Charlie Clark Wrestled a Ghost

Cases in which ghosts have physical and violent interactions with the living are always interesting - but I've recently found a case which I doubt many other researchers have heard of. Charles H. Clark, DD, PhD was never a religious man, but something happened while he was stationed in a war against Spain which seemingly quite literally put the fear of God into him, likely meaning that he would go on to get a Doctor in Divinity degree. Instead of facing off against a foreign enemy in this wartime skirmish, his adversary would come from beyond the veil.

## The Spectre of Mister Smith

Our story starts with Charles being rendered unable to fight due to a typhoid-related disease of his left leg. He returned from the conflict with Spain on a convalescent furlough and was promptly sent to Washington Barracks for treatment. He was sharing his treatment ward with two other men - one of which was named Kengla and was suffering from yellow fever, and the other was called Smith and was simply described as '*an undesirable character*'. Smith was apparently quite unfriendly towards our protagonist.

One day, Kengla asked Smith if he could go and fetch him some water. Smith was evidently able to walk while the fever had rendered Kengla too weak to do so of his own accord. Smith retrieved the desired beverage and Kengla drank half of it - after which Smith decided to place the rest at the head of Smith's bed before going back to his own and falling asleep. He thought nothing of it at the time, but at approximately 4:00am on the morning of December 31st he was woken by Kengla, who was presumably panicking under his belief that Smith had died during the night. Smith examined the scene and concluded that Smith had indeed died, likely in an effort to get at the water which he had left in the glass for him earlier. The stench drifting off Smith's cadaver was described as being unbearable, and so he was promptly buried early the next day.

It was now January 1st, and Charles returned to duty. He was assigned to a tent just outside the barracks. It was cold day, and he had been assigned to be tent-watch and to move between the barracks cellar and his duty post to fetch coal. This was a walk of about 200ft. Halfway between the tent and the entrance to the cellar, he was suddenly stricken with inexplicable terror from no apparent source. He hadn't previously been religious - but he couldn't stop himself from crying out that he would be '*in Hell before morning*'. Probably dripping with icy cold sweat, he filled his bucket with coal and made haste back to his tent. He put the coal in the fire and sat down to read, and presumably to contemplate the bizarre emotional disturbance that had just taken place.

However, he didn't have much time to dwell on his mysterious mindset before the likely source of this anomalous terror appeared before him. The tent flap opened, and a dead man walked in. The ghost of Smith made a beeline towards Charles, saying clearly that he had '*come after*' him as he moved. Adrenaline surged through the still-living soldier's blood and he replied '*you'll have a hell of a time getting me*' and rushed at the spectre. One would expect a ghost to be intangible, and Charles certainly considers himself to be a physically strong person - but the ghost easily threw him to the floor.

Presumably alerted to the presence of some sort of struggle within the tent, the other soldiers who had been stationed within said tent entered quickly after the ghost attacked Charles - but they were evidently unable to see the vengeful spirit. They picked Charles up and put him on his bunk, and it can be presumed that the ghost had vanished at this point. To this day, Charles still swears that he was not delirious and had not been under the influence of alcohol. He believes that he fought with the spirit of a recently-dead rival soldier.

## Timeline Trouble

It allegedly took place during wartime, but during which exact war I cannot say. The witness specifies that it was a war fought with Spain, and judging by his description of where he was when the event took place it can be assumed that he was an American soldier. The Spanish-American War lasted for three months in 1898, and confusingly none of these months were December or January - and so that seems to rule out the Spanish-American War as being the identity of this unknown conflict. Also, there is the spanner inserted into the works by the fact that Charles wrote into *FATE Magazine* to tell of his paranormal experience - and *FATE* was first published in 1948. This all raises the question as to where this story actually took place, and the question of when it took place is also very evident due to the lack of any sort of mention of a specific date in the report.

## Source

'Visions of Ghost Armies: Real-Life Encounters with War-Torn Spirits' from the Files of FATE Magazine