Welcome to Splendid Spirits. I'm your host, Gary, along with
my nephew John Santa from Santa Paranormal, where we try to make
sense of the question, what are spirits?
Today we're spending veteran's day in the quiet cemetery
watching John do something he's been doing for years, cleaning
the headstones of the forgotten. This one belongs to a soldier.
In his work documenting ghosts at cemeteries, John comes across
the graves of servicemen and women, while mainly men because
the cemeteries he frequents hold the remains of Civil and
Evolutionary War vets who were predominantly male.
There's a different dynamic to it.
Duty, sacrifice, the need to share their story, but there's
also pride and peace. As John restores this headstone,
we'll talk about his process, how and why he started doing
this, and what he feels when he connects with spirits while
doing this, especially the soldiers.
Again, it's Veteran's Day and cleaning the headstone is just a
small service John provides and thanks for theirs.
Let's dive into the conversation.
Let's let the spirit box run for a minute.
Make sure it's not drowning out the sound.
It's going now, is it? Is it overpowering or is it
good? It's OK, I don't mind it.
I don't think anybody minds it. When the spirit boxes are, we
hear ghosts coming through. Well, sometimes when we talk it
could be conflicting if it's too close and too loud, so.
All right, Well, we'll we'll see how it goes.
We have to move the speaker. It's fine, Mr. Dave.
Hey, John. What's up, man?
Where? Where?
Where are you today? So we are at a local seminary
here in New York in a section that I never ever really head
down to, which is the veteran section.
And the reason for that is there's a lot of newer graves
here, but there's also a lot of older ones as well.
It's a good mix. We are currently at the Civil
War Monument where a bunch of Civil War veterans are buried.
So there's a lot of, So these are all Civil War veterans from
the area, Obviously, yes. What's what are some of the
dates on those? So I mean, we're looking at 1913
nineteen O 9. I can't see the one in front of
us that we're about to clean. What else do we got here?
And then some have no dates. And I believe the ones that have
no dates on them were actually ones that died during the Civil
War. I mean, there's even a couple of
unknown headstones here. So like, you know, people that
they couldn't identify. So, John, you do a lot of
soldiers. Yeah, you find a lot of them.
Especially, especially here in New York, I come across a lot of
Civil War soldiers, and that's because this New York supplied
the most men for the Civil War, had the most casualties and a
lot of these. No kidding, I didn't know that.
Is that true? That's very true.
So when we went to Gettysburg, all we kept coming across were
New York monuments to all the volunteer, the infantry, the you
know, all there were just tons of them because there were so
many different volunteer groups from New York.
Gettysburg Gettysburg, PA is full of monuments to soldiers
from New York. That's I, I, I actually didn't
know that. That's it.
That's yeah. I didn't realize that either.
What made me realize that is when I realized how many Civil
War headstones there are. And I'm like, why do we have so
many in New York? The war never touched New York,
and that's the reason. Do you feel you have any sort of
special connection to to the military or to these soldiers
when you're out there? Did you treat it differently or
what's what do you? What attracts you to it?
So I don't, I don't treat them differently.
I treat them like every other, you know, spirit I would deal
with. However, it seems that when I do
come across a soldier, they do seem more open to speaking to
me. And I, I don't, I don't that I
don't know why. Maybe it's because of what
they've dealt with and what they've seen.
And you know, they're a little more above average than your
average spirit in that regards. So.
And what what emotions tend to come through from them?
Like do you find? Is it pride or sadness or a
sense of duty or confusion? Like what?
What do you usually? Get you know what it is, it's
usually them just talking about it.
It's almost like they just want to like tell their story rather
than they're like, you know, like being mentally affected by
it still. It's almost like they've come to
peace with it, you know, for the reasons they served and the
reasons they went through what they went through and they, they
just want to speak about it in my, in my opinion and like from
what I've come. Across.
Sure, of course. I mean, yeah, we like, we're
talking about your opinion. Have you ever felt like a
collective energy when you're in an area like that?
Like you talk a lot about feeling that vibration, that
jello feeling when you're in a situation where you are going to
buy a monument like that, Is it different than anyone?
Else, Nope, no, no. Gettysburg felt different.
You know Gettysburg. Did.
Gettysburg did as a whole, but as far as like here, no.
Do you, do you feel that they that the spirits of soldiers
like, seem aware, more aware of other spirits in the area?
No, OK, no, except, except I will say this one in particular
that I've dealt with, he had one in one spirit in particular that
I dealt with. Mr. Churchwell seemed to have
almost like spirits around him that were very vocal, some
almost like protective if you will, so that.
But what other ones? I haven't noticed that.
And Churchwell, see, he's one of the one of your first right like
to come through. It's.
Time in this whole process. Yeah, not one of my first, but
one of the more popular, yeah. So we're going to do, we're
going to do a little grave cleaning today and.
On, on. We're going to have to give one
second. Wait a minute.
We're going to be we're this is going to happen a bit every now
and then. We're going to have to repeat
ourselves and I'll explain why, OK?
Groundskeepers. Yeah, yeah, I'm friends with all
the groundskeepers here and and and maintenance guys, so, yeah,
yeah. All right, that's.
No problem. We'll cut around it.
So all right, we're going to do
a little, We're going to do what something you've become very
popular for which I don't think we've really focused on in the
podcast yet, which is cleaning headstones.
Cleaning headstones, Yeah. And being, you know, when we're
going to do it for one of these soldiers today, which I find,
you know, you don't just clean the headstones.
Sometimes you repair flags, right?
You do all that. You make sure that they look
good. I, I make sure they look good.
So like, for example, like like this one right here, like if you
look at it, the flags a little above, you know, you can see it,
it's like above and it's leading.
So we'll make sure that's as straight as possible.
You know, we'll, we'll just make it look good.
We're going to make the whole little area look good and clean
that. What what made you decide to
start cleaning headstones in the first place?
