My most compelling earthlight / ghost light / will o' the wisp experience also happened in the American South - in northeast Tennessee (in the Appalachians). It was similar to Seminole10's sighting in that the light first appeared to be moving so as to suggest it was held by someone walking.
NOTE: I'm certain I posted this years ago on FTMB, but it appears the post has been lost. Anyway ...
It was summer 1963. My Boy Scout troop was spending a week at (the now-defunct) Camp Tom Howard, just off US Hwy 421 east of Bristol, Tennessee. (Note 1) Each troop had its own campsite, with tents, cots, and a campfire pit. Our troop's campsite was perhaps the most isolated one of all. It was situated up on a spur ridge that rose from the camp's central area and led up onto / into the wooded mountain overlooking the camp (Holston Mountain). A steep trail led up from the camp's center onto an ridgeline with 'peaks' and 'sways'. You crossed over two minor 'peaks' along the trail before arriving at our campsite, where the trail terminated.
The campsite was basically just a clearing atop the ridge. A row of tents ran along each side of the ridge's crest, which was open with the campfire pit in the middle. At the upper end of the clearing sat the leader's tent. Behind that tent the ridge became steeper as it ascended to the flank of the mountain above. The ridge dropped away steeply on each side, and we were surrounded by mixed deciduous forest with medium undergrowth.
My best friend and I occupied the tent sitting next to where the trail entered the campsite. It was past 'lights out', on a clear and moonlit night. We were lying on our cots talking. The tent's front flaps were pulled back so we could look out into the woods and the valley below the ridge.
We noticed a light maybe 60 to 80 yards away - in the direction of the first 'peak' one crossed when following the trail up to our site. The light appeared to be discrete, round, and yellow with a slight greenish tinge - somewhat like a bright firefly. However, once we determined its location it was clear the light was too big to be a firefly, and it wasn't blinking. The light appeared to slowly bob up and down. We then realized that the light was also apparently moving along the trail (along the ridge crest) toward us. We originally thought it must be someone with a flashlight coming up to our camp. Since it was a rules violation to be out after bedtime, we positioned ourselves to find out who it was.
We watched the light continue to follow the trail, slowly bobbing up and down as if being carried by someone walking. We watched it descend slightly from the first 'peak', climb and cross the second 'peak', and approach our position. The light seemed to be continuous, except for blinking obviously associated with passing behind the undergrowth bordering the trail.
The undergrowth stopped where the trail entered our site's clearing. My friend and I were only about 15 feet away from the point where the trail entered the clearing, so we could get a clear look at whomever was out after hours.
After some 2 to 3 minutes of our continuous observation, the light entered our site's clearing. Instead of the flashlight we originally presumed, it turned out to be a sphere of pale light floating along some 3 to 4 feet in the air above the trail. It was no smaller than a golf ball, and no larger than a tennis ball. It was pale yellow with a slight greenish tinge. It was a single spherical shape with no features.
As it came out from the underbrush lining the trail, we had a clear view across the clearing (and on to the valley beyond) with the ground before us illuminated by moonlight. There was no person (or anything) holding the light up. There was only the light itself.
It continued at its sedate walking pace - bobbing up and down as if with footsteps - up-slope through the center of our campsite. It barely missed the leader's tent at the clearing's uphill end before continuing up onto the steeper slope leading upward to the mountain, thus disappearing into the forest. All this happened in total silence.
My friend and I compared our observations, and we agreed we'd both seen the same thing (as described above). During our week at camp we asked around about weird phenomena (ghost tales, etc.) associated with the camp, but nobody knew of any such lore.
I've never been sure how to categorize what I saw. Right or wrong, in my experience 'foxfire' referred to static luminescence and 'will o' the wisp' to tenuous or flame-like lights. What we saw that night certainly wasn't static, and it had a consistent discrete spherical shape. I don't think it falls under 'ball lightning', because it moved at a sedate pace and there was no storm activity at the time.
In recent years I've come to associate this sighting with 'earthlights', because it definitely followed the crest of the ridge and thus suggested a possibly geological origin or correlation.
Note 1. Camp Tom Howard's location is marked on the Shady Valley Quadrangle (TN / VA) topographic map from USGS (available online). I believe the ridge upon which the campsite sat would be just below the word 'Howard' appearing on the map.
