Ghosts of the American Civil War
Encyclopedia
There is speculation over the alleged existence of ghost
s from the American Civil War
. Among the locales famous for Civil War ghosts was the Sharpsburg battlefield near Sharpsburg, Maryland
, Chickamauga battlefield
outside Chattanooga, Tennessee
across the Georgia
border, Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, Buras, Louisiana, and Warren, Arkansas
.
was the largest battle in North America
. Fittingly, it has many ghost stories. The Soldiers' Orphanage cellar
is said to make even psychic
s too afraid to enter the house, due to its legend. The Herr Tavern was built in 1815, but during the battle it was used as the first Confederate hospital at Gettysburg, where amputation
s often resulted in limbs being thrown out through the window to be collected later, only for many of the soldiers to die afterward. As a result, four of the guest rooms are said to be haunted, and the rooms are numbered so that there is no room 13.
The interest of ghosts and Gettysburg remains to the present day. In recent times, people have claimed to seen ghost soldiers, and sometimes even ghost battles, in many places around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
. Eight separate companies offer ghost tours in Gettysburg—some seasonally, and some all year.
.
One of the bloodiest battles was the Battle of Sharpsburg. Both Union and Confederate Ghosts have reportedly been seen placing artillery
on the battlefield.
Abraham Lincoln has long been said to haunt the White House
. First Lady
Grace Coolidge
, wife of President Calvin Coolidge
, was the first to claim to spot Lincoln's ghost. She claimed to see Lincoln looking at the Potomac River
sadly from the Oval Office
. Carl Sandburg
claimed to have "sensed" Lincoln do the same as well. Both Queen Wilhelmina
of the Netherlands
and Eleanor Roosevelt
were said to have seen Lincoln during World War II
at the Lincoln Bedroom (Lincoln's office during the war); the Queen admitted to fainting after seeing Lincoln in his top hat
. Margaret Truman
's hearing of tappings that caused Harry Truman to order the White House renovated, keeping the building from falling down, have been attributed to the ghost. Gerald Ford
's daughter Susan Ford
made a point of never sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom, out of fear of Lincoln's ghost. Maureen Reagan
claimed to see Lincoln in the Lincoln Bedroom as well during her father's (Ronald Reagan
) administration. Others who have sensed or reportedly seen Lincoln were Harry Truman and Fala.
Lincoln's son Willie
died during Lincoln's Presidency. A White House maid during Ulysses S. Grant
's administration reported seeing the dead boy.
Lincoln's ghost has reportedly been seen outside of the White House as well. In Loundonville, New York, Lincoln's ghost is said to haunt a house that was owned by a woman who was present at Ford's Theatre
when Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth
. Other Lincoln hauntings include his grave in Springfield, Illinois
, a portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln
and a phantom train on nights in April along the same path his funeral train followed from Washington D.C. to Springfield.
, perhaps Beauregard's worst defeat and a battle that took place 415 miles away in southwest Tennessee
.
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
s from the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Among the locales famous for Civil War ghosts was the Sharpsburg battlefield near Sharpsburg, Maryland
Sharpsburg, Maryland
Sharpsburg is a town in Washington County, Maryland, United States, approximately south of Hagerstown. The population was 691 at the 2000 census....
, Chickamauga battlefield
Battle of Chickamauga
The Battle of Chickamauga, fought September 19–20, 1863, marked the end of a Union offensive in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia called the Chickamauga Campaign...
outside Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga is the fourth-largest city in the US state of Tennessee , with a population of 169,887. It is the seat of Hamilton County...
across the Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
border, Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, Buras, Louisiana, and Warren, Arkansas
Warren, Arkansas
Warren is a city in and the county seat of Bradley County, Arkansas, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimated population in 2006 was 6,219....
.
Gettysburg
The Battle of GettysburgBattle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg , was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac...
was the largest battle in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. Fittingly, it has many ghost stories. The Soldiers' Orphanage cellar
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
is said to make even psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
s too afraid to enter the house, due to its legend. The Herr Tavern was built in 1815, but during the battle it was used as the first Confederate hospital at Gettysburg, where amputation
Amputation
Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma, prolonged constriction, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for...
s often resulted in limbs being thrown out through the window to be collected later, only for many of the soldiers to die afterward. As a result, four of the guest rooms are said to be haunted, and the rooms are numbered so that there is no room 13.
