Ghost Stories of the Civil War

Ghost Stories of the Civil War(as also Ghost Stories of the Old West and Haunted Highways) is in the style of recent TV series on haunting and the paranormal. They are short, often second or third hand, and often very vague. Many are more in the nature of folk tales or round-the-campfire-ghost stories. Several of the latter type are stories that I have read in other anthologies, the Beauregard-Keyes House, an old mansion in New Orleans once owned by Confederate General Beauregard, being a case in point. In this account, however, the author gives a more plausible reason for the haunting of a private home by an entire Civil War battle that had been fought several hundred miles away from the house!

In general Mr. Asfar has a good narrative style, and although he does occasionally stoop to pure sentimentality, in this book he does so less often. Many of the stories are recounted to him by people who believe they actually saw ghosts of soldiers of the Civil War. He creates a mood and a history for his tales, often teaching the reader a little about the War. The hauntings at Andersonville and Johnson's Island are cases in point. Anyone interested in Civil War History knows about these two infamous prison sites, one Northern and one Southern, where so many men suffered and died.

Although I doubt that anyone reading them will feel any great apprehension, Mr. Asfar's tales do make for a fun afternoon.