So it was actually just as simple as me communicating with
spirits and go into these same spirits all the time and then
looking at their headstones and going, this headstone is dirty.
And then I just started started cleaning it.
That's that's as simple as it was.
It was like, you know what, let me let me clean your headstones.
Maybe you care, maybe you don't. And come to find out, a lot of
them care. That's amazing and I want to
hear about that for in a second. So it's you just so you found a
dirty headstone, you decided to clean it.
Did you do any sort of like what?
Local. Prep What preparation did you
make to clean a headstone? Did you know about how to clean
a headstone? Did.
You like, yeah, I have. I have years and years of
contracting experience, especially with outdoor stuff.
I've worked for a lot of very wealthy, wealthy people that
have a lot of wealthy stuff outside statues, you know,
artwork and things like that. And, you know, I would always be
contracted to handle the outdoor work.
So I, I've cleaned, I've cleaned outdoor stuff that is a lot more
expensive than a headstone. Let's just put it that time.
So and. And.
This was second nature. No, no.
OK, so that that's that's just so then what is what is your
prep for cleaning when you look at it?
Do you ever look at a stone and be like, you know what?
I shouldn't touch this. Way it looks too fragile.
So for for 1st is the material the stones made out of.
If it's a sandstone headstone, those are those classic like
brown headstones that have like the skulls on them and all like
the also school designs. When you think of like Sleepy
Hollow or like like a lot of old headstones, you'll see it like
Home Depot or whatever, like the mock props are modeled after
these. These are sandstone headstones.
I don't touch them. They fall apart very easy.
Most of the ones you come across are already falling apart.
So if it's a sandstone headstone, I stay away from it.
There are ways to clean those though, but I I stay away from
them for the most part All right.
The second thing I look for is structural the structural damage
to the stone. So I give it a little shake,
shake, you know, I see, I see, you know, if it's going to
topple over while I'm cleaning it.
And then if that's good, the next thing I do is I take my
hand and I just rub it along along the face.
And I make sure that my hand going back and forth isn't going
to knock off any of the lettering or any of the OR
anything. Make sure nothing flakes off it
that's not supposed to flake. And then once it passes those,
you know, once that's it, then we, we, you know, it passes the
test and I can clean the stone. And what are your tools to clean
a stone? Just two basic brushes.
You know, I don't use any metal brushes or anything like that.
They're always like the Poly nylon.
You know, your regular brush you would clean a stove with or like
your kitchen with or a bathroom with.
OK, but it's light scrubbing. That's the thing.
You have to scrub light. You can't scrub heavy with
these. OK, I've heard you say this 100
times. You just use a little bit of
dawn and water. That's it, just a little bit
dawn and water. Because the dog just breaks the
oil apart or dirt off and that's.
Everything. It literally is amazing.
Like what Dawn does. It really is like, yeah, sponsor
me, Dawn. I know, right?
I mean, it's true. It's not just for baby ducks
anymore, you know. Oh my God, that's funny.
And you know, and here's something that's funny too.
I've heard people, and I've seen people in the chat, when you're
doing this, comment on this and critique it.
Why do you clean the stone from the bottom up and not the top
down? Everybody's instinct is to go
top down. Everybody's instinct is to go
top down. So again, going back to my old
contracting days and not just contracting days when I was a
volunteer firefighter, when we're when we're cleaning
anything, you always want to go from the bottom to the top
because if you start from the top, all the suds are going to
rush down and you might miss a spot.
Cleaning from the bottom up ensures that you get every spot
on whatever you're cleaning, whether it's a fire truck,
whether it's a statue, whether it's a headstone.
That is so, I mean, it's what's funny is that it's such a clean
explanation that you never rethink about, you know, it's
OK. That makes a lot of sense.
So when you're out there, John,
and you're doing this and you're got the spirit box going, do you
find it? Do you feel it more as a ritual
in a weird way or a restoration project?
Both. Both and and and a personal
ritual. I feel very at peace when doing
this. Like I could have the most
stressful day going and then all the sudden I'll start cleaning a
headstone and it literally all just everything disappears.
It's just me and the stone. Sometimes I even forget I'm
recording or I'm live, you know, like it's everything just
disappears. And, and, and you can see this
when a spirit says something and I act shocked about it, like,
like, what did you say? Because I forget what I'm doing.
I just get in the zone like tunnel vision if you will.
Right. Sure.
And what's the most moving headstone you've ever worked on?
I would have to say it's the children that come through that
speak about how nobody visits them and how they're alone and
they can't find their family. That's happened to me a couple
of times. So it's it's it's usually the
children got. It got it.
Have you ever had a spirit be ungrateful?
Yes. I've cleaned I I don't even know
how many headstones I've cleaned to date.
Like I can't even think about the number but I've had two that
have did not want me cleaning their headstone.
Funny enough they were uncle and nephew and I had no idea.
I had no idea but they were uncle and nephew and night and
and months apart. We're talking almost a year
apart from each other. Neither of them wanted me
cleaning their headstone like this.
You mean you mean months apart in their death?
No, no, months apart from the cleaning.
Oh, from the cleaning, Yeah, got it.
Got it. Months apart from the cleaning.
And they they want another. What did they say to you?
They basically you could start to hear it.
They, they don't want me there, you know, leave, go away, you
know, stop doing this, you know, things like that.
And then it's like, OK, you know, like.
Did you stop or did you clean it anyway?
Well, so no, I stopped each time.
Oh, well, you know what? It depends if you ask the
Internet, because if you go to those videos that were both of
them went viral, you know, people were like, you should
have stopped immediately. And I'm like, so you want me to
leave the soapy suds on the headstone, You know?
No, I'm going to rinse this off and then walk away from it.
Like, so In my eyes, I stopped. In other's eyes, not so much.
It depends. On you, Yeah, You can't you
can't you? Can't win them.
Off Did it feel different having spirits not want you there?
No. No.
