Phantom Cannon Fire!

Monday, March 20, 2009, 11:09 p.m.

I was in the lobby sitting behind the front counter playing on the computer.  Suddenly, I heard a series of very loud booms.  As soon as I heard those loud booms, I felt the floor beneath my chair shaking and noticed the windows rattling.

I ran to the front door of the lobby, opened it and stepped outside.  I thought that certainly one of the guests must have heard them.  However, there was no sound and no curious guests outside to investigate those tremendous booms.

Having attended many artillery displays in Gettysburg, I can adamantly say that they were clearly the sounds of cannon firing.  There are no artillery demonstrations in Gettysburg at 11:00 p.m.  Never any demonstrations of any kind at all at that hour.

The battlefield was still in winter hours and it closed at 7:00 p.m.  Hmmmm.

On the afternoon of the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, six artillery pieces from Battery "B" of the 4th U.S. Artillery (cannon), commanded by Lieut. James Stewart, were heavily engaged against Confederate infantry in the defense of their position on Seminary Ridge.  The hotel sits on Seminary Ridge and three of those artillery pieces sat where the west wing of our hotel sits today.

Just across the road (Rt. 30)  from the hotel, also sat Lieut. Benjamin W. Wilber's section of Battery L, 1st New York Light Artillery (cannon).   Just south of these guns were the six Napoleons (cannon) of Captain Greenlief T. Stevens' Fifth Maine Battery B, 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery.  Also, interspersed were four other cannon of Battery L, 1st New York Light Artillery, under the command of George Breck.

All in all, there were 21 cannon pieces lined up across the road from the hotel and on the hotel grounds.  Is it any wonder we hear phantom cannon fire?