Touring Civil War Vicksburg Part 2

I wish I could see that. I did a search and can't find anywhere that it's posted. :frown:
I posted a new video about McRaven in the ghost forum, but since I added it to an older thread, it now " has to receive approval ".

I was only trying to follow the rules ...
(and keep ghosts out of the Siege of Vicksburg forum) !

Anyway ... I couldn't find Walt's video either.
But I did find a young Mississippi girl that experienced the exact same things a lot of people have been reporting for over a century.

 
Last edited:
Leyland went to a lot of effort to make McRaven the most haunted home in the country. Needless to say, a lot of it was made up, as was some of the history. But that being said, I wouldn’t stay in that house at night for a million dollars. I didn’t like being alone in it during the daytime, and I don’t believe in ghosts.
 
If Vicksburg was inhabited by ghosts, I would know about it. I was a twisted teen who enjoyed hanging out in the graveyards at midnight. Even hung out in the park at midnight a few times. A few of those times were even legal: our local boyscout camp was located on VNMP property just inside the woods from the brick tunnel under the road. Slept one night in the Illinois monument during a stint of homelessness.

No ghosts.
 
Leyland went to a lot of effort to make McRaven the most haunted home in the country. Needless to say, a lot of it was made up, as was some of the history. But that being said, I wouldn’t stay in that house at night for a million dollars. I didn’t like being alone in it during the daytime, and I don’t believe in ghosts.
There are some parts of that video that I just love, like when Mr. French was talking about the wisteria plant that the two spinster ladies had let grow through a window, into the house, and it was a foot in diameter, and how the sisters never stopped wearing their black Victorian dresses, so the children in the neighborhood thought they were witches, and how they never threw away anything and you had to walk through the house between stacks of things piled up to the ceiling, and how by the time the last sister died in 1960 "you could find in the house both newspapers from 1960 and newspapers from 1860..."
Yeah I bet Mr. French was quite a showman.
Who owns the house now and is it still open to the public?
I hope so it is pretty neat.
 
There are some parts of that video that I just love, like when Mr. French was talking about the wisteria plant that the two spinster ladies had let grow through a window, into the house, and it was a foot in diameter, and how the sisters never stopped wearing their black Victorian dresses, so the children in the neighborhood thought they were witches, and how they never threw away anything and you had to walk through the house between stacks of things piled up to the ceiling, and how by the time the last sister died in 1960 "you could find in the house both newspapers from 1960 and newspapers from 1860..."
Yeah I bet Mr. French was quite a showman.
Who owns the house now and is it still open to the public?
I hope so it is pretty neat.
It now belongs to a couple who live in South Mississippi. It is still open, and there are ghost tours at night also.
The Murray sisters didn’t have an indoor bathroom, they used an outhouse. The owner before Leyland, Charles Harvey, asked me to help dig up an outhouse pit. I agreed, but as we were digging I began to notice that “things” looked pretty fresh, so I said something to Charles about it. He said this was one of the newest pits. I quit digging.
 
I began to notice that “things” looked pretty fresh, so I said something to Charles about it. He said this was one of the newest pits. I quit digging.
:eek:

That validates some of the stories I had been told about the reclusive sisters.

Serious question ... I'm assuming McRaven was the site of a makeshift hospital during the siege ?
While the Duff Green mansion is the most famous for hospital conversions, I think almost every structure that hadn't been completely destroyed was also utilized as a hospital ?
 
:eek:

That validates some of the stories I had been told about the reclusive sisters.

Serious question ... I'm assuming McRaven was the site of a makeshift hospital during the siege ?
While the Duff Green mansion is the most famous for hospital conversions, I think almost every structure that hadn't been completely destroyed was also utilized as a hospital ?
Leyland did try to make it out to be a hospital but digs on the property, and searching through reports from the time, could never verify it. It is certainly possible that it would have been used as a hospital to some extent. I have never been able to find an account of any building being used as a hospital that was located south of the railroad tracks.
BTW, the McRaven home stood on the hill where Vicksburg Junior Hill now stands. When Brad Bradway bought the property from the Murray sisters, he mistakenly got the homes confused.
 