No, it was just like, OK, the only thing, the only thing that
that that does suck is I wish I didn't waste my time with that
one. And I and I cleaned and I
cleaned one that wanted it, you know, like that's the only
thing. But other than that, no, it
doesn't feel any different. Do you?
Is the act of cleaning a headstone business create more
dialogue than when you don't? Do you feel like when you do
that you have a better interaction with Spirit?
No, no, because there's been like, for example, like
yesterday I cleaned the headstone and nothing came
through. Just a regular spirit chatter.
No, thank you. There's no, hey, he's cleaning,
you know, nothing like that. It was just regular.
It's interesting, it's a, it's, it's interesting the kind of
energy but and do you feel, but you feel like children might
respond more when you're there because you're giving.
Attention. Versus a soldier.
No, so, so it's interesting with children, with the children, you
get a, you get a double chance that either the child's going to
come through depending on the age of the child and, or the
parents. So that's another thing.
I've had parents come through a lot that are that thank me for
cleaning their child's head or at least make it known, hey,
that's my son, that's my daughter, you know, like, like,
you know, unmistakably make it known like they say it, you
know, directly. I got to tell you the idea of
energy and imprinting is real, which we like to believe it is.
The idea that the energy around a child's grave I would feel
would be hot, like quote UN quote hotter, right?
I feel like that is what could possibly be worse of a loss than
a parent, you know, burying their child.
Let's let's, yeah. So let's put it in perspective
like this. Let's talk about the data.
I have a higher chance of hearing from a child and, or the
parents or both then if I were to go to an adult's headstone.
If I go to an adult's headstone and it happens, like I've gone
up to some headstones where a, a, a, a child, or at least, you
know, a grown child is like, that's my dad.
You know, that's my father. And it's like, oh, OK, but it's
not as frequent as with a child's headstone.
So there's definitely more of a chance for communicate spirit,
communication with a child's headstone, whether it's
imprinting, whether it's something else, they, they, the
data is there and shows. Have you, have you analyzed the
data in a sense of you know of the words coming through or the
OR the conversation you're getting?
Do you find that it's more emotion based around a child's
headstone versus a soldier's headstone?
That might be more, yes. They might be more reserved.
Yes, So you know, it's so funny you, you, you asked that
question. I did in one day, literally
like, you know, no breaks or anything, cleaned a child's
headstone and cleaned the soldiers headstone.
And that day we got more about the child's than we did about
the soldier. Do you find, I guess is it you
find more facts with a soldier than personality or you or the
other way? Do you see what I'm saying?
Like what? I see what?
I see what you're saying. Both, actually.
Because like, Churchwell is another great example.
Churchwell, before we even cleaned his head, some was
telling us about the Battle of the Wilderness and he was giving
us details. Now we didn't know what he was
talking about because they were vague details.
He was talking about war in his backpack and being hurt and and
dying in the in from his injuries and things like that.
And it that could have been applied to any war.
So we didn't, we didn't know exactly what which war he was
speaking about. And then when he cleaned his
headstone, we found out via the inscription that he died in the
battle, Battle of the Wilderness.
When we looked up the Battle of the Wilderness, he found out
that it lasted for three days, that a lot of soldiers died
after the fact from their injuries they received.
So a lot of the things that Churchwell was saying about the
Battle of the Wilderness all added up.
That's. Why It was both, though.
It was both. He had a personality while he
was telling us. Yeah, we've taught.
Yeah, Church was a good one. I mean, he seems to be one that
was very. And have you spoken to him in a
while or is he sort of faded off?
Yeah, he disappeared for a while.
Like every time I went to his headstone, he wasn't there.
And then when he came back, he wasn't the same.
We don't know why. We don't know if wherever he
went, he left more of his energy there and only a fragment of him
came back. You know, I, I, I don't know.
I still how they don't know. So how long ago was it when you
first came in contact with that? Soldier 2020.
The end of 2022. Beginning of 2023.
OK. And then you were so you you
started a conversation, you started the documenting of that.
And then? And how long before you first
started talking, did you first clean his head stone?
I cleaned his headstone probably about about four or five months
after the initial contact. Got it.
And then how long after cleaning his headstone did you remain in
contact up in whenever you went there?
Up until about the beginning or maybe a couple months after
2024. So about a year.
About a year, yeah. We had a year, a year, a year
and a year and a half about. And did you go in that year and
a half? How often did you visit?
Was it once a week? Was it?
Every other day. Oh, so wow.
So it was a lot. It was a lot.
You talk and you got a lot of contacts.
A lot of contact, Yep. You have a lot of church walk
contact and then all. So it's interesting that that
that's maybe he had got, maybe he got everything out of him
that he could get like, you know.
Everybody we, I told. You all that?
Yeah, we found. All I know is that he left
because he didn't come through at all, at all.
Every time we went and then December he came back and when
he came back he was just, he was different.
He just doesn't speak like he used to.
It's almost like he's weak or a part of him just isn't there so.
All right, well, let's see. Let's see what we're going to be
doing today here with this talk. Talk to us about this specific
session. You said it was the Civil War
Memorial. So this is the Civil War
Memorial, and this part of the cemetery is more dedicated to
veterans. And this is the beginning.
So we have a bunch of different headstones scattered throughout
this square weekend. Again, in this plot.
Some of them were unknown. Yeah.
And others, you know, names. Now, I'm pretty sure this one
has a name. I just can't read his headstone
yet. All right, Well, shall we get
into it? You want?
Are you ready? Yeah.
Let's do it. Let's, let's see what they,
let's see if we can. This person would like to speak.
To us as well All right, so hold on now.
They they recently shut the water down here at the cemetery
for the season, but it's still beautiful.
So I brought some water. How long when do you have to
stop doing this because of the weather?
When the when the when it starts to freeze.
Got it. The last thing, the last thing
you want to do, the last thing you want to do is dump water on
stone that's upright like this when it's going to freeze,
because then the water gets into the cracks and crevices freezes
and destroys the stone. So the second we start getting
freezing weather is when I stop got.
