Yorktown, Virginia
Yorktown was a small tobacco port on the York River in Virginia when it was selected as the site of a British resupply base by Earl Cornwallis during the American Revolutionary War. After the French Fleet drove off a British fleet near the Virginia Capes, Yorktown became a trap for the British Army, besieged by the combined Continental and French Armies. In October 1781 the Americans continuously bombarded the British in and just outside the town, targeting the most prominent house, owned by Thomas Nelson, in the belief that the British headquarters was located there. Legend has it that Nelson himself suggested that Washington bombard the house.
In fact, though the house had been used as a headquarters for a time, the bombardment had driven the British senior staff to seek less conspicuous shelter. The Nelson House was used as a hospital, with the third floor of the imposing house serving as a rest area, elevated enough to catch the breezes during the day, offering some respite to the suffering soldiers. The sounds of the suffering, the moans and groans of the wounded, were heard over the thunder of the French and American guns. Citizens of Yorktown sought shelter from the bombardment in caves along the banks of the York River.
After the British surrendered the post, the American army returned to its watchful positions on the Hudson River and in New Jersey, leaving behind in place many of the fortifications and entrenchments they built during the siege. These were used again in a later war, by the Confederate army during the Peninsula Campaign, where the Confederates used fake guns made of logs to fool the Union commander, George McClellan, into believing they were stronger than they were. After delaying the Union with their ruse, the Confederates withdrew to the Richmond area.
Both the caves, now known as Cornwallis Cave, and the Nelson House have been reported to be haunted, with the sounds of moans and groans of pain emanating from both. The sounds from the Nelson House have been limited to the third floor, and spectral images have been claimed to have been seen it its windows at night. The caves were later enlarged into a single cavern by smugglers and are now secured with gates, but the ghostly sounds emerging from the site have been reported both by people walking in the area and resorting on the river.
George Washington’s stepson John Parke Custis died during the siege, of typhus and the medical attention he received, and his spirit has been reported to have been seen, complete with bandages stained from the bleeding with which he was treated, along the battle lines as if searching for his stepfather, for whom he was an aide. Several have reported spectral redcoats fleeing from the area of the British front lines towards the town. Ghosts from the Civil War era, when the Nelson house was again used as a hospital with equal inefficiency, are said to be seen and heard in and around the house at night.