Episode 3370: Dark Enigma - Strange Tales and Mystery Monsters From the American Civil War

Please be aware the stories, theories, re-enactments and language in this podcast are of an adult nature and can be considered disturbing, frightening and in some cases even offensive.  Listener Discretion is therefore advised. 

Welcome heathens welcome to the world of the weird and unexplained.  I’m your host, Nicole Delacroix and together, we will be investigating stories about the things that go bump in the night, monsters lurking under your bed or deep in the forest, that unknown creature lurking just out of sight and frighteningly imagined creatures, ghosts, supernatural beings and even some unsolved mysteries.  So, sit back, grab your favorite drink, and prepare to be transported to today's dark Enigma.... 

And on today’s Dark enigma well, with the kiddos back to school in most places, I thought maybe it’s time we learned a thing or two here on Dark Enigma.  So, with that said, we will still be playing our drinking game and as you know, the drinking game is only for those of us that are at home and have nowhere else to go tonight.  The choice of libation, as always is yours my darlings, so choose your poison accordingly… Alright, now for the game part how about every time I say Civil that will be a single shot and every time I say monster, that will be a double shot.  Now that the business end is out of the way we can jump headfirst into today’s dark enigma… so grab your civil war memorabilia, and throw on your Best Scarlett O’Hara as we travel down to my neck of the woods to search for Strange Tales and Mystery Monsters From the American Civil War.

There are few conflicts in history that illustrate the horrors of war quite as spectacularly as the American Civil War, also known simply as the Civil War. Fought from 1861 to 1865, it was a fierce, gruesome struggle fought between the Union armies of the north and the Confederate armies of the southern states, in which hung the balance the survival of the Union, the secession of the eleven states of the Confederacy, the direction of the United States, and the future of slavery in America. 

The aftermath of the war would see slavery ended, the infrastructure of the South in ruins, and over 750,000 dead, and is by far the deadliest war in the history of the United States. Yet among all of the grim history of battles and death that hangs over the Civil War like a dark specter, there are scattered throughout curious tales of the strange, and it seems that there was more than just the enemy lurking about the battlefields of the era. Out of the war come stories of bizarre beasts that prowled through the wilderness to evoke curiosity, bafflement, and indeed fear in the bedraggled troops of both sides. Mostly lost to the mists of time, these perplexing accounts are a bizarre look into another, stranger facet of America’s bloodiest war.