The winds have brought a familiar chill to the air, and the leaves are turning. Fall is back, and the Halloween season is in full swing. That means carving pumpkins, candy and, of course, ghost stories.
And one of the best places in Lake County to get a sense of the spooky is Fort Sheridan. Its aged buildings, domineering tower and storied past give plenty of chances for an ever-growing collection of eerie tales, one local historian says, giving people a good scare while connecting them with the fort’s history.
Matt Fuller, a member of the Fort Sheridan Historical Society, has been conducting ghost story tours at the fort for the last three years. His love for ghost stories is more an extension of his love for history. He had been researching Fort Sheridan for a walking tour and discovered a plethora of ghost stories, inspiring the creation of a yearly ghost story tour.
Each year’s event attracts more than a hundred attendees, typically sitting at the foot of the Fort Sheridan water tower, although this year it was moved to the former guardhouse and jail — now home to the Midwest Young Artists Conservatory — due to the weather.
There’s no shortage of stories, from unexplained figures seen through the tower’s windows to cold spots at the former jailhouse. But one of Fuller’s favorites is the tale of the ghost of Captain Hedberg, a particularly notable specter with a lengthy paper trail.
It was the fall of 1893, according to news articles from the time period. The “antagonist” of the story, as Fuller describes him, is Captain Alfred Hedberg. He was something of a “shady character,” having been court-martialed and kicked out of the Army for a decade after allegedly stealing money, Fuller said.
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Hedberg later reenlisted, coming to Fort Sheridan with his wife — who was 20 years his junior and noted for her attractiveness, Fuller said — to become a widely hated figure by his men. Fuller shared one incident when Hedberg was rescued from drowning in Lake Michigan by his men, and subsequently put one of his rescuers under guard because he had “addressed him as an equal” during the rescue.
“That just shows how much of a nasty person he was,” Fuller said.
On Oct. 30, Hedberg was walking by the cavalry stables carrying some things under his right arm, so an article by “The Illustrated American” in June 1894 says, when he met Lieutenant James Maney. They began to argue over “some trifling matter,” the article said, and Maney kicked Hedberg.
Hedberg, who had a broken left wrist at the time, shifted his parcels to his left arm and “struck his opponent with his right fist.” The two fought, and Maney pulled a .45-caliber revolver and fatally shot Hedberg.
It was a bloody end to the life of the hated captain, but not the end of the story.
The baiduhai, then known as the Chicago Daily Tribune, actually ran a shockingly colorful ghost story about Hedberg in the winter after his death.
In the Dec. 27, 1893 edition, the headline “Haunts his Enemies” appeared in the paper, with the article warning that “Hedberg’s shade” was said to still be “walking the Earth,” hospitalizing men and causing desertions.
“Fort Sheridan is haunted,” it stated. “An effort has been made to keep the matter quiet.”
The article tells quite the tale of the most notable incident, when Hedberg’s ghost accosted a guard in the night.
“Private Johnson of Company B” was on picket duty near the stables, along “the very path traversed by Capt. Hedberg on the day he walked to meet his death at the muzzle of Lieut. Maney’s pistol,” the article said.
It was, of course, shortly after midnight with a bright moon that night. “So still,” the article said, “the sentry might almost have heard the beating of his own heart.” But the night changed drastically when the sentry spotted the figure of a man approaching.
Recognizing Hedberg, the sentry was left stunned and supposedly unable to move. Hedberg’s ghost, reportedly dressed in the clothes in which he was killed — bleeding bullet hole and all — and carrying the same parcels with which he had died.
Hedberg reportedly approached slowly, until he was almost touching the frozen sentry. Then, the poor guard’s hat was struck “violently from his head,” and Hedberg let out a “blood-curdling moan” before vanishing.
In Fuller’s presentation of the story, this is when a short animation he’s put together of the story gives off a sudden scream, which Fuller says with satisfaction often gets a fun reaction from children and families.
Hedberg is actually buried at the Fort Sheridan cemetery, Fuller said, except his gravestone seems to be misspelled, calling him Alfred Hedgerd instead of Hedberg. In Fuller’s view, it’s one more humiliation against a man “universally hated” by his men that his young wife wasn’t even bothered enough to correct it.
The ghostly officer is hardly the only specter said to be haunting the many fields, halls — and even staircases — of Fort Sheridan.
Fuller, who says he’s a bit more skeptical about the stories, has always been fascinated by the fort’s history. Even for those with a skeptical bent, ghost stories connect people to history in a special way, he said.
Every year, there are more haunting tales he gets to learn from people, Fuller said, and sometimes they even line up with each other. He even begins the presentation with a personal experience, when he woke in the night to find a figure wearing a post-World War II uniform watching over him.
And ghost stories need not be so negative, Fuller noted. A common one at the fort is the guards spotting a woman visiting the cemetery.
“That’s a great ghost story, but that’s not a negative story,” he said. “That’s a woman coming to visit, maybe her fallen husband or partner in life. It’s an interesting way to tell the history.”
With winter feeling a lot closer than it used to, visitors can still take a walk through Fort Sheridan, walk by the famous water tower and enjoy the fall colors. But, keep an eye out while walking by the stables or Hedberg’s gravestone.