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All the United States Georgia Savannah Colonial Park Cemetery

Colonial Park Cemetery

One of Savannah's oldest and most haunted cemeteries, featuring graves desecrated by Sherman's Union Army.

Savannah, Georgia

Added By
Luke Spencer
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Cemetery Entrance   Riversend / Atlas Obscura User
Wall of Headstones..all speculation that Union Army desecrated…no actual proof   Riversend / Atlas Obscura User
This man lived to 544!   Luke J Spencer / Atlas Obscura User
This man lived to 421!   Luke J Spencer / Atlas Obscura User
These head markers were dug up and strewn around the cemetery.   Luke J Spencer / Atlas Obscura User
Full Headstone of the man who lived 544 years   Trey Tatum
“Nearly 700” died from Yellow Fever   Trey Tatum
Grave Wall   MayaSeeMayaDo / Atlas Obscura User
  gregtaets / Atlas Obscura User
  PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
  PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
  PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
  PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
  PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
  Collector of Experiences / Atlas Obscura User
“He Fell in a Duel”   Trey Tatum
Colonial Park Cemetery   brookem4480 / Atlas Obscura User
  sunflowergirl / Atlas Obscura User
  sunflowergirl / Atlas Obscura User
Colonial Park Cemetery headstone dated 1805   ETC / Atlas Obscura User
Gravestones displaced by Union soldiers.   Luke J Spencer / Atlas Obscura User
  thegenxjourney / Atlas Obscura User
Cemetery at night   yvonnebergeron / Atlas Obscura User
Colonial cemetery park at night   yvonnebergeron / Atlas Obscura User
Full Headstone of the man who lived 421 years   Trey Tatum
Aged 138 years   Trey Tatum
October 1, 2014 cemeteries closed until further notice  
Crypts and headstones, 01JUL17.   andresrluz / Atlas Obscura User
Entry into Colonial Park Cemetery, Corner of Oglethorpe Ave. & Abercorn St., 01JUL17   andresrluz / Atlas Obscura User
Colonial Park Cemetery, Diverging pathway. 01JUL17   andresrluz / Atlas Obscura User
Wall of Headstones, 01JUL17   andresrluz / Atlas Obscura User
Lovely little path that runs alongside the southern-most wall inside Colonial Park Cemetary   Dayne / Atlas Obscura User
Beautiful tree inside Colonial Park Cemetary   Dayne / Atlas Obscura User
  Collector of Experiences / Atlas Obscura User
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About

The Colonial Park cemetery in Savannah has a rich and macabre history.

Built in 1750, the cemetery contains many of Savannah's earliest settlers, including 700 victims of the great yellow fever epidemic of 1820, all of whom were interred in a mass grave. It is said that the actual number of Savannahians who fell to the plague numbered 666, but the total was rounded up to curtail any mention of the beast. The cemetery also served as the city’s dueling grounds from 1740 until 1877.

Savannah was spared from the total destruction of Sherman's March to the Sea during the Civil War, when the city was surrendered without incident as the Rebel Army retreated across the Savannah River into South Carolina. Later, Sherman presented the city to Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas gift in 1864. But the occupying Union soldiers are reputed to have left their mark in Savannah in a unique and unusual way — by subtly altering the gravestones in the Colonial cemetery. Along the east wall of the cemetery lie dozens of gravestones which, according to local legend, the soldiers dug up and displaced. They changed the dates of many on the headstones with their bayonets; one man living to the ripe old age of 421, his neighbor living 544 years, and another man's son was born 1000 years before his father. The reality is that many graves were exhumed and moved during Savannah's many yellow fever and malaria epidemics when deaths exceeded the available space in the “Old Burying Ground.”

Unfortunately, the cemetery has been the target of vandals for centuries, and local tour guides love to blame “General Sherman's Bummers.”

One of the most historic and haunted places in one of America's most beguiling cities.

Related Tags

Cemeteries Military History Us Civil War Plague Military

Know Before You Go

Just east of Chippewa Square. The headstone are hung on a brick wall on the South-eastern corner of the cemetery, close to E. Perry Ln. The Dead Of Night guided tour starts at 11 p.m. and is really not for kiddos. Tons of the local ghost tour operators say this is the place where most people report feeling a ghost! 

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Luke J Spencer

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Rachel, treytatum, leslipeterson, lycanthropejeff...

  • Rachel
  • treytatum
  • leslipeterson
  • lycanthropejeff
  • eicats
  • thegenxjourney
  • Dayne
  • yvonnebergeron
  • andresrluz
  • Collector of Experiences
  • PushingUpDaisies
  • ETC
  • Riversend
  • gregtaets
  • sunflowergirl
  • kapturesbykelli
  • brookem4480
  • MayaSeeMayaDo

Published

February 7, 2014

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  • https://365atlantatraveler.com/savannah-ghost-tours/
Colonial Park Cemetery
121 East Oglethorpe Avenue
Savannah, Georgia, 31401
United States
32.07621, -81.090552
Visit Website
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