It was early fall and Tim Henderson was just settling into his new home in New Hampshire. The homes in his neighbor hood were all Victorian homes that were pre- civil war era. A large and dense forest covered Tim’s backyard. Tim was a quiet kid who kept to himself and made few friends. The first day of school had proven this, and it wasn’t until Tim’s last hour class that he met a kid named Jason Stokes. Jason was a quiet kid as well with not to many friends. The boys hit it off and found out that they lived near each other. Both boys loved the outdoors and an adventure. Jason came up with the idea of a large tree house in the woods behind Tim’s house. The boys go to the town library in search of a map of the area, this way they can find a good location for the fort. While looking at the map, Tim notices that within the woods is there is an old civil war cemetery. Tim asks the librarian about the cemetery and she says she knows little about it but had heard of it. An old man reading a newspaper overhears Tim’s conversation and interrupts “I’ve heard about it all to well”, the old man said. Tim turns to the man and acknowledges him. “It’s haunted” said the old man. “What is?” said Tim. “The whole woods” replied the old man “and I’ve seen em.” “Seen who sir?” “The ghosts of those poor souls” said the old man. Tim and Jason leave the library confused and a little creeped out by what the old man had said. The next day at school Tim asked a kid if he had heard anything about the woods or the ghosts. The kid said that one specific neighbor Mr. Collins was on his way to work one day and out of the fog of the woods walked a fully uniformed union soldier, musket and all. He said he was holding his left arm and his coat were stained with blood. He said he had to slam the breaks to avoid him and the man just glanced at him and continued across the road into the ravine. The boys pay little attention to the talk and decide to venture to Mission Creek, deep in the forest to construct the tree fort.
     It takes the boys about a week to bring all of the lumber and tools to their site. The area is beautiful in an eerie way. It is completely silent and a lingering fog in hanging in the air and over the creek. The leaves have all turned and some are falling silently from branches to the moist ground below. The boys stand completely still and take it all in. Jason breaks the silence and says “we better get started on the fort.” The day moves by quickly, and before the boys know it the woods by Mission Creek had become quite dark. The Boys surprise themselves with the progress they make on the fort. Tim signals to Jason that is pry time to start heading back. So the boys begin to head away from the fort. The woods have become silent yet again and the only sound is the crunching leaves below their feet. Suddenly Tim stops and says to Jason “do you hear that?” It sounded like the sound of leaves crunching faster and faster behind them. Out of the darkness came a figure, it was a boy dressed very different. He was yelling and Tim and Jason began to run. The boy ran right past them and Tim noticed that he was dressed strangely like a soldier. The figure disappeared into the forest ahead of them and the yelling faded off into the distance. Tim and Jason didn’t stop running; they ran all the way to Tim’s house and just stared at each other. Finally Tim broke the silence and said “what the hell was that?” Jason started to cry, repeating “I don’t know, I don’t know.” Tim thought about the story the boy had told him at school and the old man at the library. He shook his head and said “it can’t be true.”
     The next day at school the boys didn’t say anything to anyone. When the final bell rang the boys sprinted out of school and ran all the way to the fort. It was just the way they had left it. Tim and Jason got right to work on the fort. It had been a few minutes before Tim said “I can’t get it off my mind, I have to go look for him or something.” Jason just sat there and started to cry again. “That really freaked me out” said Jason. Tim gave Jason a look that said it scared him to and the two boys ventured out into the woods. Tim pulled out a map of the area that he had printed off from the library. The civil war cemetery plot was only about a mile north of the fort. The hike wasn’t bad and before the boys knew it they came to a very small clearing in the middle of the woods. A rusty gate surrounded what looked to be the cemetery. Only a few stones were visible. Tim opened the gate after a bit of prying and entered the cemetery. Streams of light shed through the trees and hit the forest floor. Tim began to sweep the leaves off the grave stones. Jason stayed back and didn’t say a word. Tim read a few of the names off of the forgotten souls. “We need to get going Tim” said Jason. Tim ignored him and continued to read the names. Finally he found what he was looking for. On a broken stone Tim read the name, Joseph Wilks, a thirteen year old boy who had been killed at the battle of Mission Creek. Tim exclaimed “this must have been the boy we saw last night Jason!” Jason couldn’t hold back his tears and began to cry again. “Tim, there isn’t such things as ghosts.” “I didn’t believe it either till now, but we saw him Jason, you know we saw him.” Tim looked at the name again, Joseph Wilks. “Jason this kid was our age” said Tim. Jason just got up and began walking away. Tim hurried out of the gate after him. “I’m only worried about the tree fort, not this other stuff.” Tim and Jason had been walking for about fifteen minutes when Tim stopped. “Jason, do you hear that?” Both boys stopped and listened. It sounded like screams and yells in the distance. Tim started to walk towards the sounds and Jason hesitantly followed after him. As they walked, the yells got louder. Tim got on his knees and began to crawl, Jason did the same. The boys crawled behind a large tree and peered around it in horror. About one hundred feet away stood twenty or so Union soldiers. Some were missing arms, legs, and even heads. Yet the ones without heads still stood fully erect. Jason rolled over and threw up. The yells and moans of the men sent chills down the boy’s spines. One particular soldier had a hole through his stomach and you could see right through him when he turned. Jason jumped to his feet and began to run. The rustling of him feet on the leaves startled Tim and he screamed. The soldiers glanced in the boy’s direction. There was a moment of indecision and Tim was frozen, staring right into the eyes of one particular soldier that looked like the boy they saw the previous night. In the distance Jason yelled “run Tim.” Tim broke from his frozen panic and began to run. So much was going through his mind. He looked back, they were gone. Tim caught his breath and turned around. He gasped! Twenty mangled soldiers said together, “the woods of mission Creek are ours.”

     Tim Henderson was never seen again. A full scale search was sent out to find him. All investigators found was the boys partially made tree fort, Tim Henderson’s jacket, and DNA samples of Henderson’s blood on the tombstone of past civil war soldier Joseph Wilks.

     Jason Stokes tried to tell the story of the ghostly figures that he had seen in the woods. When nobody believed him and he was blamed for Tim Henderson’s death, he was sent to a mental institution in upstate New York.