Wilson's Creek Battlefield Investigation

Wilson’s Creek was the first major Civil War battle fought west of the Mississippi River, and the site of the death of Nathaniel Lyons, the first Union general killed in action. The battle took place on August 10, 1861.

In early 1896, President Lincoln issued a call for the state of Missouri to enlist four regiments to fight against the Confederate States of America. However, then Governor Claiborne F. Jackson refused to call and prepared to use the Missouri State Guard to seize a United States government arsenal in St. Louis. In response, Union general Nathaniel Lyon moved aggressively against the pro-Confederate Guard, driving the force away from St. Louis and removing Jackson from official government leadership. The Missouri State Guard, now commanded by Sterling Price, fell back towards the city of Springfield followed by Lyon and his army.

Meanwhile, Price had been reinforced by a small Confederate army under the command of Benjamin McCulloch. On August 10, Lyon decided to attack Price and McCulloch’s combined forces while the Confederate were encamped along the banks of Wilson’s Creek.

Address: 6424 W. Farm Road 182, Republic, MO 65738

Phone: 417-732-2662

Owner: National Park Service

Website: www.wilsonscreek.com

Hauntings: While visiting the site of this old battleground, many have reported seeing the ghostly apparitions of these long-ago soldiers, hearing noises that only be described as guns and cannons, cold spots bearing no earthly explanation, and, at night, the sounds of soldiers walking and talking in the nearby woods. Interestingly, more Confederate Soldiers are reported as being seen at this site than their opponent Union troops.

Visitors to the battlefield tell of a range of strange occurrences – from the sounds of exploding cannons to Civil War soldiers marching across the battlefield. The wooded areas of the battlefield are often noisy – with chatter – after the sun goes down. Those voices are said to be of the soldiers, whose spirits remain on Wilson’s Creek to this day.

Some eyewitnesses have reported seeing a small girl delivering water to the Ray House where General Lyon was brought after being shot on the battlefield.

The Ghost Research Society visited Wilson's Creek Battlefield on May 16, 2022 and the team members included: Charles Williams, Paul Adams and Dale Kaczmarek.

Equipment setup: A 4k camcorder and Sony Nightshot camcorder was used and several digital recorders, portable laptop for Phasma Box app, GoPro and full-spectrum camera and a Samsung Galaxy S21 slim ultra was employed for the Facebook Live session.

Experiments performed: A single Phasma Box session was conducted at the bottom of Stop #7, often called Bloody Hill. This was the same hill that outnumbered Federals charged down into a much superior Confederate force and where Union General Nathaniel Lyon was shot through the heart, making him the first Union General to be killed in the Civil War.

Personal experiences:

Charles Williams: Did several small investigations along the battlefield. EVP sessions included the Ovilus, Phasma Box and Spirit Box. We got some interesting responses on Bloody Hill. Paul conducted a Live Facebook session.

Dale Kaczmarek: The Phasma Box produced some very interesting responses on Bloody Hill that seemed to indicate that there are still phantom soldiers fighting a long ago battle here and perhaps don’t realize that not only is the war over but some of them died on the field.

Phrases like, “we’re fighting them”, “Let’s fight” and even responding with the month of “August” when asked what month it was, was fascinating.

I wish we had more time to explore Bloody Hill and see the marker where General Lyon fell, among other locations. We couldn’t just walk through the Ray House as we did back in 2003. They were running guided tours at the time of our arrival, so we could not get inside the building.

About half-way through that Phasma Box session, I swear that I heard the sounds of gravel crunching behind us and quickly turned around to find no real human responsible for that noise.

Paul did a Live Facebook session and it was a little windy so there was some noise contamination on the digital recorders.

Evidence collected:

7pm wilsons.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on Bloody Hill, the device blurted out, “7pm.”

August wilsons.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on Bloody Hill, a question was asked, “What month is it?” The device talked over me but clearly responded with, “August.” August was the month the battle was fought here.

Crunching on the gravel wilsons.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on Bloody Hill crunching sounds on the gravel behind us were heard and recorded on the 4k Sony Nightshot camcorder.

He was a traitor wilsons.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on Bloody Hill, the device said, “He was a traitor.”

I tried to wilsons.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on Bloody Hill, a question was asked,” If you can hear my voice, can you tell me your name?” The device replied with, “I tried to.”

Let’s fight wilsons.MP4 - while conducting a Phasma Box session on Bloody Hill, the device said, “Let’s fight.”

Recorders wilsons.MP4 - while conducting a Phasma Box session on Bloody Hill, I was making a comment about the equipment we have deployed such as Phasma Box, digital recorders…” The device interrupted me and said, “…recorders.”

Somebody been killed wilsons.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on Bloody Hill, the device yelled out in a female voice, “Somebody been killed.”

Wanna stay put wilsons.MP4 - while conducting a Phasma Box session on Bloody Hill, a comment was made, “If it’s the problem that you can’t leave here…you can anytime you want.” The device said, “Wanna stay put.”

Watching us wilsons.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on Bloody Hill, the device blurted out, “Watching us.”

We’re fighting them wilsons.MP4 - We’re fighting them wilsons.MP4 - while conducting a Phasma Box session on Bloody Hill, the device said, “We’re fighting them.”

Where for dying wilsons.MP4 - while conducting a Phasma Box session on Bloody Hill, the device chimed in with what sounds like, “Where for dying.”

Words or phrases spoken by the Phasma Box: we’re fighting, let’s fight, where for dying, where, protection, I know the answers, August, it’s not on us, technology, next week, I can see dozen, what a jerk, 7pm, recorders, pay attention, we have this problem & wanna stay put.

Conclusions: This was the first time that our team actually investigated this location as our first visit in 2003 was more of a sightseeing adventure and not an actual investigation. Again I wish we had more time to investigate more of this battlefield. We did spend some time at the Visitor’s Center for souvenirs, books and looking around.

The spot where General Lyon fell would have been an ideal place to conduct another EVP session but due to the fact that our day was jammed packed with other sights to see, we couldn’t spend a lot of time here. In fact, later in the day, we had to bypass some locations that I wanted to see. The distance between the locations was just too much for one day.

Another trip to this battlefield would be warranted. I also recently discovered that a paranormal team had actually got permission to conduct a short nighttime investigation of the Ray House. Perhaps on our next trip down here, I will definitely look into the possibility of us securing permission to do the same.