The Francis Sorrel House

Joined
Nov 26, 2016
Location
central NC
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Francis Sorrel House (a.k.a. the Sorrel–Weed House) (Wikimedia Commons - Public Domain)

Many of you know about my fascination with all things related to General James Longstreet, so it will come as no surprise that I have long been fascinated by the Francis Sorrel House (a.k.a. the Sorrel–Weed House), the boyhood home of Brigadier General Moxley Sorrel. Moxley served under General Longstreet and wrote "Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer", one of the most highly regarded postwar accounts written after the Civil War. General Robert E. Lee and Francis Sorrel, Moxley’s father, had been friends since the early 1830s. General Lee visited the Sorrel family on more than one occasion before the war and again in April 1870, shortly before his death.

What some folks may not know is that the Francis Sorrel House has a reputation for being one of the most haunted buildings in Savannah, GA. The home was built by Francis in the early 1840s after the passing of his first wife. A couple of years later, he married his late wife's younger sister, Matilda, who would come to live in the home with him.

Francis had his vices as many people do. He notably engaged in a long-time affair with a slave named Molly. Molly was given preferential treatment among his slaves, including her own private quarters above the carriage house next to the main home. Matilda discovered her husband with Molly one night and became so enraged she leapt from the second-story balcony, killing herself. Inexplicably, Molly's body was found weeks later hanging in her room from an apparent second suicide. Legend has it Molly was led to suicide by the ghost of Matilda, her lover's devastated wife.

This is one of many ghost stories that surround the Francis Sorrel Home. Another involves the slave kitchen. Many visitors have claimed that they felt almost sick when they entered the room and have had to leave. There are a number of people who also claim that they have felt a strong physical presence in the room as well.

There are also assertions of noises that sound like a war, with a marching band. Many believe this is a residual haunting and replays itself over and over again.
 
Great looking house. I find it difficult to try selling the hanging story in her room after two weeks and no one noticing her gone. After two weeks in the heat everyone would have known where she was staying. Moxley must of owned the police department. I'm sure as in any strange death that the inhabitants would be very uneasy.
 
Great looking house. I find it difficult to try selling the hanging story in her room after two weeks and no one noticing her gone. After two weeks in the heat everyone would have known where she was staying. Moxley must of owned the police department. I'm sure as in any strange death that the inhabitants would be very uneasy.
I think it was meant that a few weeks after the wife died, the slave woman was found hanging..not that she’d been dead for weeks..I agree with you on the odour..having experienced a chipmunk that fell into the wall of the bathroom(tiled) and died at my folks house up north. It’s a smell you never forget!
 
Did you ever read any of the books in the "Savannah Quartet" by Eugenia Price? This is historical fiction that mixes real people with fictional characters.

Lucinda Sorrel is one of the characters in this series. I think that she was the sister of one of the famous Sorrels from Savannah. I though that it was interesting when she appeared in the novels, and then I read about the Sorrel family as being real people.
 
I loved the Eugenia Price series!!! I actually mentioned this author to @NH Civil War Gal and she has enjoyed some of her books too. I should really go back and read this series again @Forks of the Ohio . I had limited knowledge of the Civil War when I read these books the first time so I know I would have a whole different appreciation for them now.
 
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