Historical Haunting @ Jockey Hollow/Morristown, NJ
This picture was taken @ Jockey Hollow, Morristown, NJ
http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Jockey_Hollow.
The area is the site of a Revolutionary War encampment, where many
soldiers suffered and died( there is a small cemetary down the hill
from where this was taken).
It was taken in one of the reproduction soldier's huts early on a
cold Dec morning( the huts are built on the foundations of the
original huts used by the Pennsylvania Line of the Continental Army
during the winter of 1779-80. This winter was more brutal than the
celebrated winter @ Valley Forge.)
I was spending the night in one of the huts with the Revolutionary
War reenactment group I belong to and that night had experienced some
paranormal activity.
I'd been coming back from the bathroom( well porta potty) which was
located down the hill from the hut I was staying in with some of my
group. It was a clear cold night,and the park is located in a pretty
rural part of Morris County,NJ. I thought I was going a bit batty,
but started to hear the sound of fife and drum music( nothing unusual
about that @ a Rev War encampment). However there were only 8 of us
in the huts, none of them musicians,no other regiments or reenactors
around, the park staff had gone home for the night, and no one had
brought a radio along( we like to keep things as authentically 18th c
period as possible) Truth be told, I was a bit frightened, but at the
same time, felt at peace. When I returned to the hut, I was white as
a sheet and mentioned to my fellow re-enactors what I'd heard and
felt.
"Welcome To Jockey Hollow, you've just experinced your first haunting
here" they said, only half joking. I later found out that they had
experieced similar feelings and a few of them had even had seen
shadowy apparitions. One fellow, a professional photographer and
photo archivist, had taken some pics in our location where there were
a ton of unexplained orbs and hazing.
Unfortunately, I'd not had my camera when I went down to the porta-
potty, or I would have snapped the pic
The pic was taken when I DID have my camera, at about 5 am in the
morning.. for some reason I felt a chill that had nothing to do with
the weather, as tho I was being watched and snapped that particular
pic.
The next evening, I took a look @ the pics and came across the one by the firepit. I was not suprised to see at least 2 orbs in the guttering hearth,. right where I had felt the creeping yet, not intimidating feeling. That begs the question" Is it smoke from the guttering fire, or do you think it could have been the
spirits of the soldiers, who recoginzed familiar uniforms and wanted
to make themselves known to us?
I tend to feel inside my heart and soul that it was the latter
I welcome everyone's opinions, whatever they may be
Maggie from NJ