At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Confederate troops fired the first official shots of the Civil War on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, under the command of Louisiana native P.G.T. Beauregard. His sword still hangs in the Charleston City Hall. Just 34 hours later, Major Anderson of the federal army surrendered Fort Sumter…
P.G.T. Beauregard Saves Charleston
Beauregard is my favorite Confederate War general for numerous reasons. One, he protected Charleston, and he was the commanding officer when the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, taking the fort in just 34 hours. Furthermore, if Beauregard had been promoted to a higher command, the Union Army would have probably lost…
The Lady in Brown
It’s a sad tale, like it usually is. Sherman Carmichael writes about the ghost story in his Mysterious Tales of the North Carolina Piedmont book, and the tale can also be found online. Around 1885, a young North Carolina woman, Eolene Davidson, in Northampton County, was returning from a summer trip to New York. During…
The Cordesville, SC Ghost Train
Cordesville is a small, rural community in Berkeley County with much history and a few ghost stories. Many believe the old railroad tracks on Highway 402, near Alligator Road, are home to a phantom ghost train. According to an online article from the Berkeley Observer, the tracks come alive around midnight with ghostly activity. Onlookers…
Jake Still Walks the Floors of This Historic Commerce, Georgia Building
Nerd U Comics and Collectibles is a Must-Stop when you pass through the area on I-85. The business is located at 55 State Street in a historic building that dates back to the early 1900s in downtown Commerce. Initially, a bank operated on the premises, but ultimately, through the years, other businesses moved into the…
The City Saved By the Dead
By the end of the twentieth century, it seemed that the glory days that had once filled Senoia, Georgia, approximately 40 miles south of Atlanta, were over. In 1989, Paul Lombardi began a search for a site for a new film studio and ultimately settled in the area. Several movies in the late 1980s and…
The Little Girl of the Vance Hotel
The Vance Hotel has been shuttered for more than 20 years in Statesville, North Carolina. Plans were announced in the summer of 2023 to revive the property as the “jewel of Downtown Statesville.” Columbus Vance-Hinkel built the hotel in 1927 at the intersection of West Front and South Center Streets. When it opened, it had…
The 1948 Asheville Mental Hospital Fire
On March 10 or March 11, 1948, a fire broke out in the women’s building of the Highland Mental Hospital in Asheville. The fire quickly swept through the building, engulfing all of the stories. According to author Sherman Carmichael in his Mysterious Tales of Western North Carolina, this was the third fire in the hospital…
The 1882 Dillsboro, North Carolina, Tunnel Accident
Dillsboro, North Carolina, is full of history and haunts for such a small community. In 1882, the Western North Carolina Railroad planned the Cowee Tunnel, just west of Dillsboro. Every day, convicts were forced to perform manual labor to straighten a bend in the Tuckasegee River. On the morning of December 30, 1882, tragedy struck…
The Pawleys Island Witch
Many years ago, a young woman who loved the beach and island life began to roam Pawleys Island with her family and friends to locate herbs and spices that grew wild. After many years, the woman started to partake in the sacrament of whiskey, but her addiction overcame her. After each passing day, the once-beautiful…