July at the Pratt Features Zadock Pratt, Ralph Ingersoll, and the Ghost Troops of WWII

PRATTSVILLE—We have an exciting month of events here at the Zadock Pratt Museum and hope to see you at some or all of them! Mark your calendar for Saturday, July 13th, when former Pratt Museum curator Suzanne Walsh will be giving a lecture on the Zadock Pratt, Ralph Ingersoll, and The Ghost Troops of WWII.

Join former Pratt Museum Curator Suzanne Walsh as she recounts the recently declassified story about how Zadock Pratt’s great grandson, Ralph Ingersoll was front and center in the smoke and mirrors escapades that saved the lives of thousands of US troops and helped win the war in the operation of the “Ghost Army of World War II”. 

“Every army practices deception. If they don’t, they can’t win…” (RTD. USA Gen. Wesley Clark). The “Ghost Army of World War II” tells an almost unbelievable story of not just any kind of historical military deception, but one that was audaciously out-of-the-box, due to a big helping of Ralph Ingersoll, himself.

Because of the declassification, we now know in June 1944 the United States Army created a new one-of-a-kind secret unit called the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, a regiment formed to deceive and confuse German troops in Europe during World War II into not only believing the US military had far more forces in Europe than it actually had, but also into believing a decoy army was the real one while the real units critically operated on the front lines elsewhere.

Relying on the talents of inspired actors, writers, artists and fashion designers, this regiment of patriotic “con artists” was a tactical deception unit designed to be flexible and stealthy enough to create battlefield illusions in one strategic location and vanish, only to appear suddenly in an entirely different location, confusing the enemy and manipulating Hitler’s decisions. Their military equipment consisted of the brilliant and creative maneuvering of inflatable rubber tanks, jeeps, artillery positioned in sight of front lines. Their illusions and trickeries were completed with fake radio broadcasts, sonic noises, amplified recordings of US troops quietly shooting the breeze, along with phony messages disseminated in code, all of which theatrical complements contributed to these “Cecil B. DeMille Warriors” helping to win the war--big time!

The Ghost Army had camouflage, sonic and radio. The camouflage unit was equipped with inflatable tanks, cannons, jeeps, trucks and airplanes. What began as a spic idea in Ralph Ingersoll’s imagination helped win World War II. In the end, the Ghost Army—and Zadock Pratt’s great-grandson, Ralph Ingersoll—would be credited with saving an estimated 25,000 lives with their creative deceptions.

Later in the month, we are celebrating alongside many cultural institutions in the region for Upstate Art Weekend. We will have a reading by local author Jennifer Kabat, a panel discussion on the current exhibition Whose Folk, and the Second Annual Zadock Pratt Lecture: Lafayette’s Visit to Greene County, NY by Greene County Historian Jonathan Palmer.

The Zadock Pratt Museum’s mission is to excavate, elevate, and share the rich histories and cultures of Prattsville and the greater tri-county Catskills region. With the life and legacy of Zadock Pratt at our core, it aims to be a critical beacon of local research and education; serve and preserve through community-minded programming, events, and encounters that tell expansive stories; and to contextualize and cultivate ideas that matter.

The Zadock Pratt Museum is located at 14540 Main Street, Prattsville, NY 12468. Admission is Free. Refreshments are served. Visit us at zadockprattmuseum.org or on Facebook @ Zadock Pratt Museum for more information. The Museum receives generous support from the Bank of Greene County, Greene County Legislature’s Cultural Initiative Program, Nicholas J. Juried Foundation, and the Town of Prattsville.