It. Yeah, and that's not going to be
for we got at least another month and a half before that
before the temperature start dripping, dropping, you know,
below freezing. Right.
So and all you need is an hour, not even you know, or a flash
freeze and that's it. And it's done.
So like this, I track the weather, the second it's going
to dip below freezing, that's it.
Done. Yeah.
Nothing happened, you know, not during today.
Nothing. Right.
And convinced play. Well, plus it's probably super
cold. Super cold for you to sit out
there and scrub with water in the freezing.
I mean, it doesn't make any sense.
It, you know what it is because it like it's gonna, I'm gonna
get cold down because it's, it's, it's, it's 50° today and,
and with the wind, it dropped it down to 48.
So I'm gonna get wet, I'm gonna get cold now.
But I've been doing that all my life, you know, all my life I've
been working muddy and cold. So this is actually a treat, you
know, I'll be wet and clean. We're very different.
I do not. I hate that stuff.
I would not do. I mean, I would do that in the
summer. In the spring.
I could see it makes sense. But yeah, I'm actually get wet
and clean. Yeah.
Let's take a look. Let's get into it.
Get into it. Let's figure out who this
gentleman is and hopefully find out where he served.
All right. Perfect.
She's. Hiding All right so this is in
the this is who we're going to get it looks like oh dude I I it
looks like his name is John if I'm reading that I don't know
we'll see when it's clean but. Good me.
Yeah, don't let that flag go up your ass when you're bending
over cleaning the thing. I don't need the red white like
that. No, you don't.
That's a different kind of America.
It's a different kind of American pride.
Yep, Yep it is. Hey, hey, maybe I'll like.
It all right so you got your dawn, you got your water, you
got your scrubber and we're going to get after it here.
So what do you what can you tell us about what you're looking at
so far? So I think what's going to end
up happening with this one is I think this is going to be one of
those headstones that a day or two is going to look a lot nicer
than it did on the initial cleaning day.
Sweet week day. Because there's a lot of rooms
built up on it, OK, Edwards, But we're going to do our best, get
it cleaned. OK.
Spirit, I want to say thank you for your service.
If you can hear me, if you're here and I'm going to get this
headstone cleaned for you. Let's find out who this person
was. Does it?
Do these types of headstones also say like where they served
or what their rank was? Sometimes speculate if I don't
if I don't respond to you when you ask me a question because I
can't hear you sing something, that's OK.
I I I heard that something true, it'll say.
OK, I think. Do you do you think these
headstones were given by like the government or are we still
just family? If I'm going to say the
government just because they're all pretty, you know what I
mean? Now, when you start going at it
like that, can you tell immediately like, oh, this is
going to come out right or no? Yeah, like right now in the back
of my head, I'm thinking this one actually might come out
really good. So what was that sound?
That might have been my Ring doorbell.
OK. Oh, it's like, did a fairy get
his swings? Yes, it might have been a train.
I don't know why that's not off. That's the 10 because you know,
I have where my office is. I have a separate plug, you
know, for the chimes so that I know if someone's walking around
the house. So it's not like it comes
through my phone. It comes through like the the
wall. Yeah, 'cause if you're in your
garage, you can't get it. Yeah, plausible.
You know what's going on? Yeah, exactly.
What annoys me is it's usually like a squirrel or a table of
some kind. Dude, I'm surprised you've never
built like a catapult for the squirrels, you know?
Oh, well, you know what makes it?
What makes it worse is we have the house decorated for
Halloween right now. So there's like a a big hanging
sort of ghoul from a trellis in the front.
Of my. House, so that sets it off the
camera off constantly. Oh yeah, yeah.
Oh wow, look, so you know, looking at this, I mean already
halfway through you could see like the before and after of.
Yeah, it's pretty wild just to start.
Yeah, it's looking good. Face aspect.
Think over here, we're going to have a benefit.
You might, you might, you might not.
Maybe I'm not giving myself enough credit.
Can you make any words out? Yet it says it's a SO 1887
possibly. So usually I like to wait to
read it, but I'll try to read it.
How's the Spirit? Chatter, are we getting anything
new or worthy? You know, to be honest, I can't
hear it. I can't hear it.
I I usually don't clean headstones this close to the
highway and I, I'm down in this area, the highway is right
there. So that sounds it's drowning
everything out on my end. All sounds cute.
So if you hear something, point it out.
The train is. Maybe these spirits can hear me
then much better. It's like, come on, my boy's
doing you a service as you've done me a service, us a service
that's Once Upon a time. We're trying to return a favour.
I'm supposed not a tea search is the.
From where I'm sitting, it looks like John Little.
John Little. John Little is like the name on
the headstone. Dude I could have swore I heard
that through box as that. Then again it could have been
audio Paretolia because of the highway.
It's funny, I thought I heard that through box.
Well, I'll check it out later too.
You know, in terms of. Like right at right before you
said it, Father, No, it's not a lot of work spirit.
Trust me, it's worth it. Hold.
On and and design. Oh man, that might come out
really good. That's looking really good from
where I'm sitting. Back of the United States.
So much easier than the front it's not even funny.
I have no idea why. Well, it's because what?
There's no texture on it, right? I mean, in terms of there's no
lettering, right? Flat, but it's just even like
the flat parts of the front, you know, small doesn't why you
don't need much for the soccer. Hey sorry, yes tops are usually
super dirty because they get the sun and they develop the most
growth. That's weird, I would think the
bottom, no? Everything we Let's stop with a
free ask fly.
Cry. Did that say cry?
That's the case. The world.
Great. Very, very sorry.
I think it's time for The Dirty rights.
Respect. That sounds like a rich.
That sounds like a stage. He said that as if that's a
standard thing. The Dirty rinse.
The Dirty. Rinse Start to get an idea with
The Dirty rinse position of what it's going to look like.
Right. He can't stage British people to
join the club. It's like the club all right.
