THE STORY
Reported Haunting
Chatham Manor served as a Union headquarters and field hospital during the Battle of Fredericksburg. Visitors have reported apparitions of Civil War soldiers, phantom footsteps, disembodied voices, and the sounds of suffering patients within the historic estate. Many believe the trauma experienced there left a lasting paranormal imprint.
Chatham Manor was a plantation overlooking the Rappahannock River, began in 1768 by William Fitzhugh. It had a dairy, icehouse, barns, stables, fish hatchery, orchard, mill and even a horse racetrack. Many famous historic figures have had ties here, visiting for elaborate parties. The home has been the site of a slave rebellion, a Union headquarters in the Civil War, and a wartime hospital. But the haunted tale most told here is one of an English girl who was in love with a man of whom her parents didn’t approve. Her father sent her to Chatham hoping she could find someone better in America, but her beloved followed her to Chatham and they planned to elope. But their plans were overheard–by a servant girl of George Washington, who was there at the time. George Washington caught the girl in the act of sneaking out and had her suitor arrested. Although the girl was sent back to England where she eventually married and had 10 children, legend has it that she never smiled again, and she swore on her deathbed to return to the only place she was ever happy: Chatham. Since her death in 1790, an apparition known as the Lady in White is seen every 7 years on the anniversary of her death, June 21, walking along the path toward the river. The path is now known as the Ghost Walk.