by Mark Nesbitt
During a paranormal investigation of the Moon River Brewing Company in June 2011, Libby Oxenrider, one of the mediums on the investigation, mentioned that she felt presences in the back room of the cellar, an area used for storage and meetings. Five pictures in a row were taken with a Nikon digital camera. The first picture contained nothing except a small orb; the next picture showed a large orb moving at the ceiling; the third showed an orb down the hall; the fourth captured a large orb on the floor; and the last was clear of all orbs.
Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace
The house that became Juliette Gordon Low’s birthplace was built for the mayor of Savannah in 1821. Ten years later, William Washington Gordon I purchased the home. He was the founder of the Central of Georgia Railway. His son, William Washington Gordon II, called “Willie” by the family, inherited the house.
Although Juliette Gordon Low is renowned as the founder of the Girl Scouts, she has a Civil War connection—and a ghost story associated with her family and the house.
Perhaps the most hotly debated theory in paranormal circles is the contention that some remnant of our personality survives death, which would indicate that our mind, or consciousness, might maintain an existence separate from our physical, flesh-and-blood brain.
Many reported activities of ghosts indicate that this is so. Ghosts indicate playfulness and mischievousness by moving physical items around or removing objects, then returning them after being asked to do so. They have been known to communicate emotions to their percipients, while some other ghosts are humorless and merely appear as an emotionless image, a mere residual image of the live person. And many mediums will attest that, while some houses are not haunted, most people are, by the caring ghosts of their dead relatives. So, to some paranormalists, it seems that the strong bond of love does not die with the body, and that the emotion may reside someplace other than the heart or the head.
Juliette’s mother, Eleanor “Nellie” Lytle Kinzie, and her father, William “Willie” Washington Gordon, formed an acquaintance in 1853 in a rather unique way. They met when Nellie slid down the banister of the Yale Library and landed on Willie’s hat. Nellie was not hurt. The hat didn’t fare so well.
Willie fell immediately in love with the vivacious young woman. They were married and Juliette “Daisy” Gordon was born on Halloween night in 1860.
Nellie was caring and protective of her husband. Although he became a member of the local Savannah militia unit when they moved to the city, it must have pained her to see him go off to the Civil War. The family was influential and Nellie was headstrong. She once enlisted her friend Gen. Robert E. Lee to find her husband in the field and make sure he was all right. Willie was wounded during the battles for Atlanta, but survived the war.
During the war, Willie was a supply officer for Confederate general Joe Wheeler’s cavalry unit. Although the Savannah family was obviously pro-Southern, Nellie had once been a pen pal of William Tecumseh Sherman. Union generals Sherman and O. O. Howard would both visit the Low home during their time in the Savannah. Once, four-year-old Juliette noticed Howard’s missing arm and asked how he lost it. Howard told the little girl that a reb had shot it off. Juliette said “I wonder if my Papa didn’t do it. He’s shot lots of Yankees!” Those present said that nobody laughed louder or harder than Sherman. Sherman, after the war, recounted many times a story of little Juliette, how she sat on his lap and began to inspect his head. He asked her what she was doing and she replied that she had heard her neighbors refer to him as “That old devil Sherman,” and she wanted to see his horns.
After the Civil War, Willie served the United States Army in the Spanish-American War as a brigadier general of volunteers. Nellie and Willie never lost their spark and they remained passionately in love for the rest of their lives.
Willie died in 1912. Nellie was devastated and never fully recovered from the loss. She died on February 22, 1917. While she was on her deathbed, she suddenly rose up and opened her arms, then lay back and passed away. Margaret, Nellie’s daughter-in-law, was in the room but glanced out into the hallway to see Willie wearing his dress-gray uniform. He was smiling and seemed to glow as he looked into the room where the children were sitting with their mother. He turned and slowly walked downstairs. Margaret told the family about seeing Willie but they all dismissed her until they went downstairs and saw the butler with tears streaming down his face. He said he had seen the master of the house come down the stairs in his general’s uniform. He was smiling as he walked out the door. He said he looked young, handsome, and happy and believed that the general had come back to get his wife at last. The people in the death room said that as she died Nellie’s face seemed to take on the glow of a bride.