So I think my original assessment was correct.
Be Nigel. To be honest, which was.
That this is going to be one of those stones that are going to
look better in a couple of days. But I mean, it already looks
great. It doesn't come now.
Let's wait for it to dry. What can you make out so far?
EEC So hold on, let me it's called from OK channel
channeling. So I from what I can see is John
Little he was a Sergeant in the correct correct in the 6th.
I'm guessing infantry. Oh no, NYH, what is that NYHA
for me, I don't know if he was in NYHA, whatever that is.
That's. A thing.
That's a thing. Look.
It up. Let's see if I can look that.
Up. It's NYH, so it's N dot Y dot H
dot a. It was a Sergeant.
Oh God, I like that. Died August 26th, 1887, aged 66
years old. That's the plan.
So he was, he's, he was a veteran.
He survived the Civil War, the converse.
He did not die in the Civil War. He he survived and slipped on.
NYHA. So I'm just looking at that line
real quick. It's so, yeah, I don't.
See paper. New York heavy artillery, maybe?
Oh Yup, Yup Yup, that makes sense, blah blah blah blah, I
saw. That I heard that New York did
not have organized military but they were structured differently
than the Civil War era volunteer regiments active in 1887 the
June general there was an under of New York reported the active
military for organizing 2 regiments companies under 4
brigades. Many veterans of the Civil War
were still alive in 1887, including members of New York's
numerous volunteer regiments, such as.
The New York. Heavy artillery the IT is
possible that NYHA is a transcription.
Unit. For for a unit like that, so it
could be possible that it means that the heavy.
Artillery. Yeah, well, he was 6th, so
whatever. 6th. Yeah.
So wait, it says 6th Reg like it just said.
What does it say exactly again? So it says John Little Sergeant
EOE so Co dot E and then 6th N dot Y dot H dot a the the P is
what it says exactly so. Company Company E of the Sixth
New York Heavy Artillery was a Union Army unit that served
during the American Civil War Recruited primarily from the
counties of Westchester, Putnam and Rockland and New York, the
regiment initially served on Garrison and guard duty before
seeing intense combat in the final year of the war.
This is just straight up. You know Google search.
Initial initial thing if I look at.
Wow, that's wild. OK.
So he's from Westchester. Yeah, man, let me look.
So this is I'm looking up now. DMNA, newyork.gov.
Six Artillery. Oh, wow.
Wait, this is like a list of names.
John Little. Let's see if his name pops up.
Dude, this will. Be should if you're on your
computer, can you F search it or F search whatever?
John Little So you don't go. It pulled up, pulled up APDF and
now I'm just going to like hundreds of pages.
All right, so you could do it through the, you could search
through the PDF with a command key.
I think it's F yeah search. I'm almost I'm almost in the
L's. I'm almost in the L's.
There's a ton of names but hold on, this will be wild if I.
Find Yeah, Holy Christ, you might.
It's. A lot of Ms. Oh, let's see.
LULO dude. John Little.
All right. Is he 40 years old?
Well, he died and he was 66. And you figure if we look at the
years he served, he probably was in his 40s when he served
because the Civil War ended, what, 18, 18?
Listen to this. Listen to this.
Well, this is where John, there's a John Little here is
it? Does he have another initial by
his name? No.
Well, this is the one thing I found at John Little, age 40
years and lived in August. 15th 18 to.
Port Chester Mustard, The Mustard in as a Corporal Company
E, originally 135th Infantry, September 2nd, 1862, to serve
three years. Promoted Sergeant September
29th, 1863. Mustard out with.
Company June 28th, 1865 at Petersburg, VA.
Labor guy. It's got to be same guy, you
know, what are the odds? Yeah, it's got to be the same
guy. Yeah, it's definitely the same
guy. While while you were while.
My name is John and this is Gary Spirit just asked what what our
names are. I'm John, this is Gary.
And we just cleaned this headstone of the Sergeant John
Little. Dude on Wikipedia, the 6th
regiment, New York Heavy Artillery, US Volunteers, the
Anthony Wayne. Girl, how old are you?
I'm I'm in my 40s generally. In my. 50s and and yeah, I
didn't want to say it. I'd like you say it.
I'm early in my 50s. Yeah, you early 50s, I'm early.
Nah, you look a good, you look a good hot mid 40s.
I appreciate that. Yeah, you're very.
Well, with the body of a 48 year old, there you go.
The The Anthony Wayne Guard was an artillery regiment of the
Union Army during the American Civil War.
Was it originally mustered in AS 100 and 5000 and 35th New York
Volunteer Infantry Regiment and sued?
Served as both artillery and infantry.
Trans Feet. Wow.
It's wild. Look at that.
Getting a history lesson here. Final was the Sixth New York
Heavy artillery was at the crossroads of many of the Civil
War's fiercest battles. Their first action occurred in
December 1862 in Maryland. They guarded the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad and occasionally skirmished with Confederate
sympathizers. They guarded the B&O railroad,
yes. Nice.
That's one of my favorite pieces of Monopoly.
Monopoly. In the summer of 1863, they
marched with the Army of the Potomac and served as part of
the reserves at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Wow. After the battle was over,
members of the regiment buried the dead.
Wow. When General Ulysses said look,
this is Wikipedia, so you got to take it with, you know, of
course I don't know how true it all is.
When General Ulysses says Grant launched his overall his
overland campaign in the spring of 1864, the 6th participating
in succession quality battles. These included the Battle of the
Wilderness, the Battle of Spots, Sylvania, Spotsylvania has to be
somewhere where in. Pennsylvania.
What should we name this spot? What should we name this spot?
Yeah, Spotsylvania. The Battle of Cold Harbour.
It's like I found you drink your daddy products, you know right?
What should we name this spot? Spotsylvania.
Yeah, it's a spa. Battle of Cedar Creek, which was
fought on October 19th. October 16th.
It could make cellar, Yeah, I think.
