The Marshall House

Savannah's oldest hotel, built in 1851 and named one of the best haunted hotels in the U.S. by USA Today. The building served as a hospital three times - once for Union soldiers and twice during Yellow Fever epidemics.

The Marshall House is Savannah's oldest operating hotel, built in 1851 by Mary Marshall on land inherited from her French cabinetmaker father. During the Civil War, the Union Army occupied the building from 1864 to 1865 under General William T. Sherman, using it as a field hospital for wounded soldiers. It also served as a hospital during two devastating yellow fever epidemics.

When the hotel was restored in the late 1990s, workers made a gruesome discovery. While replacing damaged floorboards downstairs, they uncovered human remains. Police investigated what appeared to be a crime scene, but forensic analysis dated the bones to the Civil War era. Historians concluded they were amputated limbs from soldiers operated on when the building served as a surgical hospital. With no way to bury the severed limbs in frozen winter ground, Civil War surgeons concealed them beneath the floorboards.

The fourth floor, where amputations occurred furthest from street level to muffle the screams, experiences the most haunting activity. In Room 414, guests report the most sightings. The saddest encounter involves an amputee soldier who wanders the halls, his missing arm clutched in his remaining hand, desperately asking guests: "Has anyone seen my arm? Can you get me a surgeon?"

Ghostly doctors are still at work on the second floor, where visitors hear the sounds of surgery. Some guests wake to find Civil War soldiers standing at the foot of their beds. Children run through hallways at night, and faucets turn on by themselves. USA Today named the Marshall House the #5 "Best Haunted Hotel" in America in October 2020. Today's guests sleep surrounded by the spirits of those who never left the hospital wards - soldiers still searching for the limbs they lost over 160 years ago.