10/30/2009: Thank you to the anonymous contributor for submitting their account of the paranormal activity that takes place around Portland, Ohio. Portland and nearby Buffington Island was the site of Ohio's largest Civil War battle. Residents of the town have reported seeing ghostly soldiers. Both the contributor and his wife have seen the same old Confederate soldier, albeit a year apart.
In July of 1863 there was a Civil War battle in Portland, Ohio named the Battle of Buffington Island. There were over 50 Confederates and at least 20 Union soldiers killed. The graves of the Confederate soldiers were not marked and some were left in the woods to rot. Also there is an Indian Mound not but a few hundred yards from where this happened.
One morning my wife woke, made breakfast for the children, and as she was doing the dishes, she looked out the window which is located over the sink and seen an old man. He had a beard, dressed in the homespun attire of the Confederate army of the Civil War period. He came from under a large pine tree (the kind that looks like a large Christmas tree with branches coming to the ground). He walked from under the branches and looked my wife in the eye. They stood looking at each other for a few seconds, making eye contact with each other the entire time. Then he turned and walked up the drive and onto the state highway. He walked maybe 30 feet, went off the road to the right and just started to fade. Each step he took, he faded until he was no longer visible. There was no fog as this was around 9 AM on a clear, sunny day in July.
A year later I watched an older gentleman, dressed about the same way, leading a large brown and white horse. He had tall boots and a large rimmed hat. He was walking along the yard, went up the drive, behind the garage and did not appear on the other side. My children, cousin and I went in every which direction to find the horseman, but he was no where to be found. He had disappeared. This happened in the morning on a rainy day in July.
A lot of people in the area see things, hear things and feel things that are not there. The family who lives in the house that served as one of the two field hospitals says that they hear and see things all the time. "I know the place is haunted," is what she says. I agree. Not only is her house haunted, but the fields, woods, cemeteries, Indian Mound and basically the whole Portland area have VERY strange things happening!