THE STORY
Reported Haunting
Fort Monroe is regarded as one of Virginia's most haunted military installations. Reports include apparitions of Civil War soldiers, mysterious footsteps, shadow figures, and unexplained voices throughout the fort. Paranormal investigators have documented unusual activity in several historic buildings and tunnels.
The official Fort Monroe was completed in 1834, although the spot has housed some sort of headquarters or fortification since the early 1600s. Witnesses claim that the site is haunted by the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, as well as that of Jefferson Davis, who was imprisoned here after being falsely accused of plotting President Lincoln’s assassination. The ghost walks the ramparts at night, and Davis’ wife’s presence is signified by a vibrating window. Electronic voice phenomena also was captured of a little girl calling for her cat, Greta in an area now used as office space, and in fact, workers there have seen a phantom gray cat disappear around corners. Also witnessed at the fort are disembodied voices, horse-hoof sounds, photos that show orbs, knocking, and the apparition of an arrogant-looking man standing by the dining room fireplace in mid-18th-century garb. A ghostly White Lady is thought to have been the wife of a captain who shot her after she had an affair. She appears on the boardwalk and in a spot known as Ghost Alley. At the nearby Chamberlin Hotel you may find Esmeralda, a ship captain’s daughter seen on the eighth floor, waiting for her father to come home, as well as a ghostly man in a top hat who appears on the porch and is believed to be Edgar Allan Poe, believed to have visited here about a month before he died and recited poems to a young woman on this very porch. Poe served as a sergeant major of the artillery at Fort Monroe, but after being commissioned he decided he no longer wanted to be in the Army and began to show up on the parade field wearing nothing but his hat.