If you read my previous post in Wil’s Most Haunted Places, you know that I am writing about some of the places that I consider the most haunted sites that I have visited over the years.
Part 1 began with tales from south Alabama, but Part 2 continues with a tale from right here in Huntsville, and another a 90-minute drive away.
Both are full of history, but more than that, they describe some of the most haunted places I have visited.
The Weeden House – Huntsville
The Weeden House in Huntsville is today known as a museum and wedding venue, but lesser known are reports of hauntings. Dating back to 1819, the house was most famously the birthplace and lifelong home of Alabama poet and painter Maria Howard Weeden.
While the Weeden family owned and lived in the house for more than 100 years, there were other residents, including the Union army during the War Between the States. Another famous resident of the home was artist William Fry who is known to have taught Maria how to paint.
Many say that William, who died in Bryce Hospital’s insane asylum, is one of the main haunts at the Weeden House. His spirit is said to walk the front of the house in the upstairs rooms, occasionally peeking from the windows. Other ghosts at the house are said to be those of local freed slaves who found refuge in the house during their lives. Over the years, multiple reports of disembodied faces in mirrors, and full-body spirits being seen in the house have persisted.
The museum is open to the public with a scheduled tour, and you can also learn more about the haunted history of the Weeden House on the Huntsville Ghost Walk.
Pittsburgh Landing – Tennessee
Pittsburgh Landing is a small area on the Tennessee River near both the Mississippi and Alabama state lines. In early April of 1862, the Union Army made camp in the small community to rest before pressing an invasion deeper into the Confederate States of America.
The army, under the command of future President Ulysses S. Grant, gave no thought to the southern army that was sneaking through the woods toward them.
In the early morning hours of April 6, 1862, fighting broke out between the two armies and spilled over to the grounds of a small church known as Shiloh. This church gave the battle its name, and it would go down in history as one of the bloodiest battles to occur on American soil. The almost 24,000 men killed in two days of fighting were more than the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Mexican-American War combined.
With a history like this, it is no wonder that the battlefield offers a plethora of ghostly occurrences.
Today the battlefield is a national park, and people report hearing ghostly sounds of the battle continue to this day. Ghostly soldiers are said to roam the entire battlefield but are most frequently found at the battle area known as The Hornet’s Nest.
The most famous ghost of the area though is said to be that of “the drummer boy.”
Legend says, on the second day of the battle, a Union officer ordered the drummer to sound “Retreat” as Confederate soldiers advanced. Instead, the boy sounded “Attack,” which Union solders did, managing to drive the Confederates back.
When the officer went to find the drummer boy to thank him, he was found dead. The stories continue that in the late 1940s, construction crews working on a new road through the area found the skeleton of a child, pieces of a drum cord still tied around his neck and a bullet in the area of his heart. It is his spirit that is said to in death walk the battlefield playing his drum hoping for an outcome he will never learn.
Wil Elrick hails from Guntersville, Alabama where at an early age he developed a love for both trivia and history. He has spent the last 20 odd years, fine tuning the art of communication while working in law enforcement, writing, television media, historical research, and public speaking. He lives in North Alabama with his two boys, and a neurotic German Shepherd Dog. He one day hopes that Bigfoot is proven real. Wil’s new book Alabama Scoundrels is available from History Press.
