Talk:Ghosts of the American Civil War

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A fact from Ghosts of the American Civil War appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 1 November 2008, and was viewed approximately 3,500 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that among the ghost sightings involving the American Civil War are a ghost reenacting one of his defeats in a battle that took place 415 miles (668 km) away?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2008/November.

Wikipedia

Disputed article

A highly questionable article littered with weasel words and unsourced claims, with terms like 'is said', 'is reported' without saying who said it. It is also littered with dubious historical claims. Why would Lincoln be seen in the Oval Office when the Oval Office did not exist in his lifetime and the modern Oval Office is only the creation of Franklin D. Roosevelt? How could a ghost be seen 'haunting' a room that did not exist in the 19th century and was in his lifetime the location of glasshouses? It sounds highly suspicious that Lincoln is claimed to be seen in a location that people who did not know their history would have thought was Lincoln's office but in practice was not - what is now known as the Lincoln Bedroom was his actual office. If he was haunting his old office, that is where he would have been seen! FearÉIREANN\^(caint) 00:26, 7 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Unsourced claims? This article is well sourced.--King Bedford I ^{Seek his grace} 01:38, 7 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sources

Hertzog is a tourist guide/advert... —Paleo Neonate – 16:52, 17 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Ogden is not much better, the cited pages were restricted via Google Books, but here's another page [1]. —Paleo Neonate – 16:56, 17 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I am sure there must be better sources than this, this is a thing and has been so for a while.Slatersteven (talk) 18:38, 17 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

This is a thing mostly in WP:SENSATIONAL coverage, where anecdotal "sightings" are the focus. Legitimate WP:FRIND sources treating the topic as folklore and legend may exist, but I haven't yet seen any. There is a discussion at Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Ghosts_of_Gettysburg_(2nd_nomination) where Mark Nesbitt is discussed as a source for this stuff, but it's the same overly credulous emphasis on "sightings". Thanks for helping with the cleanup of this by the way. - LuckyLouie (talk) 18:50, 17 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Research leads for any interested editor:

site:newspapers.com civil war ghosts
site:newspapers.com civil war gettysburg ghost -tour -"ghosts of gettysburg"
site:newspapers.com civil war apparition -tour -"ghosts of gettysburg"
"Ghosts of the Civil War" Gettysburg Times Oct 31, 1988 (newspaper article).

I tried to weed out articles promoting tours or books. Some links in the search results are for a time outside of the Civil War. That's the nature of search results. 5Q5|^✉ 15:10, 18 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]