My children and I had moved into an old house that had been converted into an apartment building . The house had been one of the first houses ever built in the little Texas town where we live . There were two apartments upstairs and the whole bottom floor of the house was our apartment . The house has a basement in it and during the civil war there was an under ground tunnel that went from the closet in the basement to different parts of town . The tunnel I am told was used by rebel spies to carry messages to and from the different fighting factions of the civil war . Now I'm not a history buff and in fact did very poorly in American History in school but the stories I was told were very exciting . We used the basement as a game room for my kids and their friends to hang out and play games or watch movies .We had all noticed things happening such as the door to the basement being open when we knew it was closed and the light in the basement being on when it was turned off . Even when I was home alone when the kids were in school I would go by several times and turn the light off and close the door only to find the door open and light on a while later .There were strange noises and things like that but I just figured it was sounds that old houses made . One night my daughters each had a friend over for the night and all 6 of the kids were in the playroom watching movies. Around 11:00 pm it sounded like all hell had broken loose downstairs in the basement/playroom . The screams that came from there could only be described as blood curdling . As I was racing down the stairs I met my two youngest daughters and their friends halfway up the stairs . They were hysterical and just kept saying something about a man coming out of the closet . This was impossible of course as far as I knew due to the fact that the tunnel in the closet had been bricked up many many years before . The only evidence that there had even been a tunnel there was an opening up at the top of the brick wall which wasn't large enough for anyone to fit through . I had never told my children about the tunnel that had once been there as I didn't want them to get curious as children do and try to climb through the opening or get frightened at the fact that there once was a tunnel to the outside there . I finally got the younger kids calmed down and what they told me made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and gave me chinkle bumps on my arms . They all described the same thing . As they were lying on the futon in the playroom they were watching a movie when they heard a noise coming from the closet . They all turned to look but thought it was just a noise from the old house or maybe a mouse . As they settled back to watch their movie they heard it again only this time it was more like foot steps . Unbeknownst to me , my oldest daughter and her friend had gone upstairs to my daughter's room sometime earlier so they weren't down there when the noises began . The other kids thought it was just the older ones trying to scare them cause they were watching a scary movie . So the kids went to the closet and were going to turn it around on the older kids and scare them when they came through the closet . But who they saw wasn't the older kids . They went to look into the closet but before they got to it they said , a man dressed in clothes that were dirty . The shirt was baggy and his pants were brown with what looked like a stripe down the legs . He had on a dirty hat that was round and bent in the middle . He carried what looked like a blanket tied across his chest and a gun or something like that across his shoulder hanging down his back . They said he had on boots with a flap hanging on them and when I asked how they could see that flap they said that his pants legs were tucked into his boots . They also said that he had a full beard and mustache and looked very unkempt. I took the children into the living room and went into check on my older daughter and her friend but they were sound asleep . It appeared as though they had been asleep for some time . The younger kids finally calmed down enough to sit and have some hot chocolate and cookies and then they lye on the floor in sleeping bags and went to sleep . As soon as they were asleep I decided to go to the basement myself and see what I could find out . I cautiously went down the stairs , peeking around the two corners before I got to the basement . I didn't want to run headlong into a ghost . I'm not really afraid of anything but I don't think running face first into a ghost is something I really want to happen . I looked around the corner at the bottom of the stairs to make sure there was no one there . The tv was still on just as the kids had left it and the light was too . I saw no one there at all . When I had decided that the coast was clear and had started back up the steps I heard a noise behind me . As I turned around to see what it was , in my peripheral vision I saw a movement . I turned totally around and ran face to face into what I can only describe as a rebel soldier . He was exactly as the kids had described him . The only thing they left out was that he had long shaggy hair . He looked as though he was trying to say something to me because his mouth kept moving . I on the other hand could get nothing moving . My feet didn't want to work , my voice didn't want to work , my arms , nothing . I was glued to the spot . As I stood there I thought I saw a tear coming out of the eyes of the soldier . Something about him touched my heart and I began to feel such a deep profound sadness and I had no idea why . The only other difference in the man I was looking at and the one my children had seen was , this man had no shoes on whatsoever . No boots with flaps nothing . He seemed to be reaching out to me with his right hand . But just as he seemed to come close to touching my hand , he left . Just disappeared into thin air . Finally I was able to find my feet and don't know how I did it but I flew up the basement stairs . I called a friend of mine who is an expert on the civil war and described to him what had taken place . As it so happens , he is also an expert in the paranormal . He told me what to say if I ever have the opportunity to see the man again . Which I did . About two months later I was cleaning the basement when I heard foot steps that seemed to be coming from the closet . A few minutes later the man appeared at the doorway of the closet. He had that same sad expression on his face . I said to him what my friend had told me to say . I told him that the war was over and that he could go to peace now . I told him that he no longer had to wander around that he had to go into the light and be at peace . As soon as the words were out of my mouth , the soldier was gone . We never again found the basement door open or the light on . When we close the door now it stays closed and when we turn off the light it stays off unless we turn it on . This is a totally true story . I don't know if the spirit in our basement was a civil war soldier or not , but I do know that my children and I were witness to something that not everyone has the opportunity to witness . Would I like to experience something like that again ? I wouldn't say that , but if it happens I'll know more about how to handle it and what I need to do to send the spirit to where it needs to be .
