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History, Mystery & Ghost Tours

Oct 31, 2011; 10:31 AM ET

Have you thought of taking a vacation this fall? Many Americans are doing just that in order to avoid the summer crowds, take advantage of off-season rates, and, with money tight, to be able to be more choosy about their destinations. As well, the farther into the year we get, the easier it is to suddenly discover that elusive "disposable income" we all use to treat ourselves to those special things in life--like a fall vacation.

One of the best ways to experience those up-close and personal adventures is to put yourself in the hands of local professional tour companies and their guides. Local tour companies know the behind-the-scenes history, the less traveled roads, the whispered stories, in other words, the hidden gems of their home towns.

Historical sites are always popular. But, as we all remember from high school, history can be either incredibly fascinating or snooze provoking. It all depends upon the presentation. Three destinations that have played key roles in defining what America is today and should be at the top of your we-need-to-go-there list: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Fredericksburg, Virginia, and Savannah, Georgia.

Why are we so confident? They have all been selected by author and historian Mark Nesbitt as perfect venues for his Ghost Tours.

Nesbitt, a former U. S. National Park Service Ranger, developed his first ghost tour, Ghosts of Gettysburg Candlelight Walking Tours®, in 1994 after having written about the Ghosts of Gettysburg in his book series of the same name. It was his goal to use the "ghostlore" of the area to tell the history. "You have to tie the history to something memorable, otherwise it can be dry facts and figures, which rarely make an impression," Nesbitt said. Having given literally hundreds of on-site talks to tourists on the battlefield of Gettysburg, he knows what he's talking about. "It's the human interest stories that we all relate to."

What sets Mark Nesbitt's tours apart from other tours in the area is the ability to combine history with the current-day mysteries that surround these historic events. By bringing to light the past, Mark and his tour guides help visitors to these areas understand the real human drama that occurred 150 years ago and why some of it still influences the present.

And everyone likes a good ghost story, especially if it can be tied in with historical fact. The Ghosts of Gettysburg Tours have the largest, most costly battle ever fought on the continent from which to draw stories-both historical and ghostly. Nesbitt has collected over 1,000 ghost tales from Gettysburg alone, of phantom battalions that still march the once bloody fields, mysterious voices echoing within the walls of private homes formerly used as makeshift hospitals, and elevators that take their passengers on a ride into the grisly past. And, with the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War underway, other battlefields of America's bloodiest war provide lessons in history and, to adventurers into the paranormal, venues to study their field.

"Civil War battles spawned some of the great stories all humans can be proud of," Nesbitt said. "Sacrifice for a cause greater than one's self, enduring beyond what one is capable of, courage under life and death circumstances, humor under fire, were all compacted into the four year war, and at a tragic cost. Over 620,000 young men died in the Civil War, when the population of the country was one-tenth the size it is today. Can you imagine 6 million soldiers dying in four years of war today? More Americans, North and South, died than in all our other wars combined. The cost was staggering."

Halfway between Washington, DC, and Richmond, Virginia, is a town steeped in American history going back to the explorations of Captain John Smith in 1608. Visitors to Fredericksburg experience the Colonial Fredericksburg of George Washington, then move forward in time to the Fredericksburg of the Civil War era. Included in Nesbitt's Ghosts of Fredericksburg Tours are stories of long dead slaves trapped in one of the more prominent houses in town, the apparition of a woman still materializing in the building where she hanged herself, and police dogs that refuse to enter a church once used as a hospital for the wounded from the many battles around Fredericksburg.

The town could be called the center of the fighting in the eastern theater of the Civil War. The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought in December of 1862. A dozen charges were made by incredibly brave Union soldiers against Confederates ensconced in a sunken road behind a stone wall; 4,000 men fell in one hour of that fighting. The wounded froze to death later that night. "They buried some of the men in mass graves," Nesbitt said. "The bodies were later exhumed. Fredericksburg expanded and homes were built over the former gravesites. That may be the genesis for some of the scores of ghost stories from Fredericksburg. The human agony was unfathomable-another reason why there may be ghosts in the town."

Savannah, Georgia, in spite of all its old-south charm and Spanish moss-framed views, harbors some of the more frightening ghost stories. Nesbitt teamed up with Ray Couch, founder of the paranormal research group "Southern Ghosts" to create Savannah's first Civil War Ghost Tour with tales of a Civil War officer returning from the grave to lead his dying wife to the afterlife and visits to sites where the voices of the dead have been recorded. The tour even begins in a cemetery!

"Savannah is the quintessential southern city," Nesbitt said. "First, it's absolutely gorgeous. Major production companies leave Hollywood to film in Savannah because the architecture is magnificent." With the hanging Spanish moss, quaint squares, and long history, the city is indeed unique. "Second, Savannah is known for its fantastic regional food-Southern cuisine at its best." And Savannah's history is being layered from its founding right up to the present.

And what was behind Savannah's real life venue for the engrossing tale of murder told in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?

If you can't get enough while you're visiting the historical/haunted towns, you can take home Nesbitt's Ghosts of Gettysburg book series, Ghost Hunters Field Guides, history books, and DVD's telling the battlefield's ghosts stories.

So, if you choose to travel this fall, make that trip an unforgettable one! Visit Gettysburg, PA, Fredericksburg, VA, or Savannah, GA and tour with one of their guides for some intrigue, history ... and just enough tantalizing mystery... you may have to come back, for more!

Darlene Perrone

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