The Drum Barracks Civil War Museum was the former US Army Headquarters for Southern California and the Arizona Territory from 1861-1871. It is housed in the last remaining wooden building of Camp Drum. First called Camp Drum, it was named after Richard Coulter Drum. The building was set for demolition in the early 1960’s, but local citizens campaigned together to save and open the historic building as a museum in 1987. 
Drum Barracks once covered sixty acres of land. It served as the main training, staging, and supply base for Army military operations in the Southwest. The Drum Barracks hospital boasted to be the best equipped and staffed medical facility west of the Mississippi River.
Liz, Denise, Maddie, and I were in the Long Beach area for a weekend ghost hunt and stopped at the Drum Barracks Museum early Saturday morning. California paranormal teams had recommended the visit since they had experienced ghostly happenings in the past. The museum has also been featured on several TV programs including “Most Haunted.”
The first stop on our tour was the parlor which is decorated in furniture of the 1860’s Civil War era. Officers would have gathered around the 1864 Steinway Box Grand piano to share music, read the newspapers, play cards or write letters to loved ones at home. They say one evening a guest was playing Dixie on the piano which caused the lights to blink on and off in the house until the music stopped. When guests offer to play a melody on the piano, the spirit activity suddenly increases throughout the building. An apparition of a woman in a hoop skirt has been seen in the hallways and sensed by a strong odor of lavender.
There is a model room that displays a small-scale reconstruction of the sixty-acre site as it looked in 1863. The display features wooden models of the officer quarters’ buildings, hospital, barracks and support buildings. There is also a research library where Civil War buffs can study the Civil War period, especially the western states. We found the displayed belongings of a Civil War veteran most interesting. Along with his artificial leg, were stories and excerpts from is diary and several photographs. Guests hear footsteps and someone moving about the room only to look up and find they are alone. 
We experienced the most activity in one of the upstairs bedrooms. The room featured a beautiful bedrooms suite of black walnut furniture reaching nine feet in height. The guides informed us that often the aroma of a cigar or sweet pipe tobacco smoke seems to fill the room and slowly dissipate. As if on cue, the room suddenly had a faint cigar odor in one corner of the room. Our guide assured us there was absolutely no smoking allowed anywhere near the building. We snapped a few photos and excited about our encounter with the Army Officer of the past!
If you go:
Follow Pacific Coast Highway east from the I 10 Freeway or west from the 710 Freeway, to Avalon Blvd. Take Avalon south to L Street. Turn left on L Street and go three blocks to Banning Blvd. Turn right on Banning, drive one block and look for the white building on the left with the fenced-in parking lot.
Drum Barracks Civil War Museum 
1052 Banning Boulevard
Wilmington, CA 90744
310-548-7509
For more info: www.mvdghostchasers.com
Debe Branning nazanaza@aol.com
Comments
It is interesting to note that smell is often used (rather than vision or even hearing) by departed spirits to make us aware of there presence.I have had several experiences over the last few yrs of being confronted by smells more specifically by the powerful smell of pipe tobacco smoke in one of the bedrooms of a house that I rented.A room that our dog refused to go into. Amazing because no one in our home smokes. I am collecting stories of supernatural experiences which I hope to publish in a book. I have already written one book "too much baggage for the promised land" which can be obtained from Amazon.com or from eloquent books and have dedicated a full chapter to some supernatural experiences that I have had.
Spirits have different ways of manifesting and some are easier than others. I believe leaving a odor or smell that was associated with them is one of the easier ways to make themselves known. It tales more energy to move something, make a noise, or become an apparition.
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