Another man, a volunteer at Fort Delaware, said he would tell his tale if his name was not mentioned in the book.

"No doubt about it," he started, "there's ghosts in here. I've seen them, and I know two others who have reported seeing or hearing unearthly things in this fort. No doubt about it.

"One time, three of us were wandering around on our own, over in the passageway that leads to what they call the dungeons. As far as I knew, we were almost alone on the island at the time. There were some others traipsing around, but they were over by the sally port, across the parade ground. Anyway, we were just lollygagging around when we heard some chatter and clatter coming from inside the old ammunition rooms they used for solitary confinement for the prisoners. I mean, it sounded like a couple of guys, or maybe even more than a couple, were laughing and whooping and hollering back in there. No doubt about it.

"That was crazy, because we knew there was nobody in there. Still, we braced ourselves and decided to go check up. You know, we had heard rumors of ghosts before, and each of us had gotten strange feelings at some time or another in there, but this was really scary because it was so obvious."

The man from New Castle continued his story, and pointed out that he had always been interested in the supernatural, and that fact may have tainted his attitude.

"This ghost stuff has always interested me," he continued, "ever since I was a kid in Wilmington. They used to say the old church down by the Christiana where I grew up had ghosts all over it. Indians, old soldiers and others. Of course, I would always go down to the old graveyard and see what I could see. Never really saw anything, but sure as hell got scared a lot just thinking about what I might see!"

"I know exactly what I saw that time in the fort, though, and those other two guys would back me up. We all saw it, and heard it. First it was the ruckus in the dungeon and then, within a blink, we saw shadowy figures darting about down the corridor toward the cell. No doubt about it. They were all wearing those Johnny Reb hats on their heads, and we knew that what we were watching were the ghosts of Confederate soldiers back in those cells. No doubt about it."

The man, whose distinctive "Dulwor" accent and choice of expletives have been cleaned up, said he and his companions heard the "ruckus" for about two minutes. The shadowy figures with the "Johnny Reb" hats appeared only momentarily, but each of the men would, in the words of their spokesman, "swear on a stack of five Bibles" that every word he spoke was the "galldarn truth."

No doubt about it.