Talk:Ghosts of the American Civil War

Latest comment: 3 years ago by 5Q5 in topic Sources

Disputed article

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A highly questionable article littered with weasel words and unsourced claims, with terms like 'is said', 'is reported' without saying who said it. It is also littered with dubious historical claims. Why would Lincoln be seen in the Oval Office when the Oval Office did not exist in his lifetime and the modern Oval Office is only the creation of Franklin D. Roosevelt? How could a ghost be seen 'haunting' a room that did not exist in the 19th century and was in his lifetime the location of glasshouses? It sounds highly suspicious that Lincoln is claimed to be seen in a location that people who did not know their history would have thought was Lincoln's office but in practice was not - what is now known as the Lincoln Bedroom was his actual office. If he was haunting his old office, that is where he would have been seen! FearÉIREANN\(caint) 00:26, 7 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Unsourced claims? This article is well sourced.--King Bedford I Seek his grace 01:38, 7 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Sources

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Hertzog is a tourist guide/advert... —PaleoNeonate16:52, 17 March 2021 (UTC)Reply

Ogden is not much better, the cited pages were restricted via Google Books, but here's another page [1]. —PaleoNeonate16:56, 17 March 2021 (UTC)Reply

I am sure there must be better sources than this, this is a thing and has been so for a while.Slatersteven (talk) 18:38, 17 March 2021 (UTC)Reply
This is a thing mostly in WP:SENSATIONAL coverage, where anecdotal "sightings" are the focus. Legitimate WP:FRIND sources treating the topic as folklore and legend may exist, but I haven't yet seen any. There is a discussion at Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Ghosts_of_Gettysburg_(2nd_nomination) where Mark Nesbitt is discussed as a source for this stuff, but it's the same overly credulous emphasis on "sightings". Thanks for helping with the cleanup of this by the way. - LuckyLouie (talk) 18:50, 17 March 2021 (UTC)Reply

Research leads for any interested editor:

I tried to weed out articles promoting tours or books. Some links in the search results are for a time outside of the Civil War. That's the nature of search results. 5Q5| 15:10, 18 March 2021 (UTC)Reply