Chatham Manor

A Georgian mansion overlooking the Rappahannock River, built in 1771. President Lincoln visited twice during the Civil War when it served as a Union headquarters and hospital.

Chatham Manor rises above the Rappahannock River in Stafford County, a Georgian brick mansion built between 1768 and 1771 by twenty-eight-year-old William Fitzhugh. The estate once encompassed over 1,200 acres worked by approximately one hundred enslaved people, and featured an orchard, mill, and racetrack where Fitzhugh entertained Virginia's elite. The manor holds the rare distinction of being the only private residence in America visited by four U.S. presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. It is one of only three houses in the country where both Washington and Lincoln set foot.

The manor's most famous ghost is the Lady in White, whose tragic story dates to the late 1700s. According to legend, a young English woman of aristocratic birth fell in love with a drysalter—a cloth dyer and food preserver—far below her social station. Her disapproving father sent her across the Atlantic to stay at Chatham, hoping she would find a more suitable match among Virginia's gentry. But her lover followed her to America, and the couple made secret plans to elope from the estate.

Their scheme unraveled when a servant overheard their intentions and reported them to a distinguished guest: General George Washington himself. On the night of their planned escape, the young woman climbed from her bedroom window, expecting to find her beloved waiting below. Instead, she found Washington. Her lover was arrested, and she was immediately placed on a ship back to England without even the chance to say goodbye.

Back home, she was forced into an approved marriage and bore ten children, but according to those who knew her, she never smiled again. On her deathbed, June 21, 1790, she made a solemn vow to return to the only place where she had ever been truly happy—Chatham Manor. True to her word, her spirit has appeared on the anniversary of her death ever since, though only once every seven years. She manifests as a glowing apparition in a long, white colonial gown, walking the path from the manor toward the river where she had planned to meet her lover. Locals have named this route "Ghost Walk." The first documented sighting occurred in the 1800s when a visiting Frenchman reported the spectral encounter. Her next scheduled appearance is June 21, 2028, between noon and midnight.

In 1805, the manor witnessed bloodshed of a different kind. During the Christmas holiday, overseer Mr. Starke attempted to cut short the enslaved workers' traditional break and force them back to work early. The enslaved community resisted violently, seizing, binding, and whipping the overseer. Starke escaped to nearby Falmouth and returned with reinforcements. In the confrontation that followed, an enslaved man named Philip was killed. Another named James drowned attempting to flee across the Rappahannock. Abraham, a leader of the rebellion, was later executed for "conspiracy and insurrection." Two others, Robin and Cupid, were deported to slave colonies in the Caribbean. Whispers have been reported near the old slave quarters, though no formal documentation of apparitions exists from this community buried on the grounds.

The manor's darkest chapter came during the Civil War. When the Lacy family fled in 1862, the U.S. Army seized Chatham as headquarters for General Edwin Sumner during the Battle of Fredericksburg—one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war with over 9,000 wounded on the Union side alone. President Lincoln visited on May 23, 1862, conferring with military commanders from the manor's windows overlooking the battlefield. After the December 1862 battle, Chatham's stately rooms transformed into a field hospital. The surgical team included Dr. J. Franklin Dyer, operating surgeons Hayward, Morton, and Rizer, nine assistant surgeons, and Dr. Mary Walker—the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor for Civil War service. Clara Barton and nurse Isabella Fogg labored to save soldiers' lives. The facility was so overwhelmed that patients were placed on porches and the bare ground outside; doors were repurposed as stretchers.

Walt Whitman arrived in December 1862, searching desperately for his wounded brother George. The poet witnessed horrors that would haunt his writing for years—describing "a heap of amputated feet, legs, arms, hands, etc." buried near the property. At least 130 soldiers died at Chatham, their bodies temporarily interred on the grounds before being moved to Fredericksburg National Cemetery. Today, shadowy figures in tattered Union uniforms are spotted standing silently in corners or appearing to patrol the river's edge. Visitors encounter intense cold spots and electronic malfunctions near the former surgery room. The sounds of crying and moaning echo through the old hospital rooms—a haunting reminder of the suffering that once filled these walls. Many report feeling a heavy energy and overwhelming sadness, as if the very air carries the weight of all those who suffered and died here.

In 1986, National Park Service staff held a vigil on June 21st hoping to document the Lady in White, but she failed to appear—leading some to speculate that she senses when people are actively searching for her. Historian John Hennessy has expressed skepticism, stating "Nobody has ever seen anything. No thumps in the night." Yet visitors continue to report unexplained phenomena: shadowy figures by the river, cold spots throughout the house, and that pervasive sense of sorrow that has lingered at Chatham for over two centuries.

Today the manor is part of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, open to the public for daytime visitation. Whether you believe in her or not, the Lady in White's next scheduled appearance awaits on June 21, 2028—and those patient enough to wait may witness a ghostly woman in colonial dress walking toward the river, still searching for the love she lost over two hundred years ago.