Civil War Ghosts of Virginia

by L.B. Taylor Jr., Brenda Goens (Illustrator)

Dare you not believe? The last march of Robert E. Lee, 60 years after Appomattox! The spectral return of Stonewall Jackson's amputated arm! The haunting corpse of John Brown at Harper's Ferry! . . . Are the accounts true?

Genres: Ghosts

225 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1996

About the author

Williamsburg resident L.B. Taylor, Jr., is credited with 50 non-fiction books, including 25 enormously popular collections of Virginia ghost stories.

He earned his journalism degree from Florida State University, served in the U.S. Army, and later covered spaceflight missions for NASA. As a freelance writer, he wrote more than 300 articles throughout his career and his retirement.

While his popular non-fiction books cover diverse subjects, from pirate treasure to electronic surveillance, his ghost story collections set him firmly in Virginia libraries, schools, and homes.

Reviews

[Dennis Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several of the ghost stories to be found in this book are very good. They contain recent eyewitness accounts and are well documented. On the other hand, Mr. Taylor falls into the trap that snares many authors of civil war ghost books. In short, he gets caught up in the history of the place where his story takes place and almost forgets the ghost. The story of the Stone House at Manassas is very good for example and the story of Jefferson Davis' son Joe is both eerie and touching. On the other hand the story about Belle Boyd is fairly long and only the last paragraph mentions a ghost while the story of the Escape from the Grave contains no ghost at all. I get the feeling from his introduction and a few of his chapters that the author might have had several good ghost stories and was badly in need of filler material. Quite frankly, the book would have been much better if he had produced a shorter but more true to its title book.

[Dot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the book a lot. I love Virginia History, an like ghost stories. They were very interesting

[Eric Burroughs · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of the same of the Williamsburg one. History isn’t great and not redeemed by ghosts. He also really loves JEB Stuart

[Tom Darrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of Civil War ghost stories organized chronologically. This would be a good companion work to take on a road trip to these sites to add a little extra color.

The editing of the book is somewhat suspect. It's clear that this is a collection of stories that the authors acquired from a variety of sources. They style, tone and even grammar varies somewhat between each story, which can make clarity drop somewhat.

[Travis Pratt · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading the 'Ghosts of Williamsburg' volumes one and two, when I saw the author signing books I had to get one. It was neat to tell Mr. Taylor how much I enjoyed his other books. I have finished this one now, too and it was everything that I had expected it to be.