AMERICAN HAUNTINGS GHOST HUNTS

 AMERICAN HAUNTINGS GHOST HUNTS

NIGHT AT THE MCRAVEN HOUSE
VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI
NEXT AVAILABLE DATE: SEPTEMBER 30, 2023
10:00 PM TO 3:00 AM
$62 PER PERSON

CLICK HERE FOR RESERVATIONS!

Join American Hauntings for an eerie night at one of the most famous haunted houses linked to the horror of the Civil War – McRaven House, in the historic town of Vicksburg! If you’ve ever wanted to get behind the locked doors of one of the spookiest houses in America, now’s your chance!

VICKSBURG

As one of the most historic places in Mississippi, Vicksburg is steeped in history, legend, and lore, and the siege of the town during the Civil War is one of the most memorable events of the conflict.

 In the Fall of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln believed that Vicksburg was of vital importance to the Confederacy and that the army that controlled the city controlled the Mississippi River. Naval forces tried to seize Vicksburg but failed, so Lincoln decided to try and take it by land. Led by General Ulysses S. Grant, Union forces marched on Vicksburg, only to be driven back time after time for the next several months.

 After Union forces continued to be repelled, Grant settled in for a siege, assisted by a constant artillery barrage on the city. As shells rained down on Vicksburg, civilians burrowed into the surrounding hills for shelter. Months passed and people starved. They ran out of grain and began eating horses, mules, dogs, rats, and a horrible bread made from dried peas. Even so, less than a dozen locals were killed in the shelling as they waited for Grant to leave.

 But Grant refused to give up. The siege continued into July – “tightening the noose around Vicksburg,” as he called it – with federal infantry forces moving closer to the city limits by the day.

 Finally, on July 4, 1863, the Confederates surrendered. The Union forces did not cheer their victory, nor did they mistreat their captives. “They knew that we had surrendered to famine, not to them,” wrote one Confederate chaplain.

In continued defiance, July 4 would not be celebrated as a holiday in Vicksburg for 81 years.

MCRAVEN HOUSE

Even though many of the homes in the city were in ruins after the siege, others survived – like McRaven House, the most haunted place in town. It survived not only the devastation of the war but also the federal occupation that followed. Built over three time periods, this preserved example of Southern architecture is home to several resident spirits from the Civil War era and before.

The most prominent ghost in the house is said to be Mary Elizabeth Howard, who died in childbirth at McRaven House during the Antebellum era. Her husband, Sheriff Stephen Howard, built the first portion of the present-day house in 1836. Mary’s sorrow has kept her spirit alive at the house she once loved and appears to witnesses in a variety of different attires, from a mourning dress to a formal ball gown – which she was wearing when she was encountered one day during a wedding that was being held at McRaven House.

And Mary Howard does not haunt this house alone.

During the Union siege of the city, a skirmish was found on the grounds of the mansion, and the bodies of the dead were strewn across the yard. The house itself still bears marks from the fighting. When it ended, the house was turned into a Confederate field hospital, and the wounded that died there were buried on the property. Over the years, their restless spirits have been encountered on the grounds and wandering through the house. They seem lost and alone, perhaps confused by their sudden, tragic deaths.

Another terrible death occurred in connection to McRaven House after the war ended. In 1864, more than ten months after the surrender of Vicksburg to General Grant, the home’s owner, John H. Bobb, and his nephew, Austin Mattingly, were walking toward the house and approached a group of occupying Union soldiers who were camped on the front lawn. Irritated, Bobb told the men to leave his property. Tempers flared, and Bobb got into an altercation with a Union sergeant. After it turned physical, Bobb hit the other man with a brick and knocked him to the ground. The soldiers left but promised to return, and when they did, they swore to him they’d burn the house to the ground.

Bobb didn’t retaliate. Instead, he went to see General Henry W. Slocum, the Union commander in Vicksburg. He assured Bobb that he’d personally make sure that no harm would come to Bobb, his family, or his home – but Slocum was never able to make good on his promise. On his way home, Bobb was abducted by the group of soldiers, taken behind a railroad machine shop, and shot to death.

But they made a mistake when they left a witness to the shooting alive – Bobb’s wife, Selina. She had followed her husband to Union headquarters, and when she heard gunshots behind the machine shop, she hurried in that direction and saw her husband crumpled on the ground. She was discovered a short time later by a Union officer named Gwinder, cradling her dead husband and covered in his blood. Gwinder had been dispatched to investigate the gunshots and ordered the arrest of the soldiers. The sergeant was the only man ever charged and what became of the others is unknown.

And perhaps that’s why John Bobb still haunts his beloved home to this day. He has been encountered on the lawn and walking the hallways of the mansion. We have to wonder if he is still restless because his killers were never brought to justice.

Selina Bobb sold the house and moved away. In 1882, it was purchased by a man named William Murray, whose family lived there for the next eighty years. Murray had been a Union soldier during the war and had been part of the occupying army of Vicksburg. It was there that he met Ellen Flynn and married. They had seven children together, and William died at McRaven in 1911.

And some say he has never left. In fact, former owner Leyland French claimed that William was the first ghost he ever encountered in the house. He was walking up the great flying wing staircase when he turned and noticed a man following behind him. He recognized the former owner from some old photographs that he had seen and admitted being frightened at first. He ran upstairs to the Bobb bedroom, then slammed and locked the door. Since that initial experience, though, he claimed to believe the spirits at McRaven were harmless.

William’s wife, Ellen, died in the house in 1921, and two of their children also died at McRaven in the years that followed. Eventually, only two daughters – Annie and Ella – lived alone in the house. During those solitary years, the place earned a reputation as the local “haunted house” – not only for the ghost stories but for the rundown appearance of the mansion. Few visitors came to the door, and their only regular caller was their family physician, Dr. Walter Johnson.

When Ella became ill in 1960, Dr. Johnson was called to McRaven to care for her. He later wrote that Ella’s death was “the eeriest thing that I have ever experienced in my life.” He provided no details, and what occurred that night remains a mystery.

Annie was moved to a nursing home after her sister’s death, and she passed away in 1972. It should probably be no surprise – in a house filled with spirits like this one – the two sisters are also said to have remained behind here in death. They are often seen in the house and the gardens, and sometimes the piano they loved so much will plink out a few notes on its own.

COME JOIN US AT MCRAVEN HOUSE!

The mysteries of McRaven are many, leading no one to claim that they have all the answers about this beautiful – and often eerie – mansion. If you’d like to experience this very haunted house for yourself, join us as we explore its tragic history and find out for yourself if the more than a century and a half of stories are truth or fiction!