Today we travel to battlefields and cemeteries of Eastern NC for our daily dose of paranormal activity.
Four Oaks, NC, was home to the last major Confederate offensive against General Sherman’s Union army. The Battle of Bentonville, which lasted three days, is the largest battle in North Carolina history and some say remnants of the fight linger. Visitors to the Bentonville Battleground State Historic Site recount experiencing the sounds and smells of battle: shouts, rifle shots, cannon fire, gun smoke, and even burning flesh. Harper House, which stands on the battlefield, is also rumored to be haunted. The house served as a hospital for both the Union and Confederate armies. The structure is now a museum. Staff, civil war re-enactors, and visitors describe seeing ghosts in the home’s windows and walking the surrounding grounds. Soldiers from both sides and John Harper, the owner of the house, are among the haunts reported.
Message on front of card: “Here, the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.”
Cedar Grove Cemetery was established in 1800 to serve as the resting place for victims of yellow fever in New Bern, NC. In 1854, workers built a wall, including an elaborate entryway known as the Weeping Arch, around the graveyard. The arch is said to have a chilling ability to predict the future. According to legend, the arch weeps for all the dead who pass underneath. Occasionally it sheds a tear for the living, too. And, if it does, that person will soon die. What’s more, the arch’s tears are not ordinary ones. Instead, they’re tears of blood.
I have had several experiences with the paranormal at this historic site. The most activity seems to be coming from the Harper House. The house is locked from the outside every night and there is an alarm system. One evening I decided to venture out with two other people and see the house for myself. I immediately noticed how secure the structure was and didn’t expect anything to happen… I was wrong. We approached the front door of the Harper House and immediately noticed how dark the house was on the inside. I decided it would be funny to knock on the door to spook my friends. I knocked three times on the front door and not even 5 seconds later we all heard the sound of heavy footsteps coming down the staircase located in the house. The footsteps continued until they started sounding on the bottom floor as if they were heading to the front door. Needless to say we didn’t wait around to see who or what was making the footsteps. On another occasion, I was sitting on the picnic tables adjacent to the restrooms located near the site’s entrance. It was the late evening and once again locks were in place on the outside of the restroom doors. I was having a conversation with a friend when we both heard loud knocking coming from inside the bathroom. Instinctively I asked “Who is there!” The reply I received was one loud “BANG” sound. Like someone had hit the wall right next to us with a blunt object. We ran 1/2 mile to our car and never came back after that.
Some friends and I went there after hours close to 12am. I’ve always known that the paranormal is very real. I know it will be doubted and I’ve been laughed at and called a freak my entire life thus far; but ever since I was a child I’d say around 9-10 years old, I have been able to see, hear, and feel both positive and negative entities. On the night we went into the battle ground we honestly had know idea just how much danger we were in. My friends laughed and joked even though I kept telling them that we shouldn’t be there and that we needed to leave now. I kept urging them to a point that one of them I’ll call her Bri for the sake of making things easier to type, Bri turned to look at me and we had known each other since kindergarten so she knew that something was wrong. None of the others would listen to us and I told Bri that we couldn’t leave them there alone. So we continued walking and just as we got to the tree line we began to smell sulfur and all the animals were silent. We saw a huge black dog and I kid you not it had red eyes. The sound it made was more like a demon from hell rather than a dog. We could feel the air around us get thick and hot while the sulfur smell became unbearable. Now they would listen and we hauled tail away as fast as we could. The smell and the creature followed us all the way back to the car. We raced off before we even had a chance to shut the doors. I’m not sure what it was but I know I never wanna see it again.
As a child my oldest brother use to take us inside the Harper House back in the late 60s and tell us it was haunted and that people had seen a woman in a long white gown coming down the stairs. That this was seen by many people. I have no idea if this was true but even back in the late 60s to early 70s the conversations were being had. I was very young and still remember that story.
My mom took pictures there and showed me the picture where there was glares where there shouldn’t be
Can you send them to me? I NEED PICS FOR A PROJECT
I grew up a mile away from here on devils racetrack rd. I heard gunfire my whole life. We used to sneak onto the battlefield and camp out. Definitely heard some stuff. Never saw anything though.