WASHINGTON COUNTY - It was a dark and rainy night, and the Pry House certainly looked as though it should be haunted.

As we turned off Md. 34 in the area of Antietam National Battlefield, two well-lighted houses were visible from the road, and we hoped one of those was the building where we had arranged to spend the night. But no such luck. Those were people's homes. Nice, warm, probably-not-haunted homes.

Our destination was farther down the dark lane. The Pry House was a Civil War-era home that served as a hospital during the Battle of Antietam and was rebuilt after a fire in the 1970s.

Washington County firefighters reported seeing a woman in the second-floor window as they fought the blaze.

A key part of that story was that the second-floor had collapsed before those firefighters glimpsed the woman.

I sat in the car with a feeling of trepidation, cursing myself for volunteering to spend the night in a haunted house. I don't handle scary movies well. My first night alone in my own apartment was sleepless as I listened to "ghostly" footsteps in the hall and tried to sleep flat on my back so nothing could sneak up on me.

According to the "Do's and Don'ts of Ghost Investigating" provided to me by the Maryland Ghost and Spirit Association, a wimp like me is an ideal ghost hunter.

Rule No. 5: "Do not go with a skeptic's negative energy, this will affect your investigation. If you believe that there are no ghosts you will not be able to pick up their energy."

Plus, the editors decided a story written by someone who was completely freaked out would be better than a story by someone who didn't believe in things that go bump in the night.

So here I was.

We pulled over and waited for the arrival of George Wunderlich, director of the Pry House, which now is a museum of Civil War medicine. He led us past the gate and up a hill, where we parked.

The rules of ghost hunting, specifically Rule No. 12, implore you never to go on these investigations alone. I had convinced a friend that a night in a haunted house would be a great adventure. The friend, co-worker Erin Cunningham, and I briefly discussed spending the night in the car rather than inside the large, dark Pry House.

Photographer Ric Dugan arrived moments later, and George gave us a tour of the Civil War-era home that had served as a hospital during the Battle of Antietam.

Inviting a visit

Half an hour later, it was almost 10 p.m. and George was gone. Before he left, he told us which room was the one where firefighters claimed to have seen the woman. So naturally, we set up camp there.

The room now houses a long table and looks more like a simply furnished boardroom than a place where a ghost would materialize.

What I didn't know at the time, but learned later during a debriefing with George, was that General Israel Bush Richardson died in that room on Nov. 3, 1862. Popular belief, among those who believe, is that his wife, who visited him as he lay dying, was the woman seen in the window during the fire.

Throughout the night, my companions called out to Mrs. Richardson, inviting her to visit. I tried to shush them, not entirely sure I wanted to make the acquaintance of someone who died more than a century ago.

But if she did show up, I knew what to do. Ghost investigation Rule No. 17: "Remember to be respectful of the ghost."

I also briefed Ric on Rule No. 18: "Ask the spirit's permission to take their photo. Explain why you are there."

In a quest for something to photograph, we trooped outside.

We had left on every light in the house, and once we were outside, the Pry House looked like a giant jack o' lantern. With no spirits in sight, I sat on the porch posing and taking "notes" for a photograph.

Rule No. 11 of ghost-hunting: Bring a notebook so you can keep a log of your investigation.

Not having any ghostly experiences to write about, I scribbled "Ghostbusters!" multiple times in the margins of my notebook.

Back inside, we wandered around the house for a bit, mostly upstairs, until we found something in the bathroom that caused a stir. Letters addressed to "Mrs. Richardson" hung over a towel rack. The correspondence was from a Mrs. Rose, who encouraged the woman to continue her good work.

The next day, I asked about the letters, and George explained that they were left behind last year by several women from South Carolina who did a living history event at the Pry House. The museum staff loved the notes and decided to leave them up, he said.

Telling tales

George was eager to share ghostly stories about the Pry House.

His first day at the house, he was hauling out junk and had opened all of the doors in the house. Each door slammed shut, from the front to the back of the house. A breeze could have blown one of the doors shut, but couldn't have reached all of them, he said.

George opened all the doors again. Again, each door slammed shut, this time from the back of the house to the front, he said.

In another instance, George's son, 12 at the time, was alone on the second floor of the Pry House. He walked downstairs and told his father he saw a woman in 19th-century clothes walk out of an upstairs office by going through the wall.

George also told me about a National Park Service interpreter who once spent the night in the barn on the property and said he watched a lantern walk down the old road, which now is in the middle of a field.

By midnight, we were bored, so we went outside again. Although we couldn't go inside the barn, we wandered around it looking for signs of ghostliness. According to George, people have heard singing coming from the basement of the barn in the middle of the night.

We weren't that lucky.

While we were walking down the lane toward Md. 34, Erin thought she saw a person through a front window of the house. Ric decided the shadowy figure was just a lamp.

After some snacks - doughnuts and chips seemed like appropriate ghost-hunting munchies - we played a few hands of blackjack. Maybe the ghosts would sneak up on us if we were distracted.

No ghosts.

Going it alone

By 2 a.m., the other Erin was asleep.

I got brave and walked across the hall alone to peek in another office, thinking that if I were alone, something would happen.

No ghosts.

I went downstairs to read all of the museum's displays and learn more about the history of the house. Rule No. 6 of ghost-hunting: Do research on the area that you plan to investigate. Learn about the people who lived there in the past.

Every few minutes I went to find Ric, to make sure the footsteps in other rooms were his and not Mrs. Richardson's.

I read on the Internet that temperature changes indicate the presence of spirits. The room did get warmer, then colder, but a skeptic could blame that on the air conditioner turning on and off.

At 3 a.m., a loud noise startled me out of my half-asleep daze. We finally had turned off the lights, which definitely boosted the creepy factor.

But the noise sounded mechanical, not ghostly, and seemed to come from the basement, where the water pipes, a washer and dryer, and miscellaneous other modern conveniences were kept.

An hour later, we finished off the doughnuts and I had played on a laptop for awhile (Full confession: The Pry House is wireless, and I left Facebook messages with several friends and checked in with www.herald-mail.com).

By 5 a.m., I was totally over the whole ghost thing. I curled up on a chair and conked out.

Ghostly indicators

The following indicate ghostly activity, according to Beverly Litsinger, president of the Maryland Ghost and Spirit Association.

· A change in temperature.

· A feeling of being watched.

· If a ghost is around, the hair on the back of your neck will stand up.

· Ghosts often make noises, such as footsteps or banging.

· Sometimes ghosts move things.

· It's possible to see a ghost. They form misty shapes before the body shape.

·There are orbs, round circle shapes, and ectoplasms (big smoky mists).