They rallied and were able to repulse the attack thanks to
leadership General Sheridan. Unfortunately for the 6th,
Colonel J Howard Kitching was wounded and died of his wounds
on January 10th. The 6th also distinguished
themselves at the Battle of Harris Farm.
They held their. Ground for over.
Two hours and repulsed a more. Experienced.
General Gordon Mean Mead for their gallantry, conduct in this
affair and classing us with the veterans of the Army of the
Potomac. Wow.
Yeah, that's that's not clean, Clean, clean, clean, clean.
And you know what's? And you know what's wild?
I was just thinking to myself, as this headstone dries, it is
looking better and better, better and better.
I agree. Spirit clean, clean, clean.
It's getting there. I want to ask the spirits real
quick what they think of this headstone.
We clean. They're talking about it now.
Are any of the spirits that are around?
What do you think of this headstone you just cleaned of
Sergeant John Microsoft? Anya Mercy.
Can I hear it? You might need to repeat what
you said, Sphere. We didn't hear it the first
time. I know it's hard to communicate.
You got to get that right frequency.
So give it another try. What do you think of this
headstone that we played today that said something?
You know, I just couldn't make out exactly what it said, but it
said something, something that you guys forever.
Did anyone here serve? With John Miller, Amazon, Great
we go. You could go spare.
You don't need to stick around. John, do you see any other
company E headstones in that area?
We'll see Company B, Company B, company a lot of company BS
where? Is the bugle boy from.
The bugle boy. Where are we that civil war in
general, all all the Civil War regiments used bugle boys
because that's how they communicated commands on the on
the battlefields. Right.
But they the the famous photos from Company B.
That's what they wrote the song about.
Oh, is it the BA ba ba? No.
No, no, the boogie woogie bugle boy of company.
BI don't think I've ever heard that song.
What? Yeah, or I did.
I just, you know, can't think of 50s tunes to 50s.
I I know, I know some 50s tunes. It's interesting.
Yeah. I'd probably have to get it.
Yeah, no, I'm booking right now. Company BA, lot of company BS,
Company A. There's another one that's right
next to this one, but it's leaning and it's not in the back
tape, so I'm not going to touch that one.
John, have you ever cleaned the headstones and a fan it's going
viral or something in the fan of ancestor or family member has?
Kind of. I've had.
Or reached out. Yes.
And obviously they're actually not related.
They just have the same last name and they assume.
And then it's like, Oh no, you know, wait a minute.
No, I'm not related to this person.
And it's like, that's OK, It happens.
Sure. So yeah, that happens quite a
bit. Do you know any littles?
Just Chicken Little. Oh, it just wouldn't work.
Right. I don't know.
I don't remember growing up with any.
Littles either. Yeah, right.
No, no Littles. Rosary beads.
I don't have any rosary beads.
Spirit, I don't have any rosary beads.
Wow. This is looking better and
better with the first as it dries.
I mean, that's, that's always the case.
There is like a very big black spot on the stone that I thought
was going to take days to fade, but that's disappearing as as we
talk. Judge you fine.
Is it in this area? Is are these stones, these older
ones primarily soldiers and or children?
I Yes, there will be. Yes, definitely.
There's a lot of them. There's a lot of soldiers and a
lot of children help me. And also also a lot of
volunteers, like a lot of volunteer firefighters and
things like that. Spirit just said help me, but it
sounded like it was a female. What do you need help with
physically? Are you related to any of the
people here? Wow, you can really read that
it's going to be. Yeah, it's not even done drying
yet. Yeah, we're not even in the sun
anymore. We're in the sun now.
We got a decent amount of shade here.
Sun makes it dry a lot faster, like most things you know I
mean. Yeah.
Like most like right? In case for anybody in the
audience who is unaware of how the sun looks, hey, Please note.
You'd be surprised. Some of the stuff that I have
to, some of the common sense things that I have to say.
Oh. I'm not surprised at all after
getting into this with you. I'm not surprised by it, Yeah.
It is. It is like the, the, I will say
this, the worst part about it is when I'm mentally drained and
then, you know, I'm in the chat and, and somebody says something
just so ridiculous and it's I, I don't even know if my brain just
melts. Well, it's, you know, I have to
wonder sometimes if I think the real problem.
I I want to give people the benefit and I think the real
problem is that they don't think about what they're asking and
they say something stupid and they don't realize what like we
can't read their minds. Yes, it's like that's not,
that's not the question you're asking, right?
You're, you're not actually asking me if the sun dries
things more than the shade, are you?
Is that what the question is right?
Not the thing that anybody has done that, but it's it's usually
you find out what. They oh, I've gotten that, oh,
I've gotten that question. I've gotten that like, like,
hey, why do you, why do you prefer being in the sun while
you're cleaning a headstone? Like I've gotten those types of
questions, like why, why would like being in the sun, like make
the headstone Dr. I've gotten those.
That's, you know, I've gotten. Then I stand.
Corrected that.
Person is a clear and then so I, I, I call, I call people like
that the sacrificial lambs, right?
And that's when I use them for a comedy opportunity to make the
rest of the community laugh. Sure, I might lose them as a
fan, but you know what? It was worth the laugh.
Yeah, it's really, it's really hard.
I mean, you know, intelligence is a bell curve, you know, with
the majority of people being, you know, somewhat.
All. Right, but then there's idiots
and then exceptionally smart. No matter what group you have,
it will always turn out to be a bell.
Yeah, there'll. Be some people the.
Majority will be OK and then they'll have a lot of idiots on
one side and a lot of extremely intelligent on the other.
Right on the other. Yeah.
So it's. Helps.
Having nothing to do with anything.
I deal with a lot of the parents at my kids school because I, you
know, I just, I'm, I'm part of that.
Whole. System and some of the questions
they ask about how school works or what they expect it to work
are so phenomenally stupid that I mean, I, I can't it's it's
almost as if do do you not know what's did you not go to school
yourself? Fly?
