MARIETTA, GA -- One Cobb County, Georgia man says that he had a brush with what may have been a real ghost near Kennesaw Mountain earlier this month.

The man, who doesn't want to be identified, said he and his teenage son were driving through Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield the night of October 8 when they spotted something about to cross the road in front of their car.

Both Civil War buffs, they say the rider appeared to be a Union Army cavalry officer complete with a saber in his hand.

"I quickly locked down on my brakes as the horse proceeded to come right in front of us", the driver says. He says the rider then headed straight through a fence as though it didn't exist and faded into thin air. "My son and I were in a state of almost sheer panic," the man said, "but we managed to maintain and get on the way home very quickly."

The driver also told his story to Kevin Fike, a professional ghost hunter who helps run a ghost tour in Marietta.

Fike, who founded Historic Ghost Watch and Investigations, said the sighting sounds like what's known in the paranormal field as a "residual haunting".

He explained it as sort of a historical video clip that's lost in time and replays itself occasionally.

Fike said such sightings are more common in historic areas.

"The most common type of a haunting would be a residual haunting," according to Fike, "then you add to that the emotion and the trauma associated with battlefields or hospitals."