New Orleans Ghost Story

The Chicago Tribune reported the following story from The New Orleans Bee on 29 October 1860:

"The Ghost of Barracks Street, New Orleans -- A Horrible Discovery

For some three weeks past there has been considerable excitement among the negroes who live in the neighborhood of Barracks street, New Orleans, in consequence of a report that the ghost of a free-colored man, who blew out his brains in that locality, was in the habit of occasionally emerging from his late residence and indulging in his midnight strolls, clad in vestments of most unearthly whiteness. Many negroes saw the ghost, and some had even approached it, in which case they saw it always sank slowly into the earth. This story at length spread among many white people, and there were not a few who had satisfied their curiosity by midnight visits to the locality and were ready to take oath that the ghost story was no fabrication. At length it even obtained credit with the police, and two night watchmen got their beats removed to other streets from this one. One of these declared the ghost to be over ten feet high, and of ghostly visage. This had to be investigated, as there could be no doubt but that there was some ground for these stories, which attracted numbers of people on foot and in cabs, every midnight to Barracks street, one of those matter-of-fact men in whose minds the supernatural element finds little room. He walked up to the ghost the other night, and catching firm hold of it, discovered it to be a poor old half crazy woman who wanders out of her house at this time with one of her white undershirts drawn over her head. The mystery was fathomed, and the locality has now lost all its former interest."