Savannah has been voted one of America’s Most Haunted Cities according to USA Today. Being a Savannah freelance writer and being paranormally inclined myself, I have made it a personal goal to enjoy many of Savannah’s offered ghost tours. Upon selecting my very first outing, I became overwhelmed with the sheer variety of tours offered. Did I want to walk, ride a hearse, or jump on a trolley? I almost became catatonic, much like how I can sometimes get in the DSW Shoe Warehouse when faced with too many options. Just pick a shoe/ghost already and get on with it!
I opted for the Ghost Talk Ghost Walk tour because they are the original, real deal tour that started it all. Margaret Wayt DeBolt wrote Savannah Spectres and Other Strange Tales in 1984, and the tour began because of her and her fantastic book. As an aside, my favorite story in the book (and about haunted Savannah so far) is the one about Nellie and William Washington Gordon, II, who seemed to have a love that even death couldn’t interfere with. As Nellie lay dying, her children who were in attendance were reported to say “when she died, her face took on the radiance of a bride, going to meet her bridegroom.” The family butler was said to report, through a face streaming tears, that he saw the General appear, and that he came to fetch her himself.
Our tour guide was Jeffery, and he was perfect. I believe he said he was a fifth generation Savannahian! The tour struck a balance of both ghostly and historic tales.
We learned that much of downtown Savannah is built upon the dead! Colonial Park Cemetery was a particular highlight of the tour. I am including some photos from a previous visit during the daytime.
The headstones on the back wall are from unmarked graves. Apparently some Yankee soldiers used the cemetery as a camp during the Civil War and really mucked things up, to say the very least.
Further reading:
Jamie Davis Writes 