Fort Pulaski
Construction on a fort to protect access up the Savannah River was begun in 1829 and took eighteen years to complete. It was to be a part of the coastal defense system conceived after the War of 1812. At the time it was thought to be impregnable. But by 1860, it still was not armed or garrisoned and, as it turned out, would not be occupied by United States troops until after they had conquered it by siege.
Two weeks after South Carolina seceded from the Union, in January, 1861, the Georgia State Militia occupied the fort named after the Polish hero of the American Revolution who died defending Savannah. Two weeks later, when Georgia seceded, Fort Pulaski was turned over to the Confederate States of America.
Fort Pulaski near Savannah was captured by Federal forces in 1862. Its walls still show the damage from the bombardment.
The summer after Fort Sumter fell, President Abraham Lincoln ordered the Navy to blockade Southern ports. In November of 1861 a combined army and navy expedition had arrived about fifteen miles north of Fort Pulaski and established a base at Hilton Head Island. From here they could conduct operations all along the South Atlantic Coast, including against Fort Pulaski.
Once the Federals had captured Hilton Head, Confederates abandoned Tybee Island. It was a tactical mistake, handing over the only place from which Fort Pulaski could be taken. Union troops moved to Tybee Island and cut the fort’s communication with the mainland.
Thirty-six Federal guns and mortars were soon aimed at the brick fort from batteries on Tybee Island. Confederates refused the formal request for surrender and the Union gunners opened up on April 10, 1862. At first, Confederates thought they were safe: the fort was a mile from the smoothbore cannon whose effective range against fortifications was half that distance. Unknown to the Confederates was that ten of the bombarding guns were new, experimental rifled cannon whose spiraling projectiles could bore into the brickwork.
Soon large gaps in the walls appeared. By noon on the second day of the siege, the powder magazine was nearly exposed. The young Confederate commander, Col. Charles H. Olmstead, was afraid of what a direct hit on the magazine would do to his men, and so surrendered the fort and its 384-man garrison after only thirty hours. Federal troops held the fort until the war’s end.
Like many of the coastal forts after the war, Pulaski was abandoned to a caretaker and lighthouse keeper. Soon, they also left. But the island was declared a national monument in 1924 with restoration efforts beginning in 1933. The fort today still bears much of the damage inflicted upon it during the bombardment leading to its surrender and stands as a symbol of an era of a bygone military theory of impregnable fixed fortifications.
Visitors to the fort can explore the interior of the structure and climb the staircases to the parapet and examine exhibits of some of the larger guns used in the Civil War. Apparently, they are accompanied by other, unseen visitors to the fort.
According to Margaret Wayt DeBolt in her book, Savannah Spectres and Other Strange Tales, during World War II, a young woman was returning with a soldier one night from visiting Tybee Island. As a full moon emerged from behind a cloud, the fort loomed dark and ominous in the distance. They were under the impression that the fort had been abandoned, but there, on the parapet, were men in uniform march
ing guard duty atop the walls. They watched for a while, and they then continued their drive.
It would have helped if they had recognized what kind of uniform the men were wearing since the Navy did have a presence at Fort Pulaski during the war. But since there were few, if any, Civil War reenactors at that time, noticing a kepi or slouch hat on one of the guards would have been—no pun intended—a dead giveaway.
Not all ghost experiences are visual. According to DeBolt, a young man and his friend who decided to do some relic hunting near the fort one night had an auditory experience. They took a boat from Tybee Island and were walking around the fort in the tall marsh grass when they heard someone else walking alongside of them on the other side of the grass. They stopped and the footsteps also stopped. They began to walk again and the sounds of someone paralleling their path started again as well. They were coming to a clearing and were anxious to see who else was out in the marsh that night. As they emerged from the high grass, so did the sound of the footsteps, but unaccompanied by any physical form. As they watched, they could see the grass compressing before them as the sound passed and continued out into the marsh. They abandoned their relic-hunting plans and ran as fast as they could back to their boat.