Did you not? Do you not understand?
How the world works, it's difficult.
And, and we're like, you're, you're sending your kid to this
private school. It's it's.
I don't understand. Well, national how?
You don't understand this. And then I have to remind myself
like, oh, right, intelligence is a bell curve.
Yeah, some people are going to be extra.
Some people are going to be very smart and some people are.
And most people are just going to get.
It I'll be a cool football. No matter how you how you slice
it. So when I, when I used to do
contracting work and I was running my own jobs and I had my
own little company, I dealt with a lot of people with a lot of
money. And maybe 1% of them were
actually had any sort of intelligence.
But you could tell that money came from old money.
And you know, they don't even know how to turn off, right.
So I would get questions like they sign up about like stuff
that has nothing to do with what I work on, just like, you know,
but I don't know, like, like, like just random things that
would take like where you like. Well, I, I can't.
This is a everyday decision that you should be able to make.
Why do you need your contractor input?
Like I'm here, dude, I'm here to tell you why this plant is dying
and what, where these rhododendrons would look good,
you know, and I'm here to tell you how to get that patio clean,
you know, or where you should put drainage in.
Not, you know, if your kids should go and, you know, do this
instead of this Like what, dude? Like I, I'm serious.
It's it's why? I was I, I remember when I was,
you know, I caddied some summers, you know, when I was at
a high school like, and a high school, early college, I was a
caddy. I would do it over at Braeburn,
you know, over. At and what's the?
Braeburn Country Club and purchase.
Over there? Yep.
Yep, I remember once it started to.
You know, light. It started to Thunder, which
means everybody off the golf and one of these guys is a private
exclusive Country Club and one of these guys is like, I don't
understand why I have. To leave this is Thunder.
It's not the lightning, it's not the same.
And it was almost, I'm, I'm sitting there and I'm a kid, I'm
a teenager and I'm just thinking, how does this?
Person say money than me. How does he have more money than
me? It's.
I mean, yeah. And if someone's out there and
they don't know what Thunder and lightning are, then I'll.
Explain to you briefly. You're right, they're not the
same, but you don't have Thunder without lightning.
True. Well, that's.
Just and you don't stand on a golf course when you hear
Thunder carrying a bag full of lightning rods.
Yes, yes. It's just absurd.
How stupid anyway. You know it really is from, have
you? Ever come across a stupid
spirit? Oh, all the time, All the time.
What's the stupidest thing you've ever heard from a spirit?
So I would, I would have to, I would I'm I'm trying to think,
but I think one time I came across the spirit, if I remember
correctly, that was at it was what was it at?
It was asking me something. It asked to be a very, very
stupid. I'm trying to remember exactly
what it was. I block out a lot of stuff.
You know, my brain can't handle it.
I got to think on that one. That's a question for another,
another. I got to think about it, but I
know I have. Maybe that's an episode we can
do, Which is stupid Spirits. Stupid spirit instead of
splintered spirits. Stupid.
Spirits. Stupid spirits.
This week we're going to cover the dumbest spirits we've ever
come across. Yeah.
Oh, oh, OK. No, I remember.
I remember I came across the spirit once that I was trying to
talk to and the Spirit wanted to talk to me but didn't want to
talk to me. So I messed up.
I messed up to say, you know, I'm not going to pull your leg
about it or, you know, whatever it is, you know, like, you know,
and, and I said, all right, spirit, I'm not going to pull
your arm about it. You know, I'll leave you alone.
And the Spirit's like, you're going to, you're not going to
pull my arm, you know, like, like one of those like.
Almost like understand. Yeah, right.
Didn't understand the idiom at all that you used.
You know, it's like maybe that that the idea of, you know, pull
your leg came. I don't know when that was.
Let's see. Pull your leg.
Yeah, yeah, I'm not pulling your leg.
I said I almost got confused with it, almost like, you know,
I'm not going to pull you towards the conversation.
I'm not going to lead you into the conversation.
We don't got to talk. But I said pull your arm instead
of leg. And yeah, yeah.
And it said that back to me. And I noticed that about a lot
of spirits. They're very literal.
Sure, there, there. I I describe it almost like Drax
from Guardians of the Galaxy. Sure, sure.
You can't say things to them because it go like if you say,
hey, that one over your head, it'll say, no, it didn't.
I'd catch it if it did. You know, like like they say
something like that. I've noticed that with some
spirit. So, oh, that's interesting,
right? Yeah.
It's like the phrase pulling
your leg. You can almost trace it back to
the early 1900s. I need to.
Evidenced by a 1984 article in a New York magazine, which is
obviously an idiom and a a. Turn of phrase.
Right. That means something different
than what what it is. So maybe a lot of things you're
saying to them is just slang. It's like talking to a middle
school kid and they say Skippity.
Yeah, or 6/7. Yeah, right.
That's the newest one. Yeah, it's the newest one.
Yeah. They don't, They don't, they
don't go. You're right.
That's probably going to find that.
They're so literal about it. They don't understand what I'm
saying to them. Because I don't, I don't, you
know, I deal with a lot of spirits from the early 1800s to
early 1900s rather than later. Well, it's like, you know, and I
guess maybe a lot of people aren't talking to them and they
haven't been picking up on the latest lingo or keeping tabs on
it. You know, I have to say this
about this headstone. It's very weathered, like it is
very weathered and we can still read it pretty good.
But like you could see like where the John is is good.
But then as it gets to the little, it starts to fade.
The beginning of the Sergeant is starting to go.
You can still see the company, the E starting to go.
Can you help me? I can try female spirit.
This is the second time you came about, you know what do you
need? I need your name.
We need to know what you need help with things at the well all
we know this could be a relatively.
God, that's what I was about to say.
I was about to ask. Maybe that's like a family
member. Or something.
Of another spirit like can you clean my family's?
Yeah, or it could be a spirit asking you if you help me, can
you clean my headstone too? I don't know.
They have to be a little more specific about it.
