Savannah's Yellow Fever & The Colonial Cemetery

As promised , part two of the historic Colonial Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia .There is a section that has over 700 graves of the Yellow Fever outbreak of 1820. As I walked thru this section looking at tombstones mounted on  the brick wall, thinking of all the people that suffered from black vomit and high fevers,  the hysteria that the town must have felt during this period. It caused merchants to shut down their businesses, and people left the city to avoid catching it. What a scary time it must have been.

 

To the east of Forsyth Park is the Candler Hospital, many ghost tour companies still tell the stories about the death and dying which took place there. During one of the last Yellow Fever outbreaks in Savannah, as the story is told, there were a great number of people who died in the Candler Hospital from Yellow Fever. So many in fact, that tunnels were dug and secret burials were made throughout the entire area.  One of the secret burial grounds was a tunnel that ran underneath Forsyth Park. This tunnel didn’t have an exit. It was simply a place to put the bodies of the dead without bringing them to the surface. Founded in 1808, Savannah’s Old Candler Hospital has served as a Union hospital and an insane asylum, and thousands of patients, including those afflicted with Yellow Fever, died on the premises. A morgue tunnel once existed under the property, and some speculate the passageway was also the site of clandestine medical experiments. Though the building hasn’t been open to the public in over two decades, passerby report seeing lights and shadows in front of the windows. While on one of the many tours I was on, I was told that a mass grave was dug and bodies dumped under what is now Forsyth Park. Now whether it is true or not , I do not know.

windows where ghosts are supposed to be seen

beautiful iron work on fence next to hospital

Morgue Tunnel



The fountain at the park

There are many things in Savannah worth seeing , so if you get the chance to go, you won't be disappointed. so until next time I leave you with this:


Those we love don't go away, they walk beside us every day, unseen, unheard, but always near, still loved, still missed and very dear. - Anonymous