The interior of Fort Pulaski, where several ghost sightings have been reported.
Reenactors provide an authenticity to motion pictures that Hollywood just can’t muster. Often, Hollywood will also turn to original historical sites as backdrop for a number of history-related films. Savannah is one of the most popular places outside of Hollywood to film and Fort Pulaski has been the filming location of a number of feature films, most notably the 1989 movie Glory.
According to a story on the website Military Ghosts, while acting as extras in the movie, a group of reenactors, on their way to a set, stopped by the fort to visit the historic site. In Confederate uniform, they must have added to the ambience of the fort itself. As they wandered around in a group, they were struck by a nattily dressed young Confederate lieutenant striding across the parade ground. Often, reenactors will remain “in character” just for the fun of it. They will speak in the vernacular of the Civil War era amongst themselves and even when answering modern visitors’ questions. If they are depicting a certain period in time, say, the Confederate occupation of Pulaski, they will claim to know nothing of happenings after the fall of the fort. There is no Union victory yet, no Gettysburg, no Sherman’s March, no Appomattox. So, when the lieutenant approached and upbraided them for not saluting him, they all figured they knew what was going on.
They saluted the young officer and he ordered them into line to prepare for the upcoming Yankee attack. Some of them must have smiled, at least inwardly, as he gave them very authentic-sounding commands. He ordered them to about face, placing him at their backs. When no other order came, some of them looked back. To their astonishment, in the middle of the parade ground, there was no sign of him. He had simply vanished back into that misty veil from which he had suddenly emerged.
Some former employees also get uncomfortable feelings on a certain stairwell where it is known that a young soldier, doomed to die after being wounded in the bombardment, was carried. Others disdain going into Colonel Olmstead’s quarters after the sun sets, haunted by eerie feelings of despair and regret. Considering what an agonizing decision the twenty-five-year-old commander faced before the surrender, it is no wonder.
Fort McAllister
Fort McAllister was key in defending the city of Savannah against Union gunboats on the Ogeechee River after the fall of Fort Pulaski in 1862. Confederates placed obstructions in the river and allowed only friendly ships in and out. In July of that year, a blockade runner sought refuge behind the obstructions. Union gunboats needed to silence the guns of Fort McAllister before they could sink the blockade runner, but four separate attacks on the fort in 1862 yielded little.
For five hours on January 27, 1863, the Union Navy monitor U.S.S. Montauk lobbed eleven- and fifteen-inch shells into the fort. The earthen construction absorbed any damage, unlike Fort Pulaski’s brick and mortar walls, which were breached by artillery fire the year before. There were no casualties.
On February 1, 1863, Montauk bombarded Fort McAllister again. This time they killed the commander, Maj. John B. Gallie, apparently decapitated by a shell. On February 28, the big monitor was finally able to sink the blockade runner. On March 3, Union gunboats again shelled the fort for eight hours, but McAllister withstood the bombardment. After that failure, the Union Navy gave up on trying to destroy the fort.
In December 1864, when Sherman approached Savannah, he realized he couldn’t bypass Fort McAllister, because he needed the Ogeechee River open to supply his army. He ordered Gen. William B. Hazen’s division to cross the river and assault the fort from the land.
Union forces finally captured Fort McAllister in 1864 after several unsuccessful attempts.
At 4:45 P.M. on December 13, Hazen’s three brigades, vastly outnumbering Maj. George W. Anderson’s 230 Confederates defending the fort, attacked. By 5:00 P.M., the Yankees had swarmed over the earthworks capturing the fort. Union losses amounted to 134, or 24 killed and 110 wounded. Confederates loses were 14 killed, 21 wounded, and 195 captured. During the fighting Confederate captain Nicholas Clinch was called on to surrender by the Federal soldiers. He responded by attacking them with his sword. Before he surrendered he suffered three saber wounds, was bayoneted six times, and was shot twice.