Leyland did try to make it out to be a hospital but digs on the property, and searching through reports from the time, could never verify it. It is certainly possible that it would have been used as a hospital to some extent. I have never been able to find an account of any building being used as a hospital that was located south of the railroad tracks.
BTW, the McRaven home stood on the hill where Vicksburg Junior Hill now stands. When Brad Bradway bought the property from the Murray sisters, he mistakenly got the homes confused.
Thanks !

A lot of unanswered questions that I've always had are now starting to make sense.

I don't want to say too much about Leyland on a public forum, but come to think of it ... he was always the "showman" when promoting the McCraven mansion.

But I will say ( Leyland French or not ) that is one spooky old house !

I've felt very "uneasy" even walking around the front yard of McRaven on a beautiful early Spring morning.

But thanks again !

Moreover, I've always thought the two sisters that lived there for so long ( ignoring modern basics) was also very strange.
And all of my current Vicksburg friends seem not to know much ... if anything ... about them.
 
Last edited:
Professor Charles Sullivan, a former member of Stanford’s Ms battery, was writing a history of McRaven, he stayed in a bedroom in the house till he saw something at the window of the bedroom while he was in the yard outside. I can’t recall what he saw, but it scared him so bad that he refused to stay overnight in McRaven anymore. He camped in the yard instead.
My grandparents lived in the railroad house in the 1940s, which was located behind McRaven. My mother considered it haunted, and would run by the house at night.
 
Leyland went to a lot of effort to make McRaven the most haunted home in the country. Needless to say, a lot of it was made up, as was some of the history. But that being said, I wouldn’t stay in that house at night for a million dollars. I didn’t like being alone in it during the daytime, and I don’t believe in ghosts.
In the area where I live the antebellum town of Jefferson is the oldest likely "haunt" for spirits, etc.; I've posted about it here many times. It also boasts The Most Haunted House in Texas, known as The Grove for the pecan trees which surround it. However, I'm more than a little suspicious about its recent history because for a decade or more it's been owned by the author of local guidebooks who also gives tours of the house! Although he seems a fine fellow who's genuinely interested in local history and helps with annual events like Candlelight Christmas and Pilgrimage house tours and the upcoming Civil War Symposium, since the house and its legends are money-making ventures for him I can't help but be dubious.
 
In the area where I live the antebellum town of Jefferson is the oldest likely "haunt" for spirits, etc.; I've posted about it here many times. It also boasts The Most Haunted House in Texas, known as The Grove for the pecan trees which surround it. However, I'm more than a little suspicious about its recent history because for a decade or more it's been owned by the author of local guidebooks who also gives tours of the house! Although he seems a fine fellow who's genuinely interested in local history and helps with annual events like Candlelight Christmas and Pilgrimage house tours and the upcoming Civil War Symposium, since the house and its legends are money-making ventures for him I can't help but be dubious.
Just about every tour home in Vicksburg claims to have a ghost, was used as a hospital, or has damage from the war. I have never understood the need to embellish the true history of a historic structure. As a lady who worked at the Old Courthouse once said,” never let the truth get in the way of a good story”
 
Just about every tour home in Vicksburg claims to have a ghost,
It get's worse the further one travels down the Mississippi River.

By the time one arrives in New Orleans, most homes also claim to have a vampire or two.
:bounce:

However, this thread has brought up a memory I had forgotten.

Back in the 1980's a co-worker (who was a Vicksburg native )
would occasional mention stories about her Grandfather's tales of being a young child in 1920's Vicksburg.

This elderly Black gentleman recalled that "sometimes I would hear drums, and then see (in the distance) a long line of White men, wearing blue coats ... marching into the city " .

I'm not sure if I buy into that, but it's the same thing many have reported at Gettysburg and other major sites.
What got my attention ... was when I met him around 1989. This man was not selling anything, he was very serious, and he had no reason to fabricate such a story. I asked him if he had any other such stories about Vicksburg, and he replied " No ... I just thought it was a very early morning parade ".
 
Last edited:
Back
Top