The interest of ghosts and Gettysburg remains to the present day. In recent times, people have claimed to seen ghost soldiers, and sometimes even ghost battles, in many places around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg is a borough that is the county seat, part of the Gettysburg Battlefield, and the eponym for the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. The town hosts visitors to the Gettysburg National Military Park and has 3 institutions of higher learning: Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg College, and...
. Eight separate companies offer ghost tours in Gettysburg—some seasonally, and some all year.
Other battlefields
A battle did not need to be major to have ghosts associated with it. The Battle of Kolb Farm is believed to have created a ghost that haunts a farmhouse in northern GeorgiaGeorgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
.
One of the bloodiest battles was the Battle of Sharpsburg. Both Union and Confederate Ghosts have reportedly been seen placing artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
on the battlefield.
Lincoln's Ghost
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. First Lady
First Lady
First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...
Grace Coolidge
Grace Coolidge
Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge was the wife of Calvin Coolidge and First Lady of the United States from 1923 to 1929.-Biography:...
, wife of President Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
, was the first to claim to spot Lincoln's ghost. She claimed to see Lincoln looking at the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
sadly from the Oval Office
Oval Office
The Oval Office, located in the West Wing of the White House, is the official office of the President of the United States.The room features three large south-facing windows behind the president's desk, and a fireplace at the north end...
. Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."-Biography:Sandburg was born in Galesburg,...
claimed to have "sensed" Lincoln do the same as well. Both Queen Wilhelmina
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
Wilhelmina was Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1890 to 1948. She ruled the Netherlands for fifty-eight years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. Her reign saw World War I and World War II, the economic crisis of 1933, and the decline of the Netherlands as a major colonial...
of the Netherlands
Kingdom of the Netherlands
The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a sovereign state and constitutional monarchy with territory in Western Europe and in the Caribbean. The four parts of the Kingdom—Aruba, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten—are referred to as "countries", and participate on a basis of equality...
and Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
were said to have seen Lincoln during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
at the Lincoln Bedroom (Lincoln's office during the war); the Queen admitted to fainting after seeing Lincoln in his top hat
Top hat
A top hat, beaver hat, high hat silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century...
. Margaret Truman
Margaret Truman
Mary Margaret Truman Daniel , also known as Margaret Truman or Margaret Daniel, was an American singer who later became a successful writer. The only child of US President Harry S...
's hearing of tappings that caused Harry Truman to order the White House renovated, keeping the building from falling down, have been attributed to the ghost. Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
's daughter Susan Ford
Susan Ford
Susan Elizabeth Ford Bales is an American author, photojournalist, and former chairman of the board of the Betty Ford Center for alcohol and drug abuse.-Youth:...
made a point of never sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom, out of fear of Lincoln's ghost. Maureen Reagan
Maureen Reagan
Maureen Elizabeth Reagan was the first child of former President Ronald Reagan and his first wife, Jane Wyman...
claimed to see Lincoln in the Lincoln Bedroom as well during her father's (Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
) administration. Others who have sensed or reportedly seen Lincoln were Harry Truman and Fala.
Lincoln's son Willie
William Wallace Lincoln
William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln was the third son of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. He died at the age of 11. He was named after Mary's brother-in-law Dr. William Wallace.- Final illness and death :...
died during Lincoln's Presidency. A White House maid during Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
's administration reported seeing the dead boy.
Lincoln's ghost has reportedly been seen outside of the White House as well. In Loundonville, New York, Lincoln's ghost is said to haunt a house that was owned by a woman who was present at Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre is a historic theater in Washington, D.C., used for various stage performances beginning in the 1860s. It is also the site of the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865...
when Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...
. Other Lincoln hauntings include his grave in Springfield, Illinois
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the third and current capital of the US state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 117,400 , making it the sixth most populated city in the state and the second most populated Illinois city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area...
, a portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln
Mary Todd Lincoln
Mary Ann Lincoln was the wife of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and was First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865.-Life before the White House:...
and a phantom train on nights in April along the same path his funeral train followed from Washington D.C. to Springfield.
Elsewhere
The Beauregard-Keyes House in New Orleans is said to be haunted by the ghost of Confederate general P.G.T. Beauregard and an entire regiment of ghost soldiers reenacting the Battle of ShilohBattle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. A Union army under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and...
, perhaps Beauregard's worst defeat and a battle that took place 415 miles away in southwest Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
.