Springhill Winery and Plantation B&B

Confederate raiders killed the owner in his own front yard here in 1864. The history holds up. The haunting barely shows on TripAdvisor.

In June 1864, Confederate guerillas rode up to this house looking for horses and food. They left bodies in the front yard, and John R. Jones, the owner, didn't survive the afternoon either.

Springhill's own history page, run by the current owners, calls it the darkest day in Bloomfield's history. According to that account, the raiders came from an encampment down the road at Camp Charity. A dispute over Jones's saddle escalated into shooting. The prisoners the raiders had with them were executed in the front yard in reprisal after Jones killed their captain, and Jones died in the same incident. The exact number of dead that day is not something the online history pins down, and I haven't found a clean primary-source count either. What the house agrees on is the shape of the event: guerillas, a saddle, gunfire at the main entrance, multiple dead including the owner.

The house itself was built in 1857 by Jones, his wife, and their sons. A later owner, Dr. Hughes, added the ornate ironwork on the two front porches. The winery's history attributes the ironwork to a Paris import in 1904, though that specific provenance isn't something I could second-source. What's visible from the road is a grand Nelson County farmhouse with iron porches that don't match anything else in Bloomfield.

The haunting claims attached to the property are harder to source than the history. Americashauntedroadtrip.com describes Springhill as a destination to discover both the historic past and ghostly activity, a line that shows up on every haunted hotels in Kentucky round-up without backing. The current TripAdvisor reviews, all 131 of them, don't mention footsteps, figures, cold spots, or any paranormal experience. Guests write about the wine, the breakfast, and owners June and Jeff. If the house has the hauntings its marketing suggests, guests aren't writing about them online.

That doesn't settle the question. A house with a violent Civil War death in the front yard and an owner-in-residence who oversees bourbon-trail travelers isn't a place where guests volunteer ghost reports to strangers. What the property does offer is specific and unusual: you can book a stay in a private home where a historic multi-casualty killing happened at the front door, the same door guests now walk through with their luggage. The history is the draw. The ghost stories are a rumor attached to a real historical event, and the real event is the part that holds up.

Springhill runs as a working winery and a bed and breakfast. June and Jeff are generous hosts. If you stay and you hear anything, you can add to the record yourself.