The fort was abandoned and nearly forgotten until Henry Ford purchased the site as part of a larger tract. Ford did some restoration of the site. The state of Georgia acquired Fort McAllister and now maintains it as an historical park.
According to an administrator of the park, during the restoration of the fort, workmen stayed on-site overnight to prevent vandalism. Apparently, they were never able to spend an entire night at the fort. Strange, otherworldly sounds were heard across the parapets of Fort McAllister, all attributed to the former defenders of the fort.
Current lore has the sources of the haunting narrowed down to the casualties during the naval bombardment of the fort in 1863. One of the more famous casualties was garrison mascot Tom Cat, a tabby that was killed during the March 3 bombardment. His death was recorded in the official report sent to Gen. P. G. T. Beau-regard. He has his own metal interpretive sign and was buried with military honors inside the fort. As we know, living cats are capable of making some strange noises; who knows what is heard from Tom’s ghost.
It would also seem that Captain Clinch, who sacrificed and suffered so much for the defense of the fort, would have left some of the superabundance of energy he expended. Yet the specter most associated with Fort McAllister is Major Gallie. On particularly dark, quiet nights a shadow can be seen moving about the ramparts, apparently checking on the now-invisible defenders, making sure they are ready for the bombardment that now will never come. Who might it be? The answer becomes apparent when you get a better view: the figure is missing its head.
An orb is seen in this photo from the powder magazine at Fort McAllister.
In June 2011, Carol and I visited Fort McAllister, took some photos, and tried to capture some EVP. The photos taken inside the reconstructed magazine were interesting. The first photo shows an orb at the end of the gallery on the right just above the barrels of powder. In the second photo it appears to have moved towards the camera and is just in front of the second-from-last column on the right. Enlargement of this photo shows several more smaller and lighter orbs scattered about. A third photo shows a strong orb located against the horizontal white log above and to the right of the wooden cases. In the final photo, taken within seconds of the previous one, the orb has moved to the top of the wooden case.
I attempted to capture four EVP. The first one contains an answer to my question but is far too faint to understand and partially obscured by the wind. In the second EVP, I ask Major Gallie, “It was near this spot where you were struck, wasn’t it?”At 6 seconds into the recording,
there is a voice that responds, “Was it?”
Petersburg and Appomattox
Appomattox Court House was not the end of the American Civil War. Fighting continued in the Western Theater for a few more months until the final land battle at Palmetto Ranch near Brownsville, Texas, on May 12 and 13, 1865. The Confederate commerce raider C.S.S. Shenandoah didn’t get word of the collapse of the Confederacy until August 2, 1865.
But Appomattox was the symbolic culmination of the South’s struggle for independence. It came just a week after the breaking of the ten-month’s siege of Petersburg.
After the fighting at Spotsylvania, Grant began a pursuit of Lee’s army southward. A horrific battle at Cold Harbor, Virginia, with its numerous, seemingly suicidal Federal assaults, had the despondent Union soldiers writing their names on pieces of paper and pinning them inside their jackets so that their bodies could be shipped home and not lie in unmarked graves. Grant admitted in his memoirs that the last charge at Cold Harbor was the only one in his career he regretted.
Between June 15 and 18, Grant assaulted partially built Confederate lines around Petersburg, twenty-five miles south of Richmond. Petersburg was a rail hub for five rail lines, a depot for trains coming from the deeper Confederacy and feeding Richmond with supplies and troops. His assaults, however, were delivered piecemeal and no advantage pressed by his commanders. Lee arrived to command the bolstering of the Petersburg defenses on June 18, and Grant began siege operations, as he had at Vicksburg.