Very different argument. You know, it's funny.
I don't recognize any of these last names either.
I'm looking around and I'm guessing they're all from
Westchester, even though one of them, we have a William Monroe
here, Company B, but they were from Massachusetts.
The rest are all of you. I'm not recognizing any of these
names. Reynolds Little.
Why are you asking? Monroe?
Why am I asking? I'm just curious.
We're all from the same area. Thank you, Sophie.
We'll drive. Well, that the headstone right
next to Littles looks like it's bent.
Over. Yeah, that one.
That's why we're not touching that one.
Yeah. It's bent over.
It's loose. I can't read it at all.
Curious. I'm a little curious, spirit,
but not enough to damage the headstone further.
Thank you. Jay is it?
Oh, I just heard it. Heard it.
Thank you. You're very welcome.
Spirit. Is this spirit related to John
over here or was that John himself?
I said hello. See what?
They've given you permission to do this, of course, you know, in
the cemeteries. Do they?
What are the rules for you, one of the guys out there that they
don't want you to do? Or so I'm not allowed to clean
anything. That's oh, I just heard clean
again. They just said clean again.
I just heard it again. So now we just heard clean from
both Vox and Go Super original. So that's why two different apps
just said clean anyway. So yeah, I have certain
stipulations. I'm not allowed on a ladder, I'm
not allowed to clean any headstone that's bigger than any
monument that's bigger than me, and I'm not allowed to use any
chemicals other than dawn. Dawn is the only thing I'm
allowed to use Dawn and water. Oh and like things like D2 or
wet and forget, I'm allowed to use those as well.
OK. What?
They're just afraid you're going to damage something.
Yes. Yes.
Well, the and, and the, the height thing is insurance.
I'm walking. You're walking.
Where are you walking from? So yeah, that's like if I'm
cleaning a stone, all of a sudden it toppled over on me,
you know, like, right. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
But you didn't have to show them cash.
News Men. Any sort of license like.
My business No, no. Oh, and that and they do have a
company that that professionally cleans headstones, but they
they're they're they offer their services obviously to people
that can pay. So older headstones, the
families aren't around anymore. No one's paying.
So I'm also not, I'm not allowed to go into the newer part of the
cemetery and fleet headstones, which is fine because I
wouldn't, right? Right, right.
So those are those are the only stipulations, you know, all
right. Oh, that was weird, John, is
that you? And basically too, that was
weird. Gonna swore I heard like a deep
raspy voice say, you know, I'm John.
But then again, I got wind and I got the highway right next to
me, so. Right.
Things that are lower, it's harder to hear.
What can help? You know well, I don't need any
help, Spirit. We took care of it already.
Thank you. Leveled up my business.
Live in a world. Leveled up I.
Just say level up my business. It always does that.
That's So what Vox does is it takes snippets of radio and puts
them in a sound bank and that is one of their.
Dude, I literally walk around in my live streams going level up
my business. You know, it's like that.
From. It's from a I'm Kiana and I
levelled up my business. It's, it's a oh man, I'm not
sure exactly what it's from, but it's, it's, it's from a
advertisement of some sort. Oh, OK.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's funny. Yeah.
So yeah, it is funny. We all use it all the time.
Dude, it's great traffic. I levelled up my business, so
yeah, it's pretty interesting. Yeah, we hear that all the time.
All. Right, dude.
Well, I think, you know, it's a kind of an amazing thing that
you do and it's, I haven't seen many people do it, you know, so
it's really interesting and it, it allows for a different sort
of approach to spirit communication that many don't,
haven't been able to capitalize on like you have for sure.
Well, it what, what it, what it is, what it is, is that there
are so many people that clean headstones out there like you.
You can almost now especially stroll on TikTok alone and just
find people cleaning headstones. Very few of them will run a
spirit box while doing it. And the ones that do don't
nearly get the evidence that I so you're not going to.
It's rare you find somebody actually using a spirit box
while cleaning a headstone. There's tons of people that
clean headstones there. I mean, there's tons of them
I've. Seen a couple, they don't.
I'm surprised they don't really pop up in my.
Face but. It's surprisingly.
And, and, you know, and, and what else is surprising is
they're very, it's a, it's a niche, you know, and it's like,
it's like an exclusive club, you know, which I'm not in, right.
Like I, I, I am not, I am not in that club because they hate the
fact that I use Dawn. You know, they claim Dawn
destroys A headstone, which I mean, I've proven time and time
again that it does not that. And, and I've done headstones
years ago that still look Immaculate with Dawn.
They claim it's the salt content in Dawn, right?
And I'm, I'm from Westchester, I'm right near, I'm right near
the Long Island Sound. There's more, there's more salt
content in the air. I.
Know it's so ridiculous. There's more pollution in the
air. That's what destroys these
headstones in this area is the pollution in the air and in the
in the acidity of the water because of it and the salt
content coming from the Long Island Sound.
Yeah, I mean, it's ridiculous. It's, yeah, it's, it's, yeah.
They, and they say that Dawn destroys headstones.
It's Dawn, you know, and I use a drop of it, but that was like
literally a drop. So it's, it's really so I'm not
in that club, you know, they, they, they look at and the fact
that I use the spirit box, forget it.
It's like, why not? I, I want to, I, I walk around
cemeteries. I might as well clean the
headstone and see what the spirits have to say about it by.
Yourself, you want to have somebody to talk to.
Yeah, exactly. Because I'm not.
Yeah, I'm back at that. So it's interesting, but I love
it. I think it's, I think it's
amazing. And don't worry guys, once
everything's all said and done, I'll put the flag back.
If you notice, I haven't put the flag back yet.
That'll happen. So I want to reposition that
flag nicer. It's a little weathered and
damaged so I might replace it. Well, that's it for another
episode of Splintered Spirits. Be sure to like, share, and
subscribe to our YouTube channel, Spotify, or wherever
you get your podcasts. Until next time, stay curious.