush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales, West Virginia University Library, 1960 Ruth Ann Musick

Confused Ghosts

Not all ghosts seem to realize they are dead. Several friends and acquaintances have told me stories that indicate that the spirit they encountered didn’t know they were dead. 

In Corrales, a small village located in the north valley near Albuquerque this type of encounter has happened more than once.

One confused ghost that appears in Corrales is a Civil War soldier. 

A resident of this village told me that as he walked along the back fence of his property--he spotted a young man dressed in an old fashioned Civil War uniform come out of his neighbor's old shed. This soldier then approached him.

This young man who appeared to be dazed asked the man, “Where am I?” The property owner then discovered this young man didn’t seem to know the date or even the year. 

Before he could offer his assistance, this soldier just walked off and then disappeared.

Months later, one of his neighbors told him that he most likely encountered this same soldier-- who didn’t seem to know he was out of place and time. He then discovered his daughter had talked to this ghost as well. 

All three of these encounters happened in broad daylight.

Seeing a Civil War soldier was startling but not surprising to these two men because there were battles fought in Albuquerque and the surrounding areas during this war.

This type of ghost encounter is frustrating. One has to wonder why this poor soul seemed to be stuck in a state of limbo. 

A similar story, to these two encounters, happened to two sisters when they went to visit their mother’s grave.

As they were leaving, they noticed a man walking between the gravestones. When they reached the road where their car was parked, the man caught up to them. 

The cemeteries’ groundskeeper drove past and waved to the two women. He didn’t seem to notice the man.

The man then turned to them and asked for help. He explained to them, “people all day had been acting like they didn’t even see him.” He stated that he had woken up in the graveyard that morning and that his friend must have left him there.

The man became more and more agitated as he talked to the two sisters. Now nervous, they moved quickly toward their car. 

They both looked back briefly and were stunned to see the man was nowhere in sight. Now scared, they wondered how he could just disappear so quickly in such a vast open space.

As they drove off, they both realized they had just seen a ghost. To this day, they still wonder about his confusion.