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Field Reports from Duff Green Mansion

Written by: Rick Garner & Dean McKnight
Case Filed:
8/1/2002 - Vicksburg, Mississippi
Executive Producer:
Rick Garner




Breakfast Cook Catherine Miller is emphatic in her opinion of the Duff Green, "To me, the Duff Green Mansion is one of the most beautiful places I have every worked."

Employee Lib Galloway agrees, "You know, as many people that have died in this house - it's gonna feel spooky. However, it didn't. I felt like the house was sheltering me, protecting me, and taking care of me."


Duff Green Mansion in Vicksburg was built in 1856. Then, the home of Duff and Mary Green, the young home would be faced with destruction during the Civil War. Cannonballs ripped through its upper floors five times before Mary Green raised a yellow flag from the roof. This signified that the home was a hospital and both sides - Union and Confederate soldiers - were tended to in the mansion. However, Union wounded were kept on the upper floor, just in case a wayward cannonball pierced the house, again.

Today, Duff Green is one of the nation's most elite bed and breakfast inns, restored to its former beauty with the tender care of Harry and Alicia Sharp. Restoring the home took over two years, and the Sharps soon learned they were not alone in the mansion.

Employee Brian Riley says, "This paranormal activity that happens...it happens 24 hours a day at any given time. You just never know when it's going to happen."

Miller says she's encountered the original owner more than 10 times, "I was standing there over the stove stirring my grits, and I felt this rubbing on my shoulders. I thought someone had walked in behind me - teasing me or something like that. But I looked back and there wasn't anyone there. Then, I knew it was Mrs. Green."

Miller has seen Mary Green and described her as a beautiful woman with blonde hair. Owner Harry Sharp has also seen Mary Green. "I saw something move out of the corner of my eye and I turned around and saw her floating. I could see her and the back of her large antebellum dress...it was green...and then she vanished (snap) just like that."

The Dixie Room as its called today once served as an operating room during the Siege of Vicksburg. Amputated arms and legs were once accounted as being "piled as high as the ceiling." Paranormal sightings in this room number at nearly fifty - all different, unrelated individuals who knew nothing about the room being haunted.

Sharp says, "The sighting is of the same Confederate veteran, sitting by the fireplace with his amputated leg staring straight ahead."

The Green's daughter, who died young, bounces a ball and runs up and down the steps. Sharp has heard the footsteps on several occasions.

So has Lib Galloway, "I would call thinking it was the innkeeper. Nobody answered and I'd come in the house. Not a person was in the house...not a live one anyway."

Sharp also shared how a crime scene investigator from Louisiana was taking pictures one day outside of the Duff Green. The image shocked both the investigator and Duff employees. A distinct black figure with a transparent head is clearly visible standing on the steps.

David Sharp says he once thought the sound of footsteps was so real, that he assumed it was his dad walking into the room. He began speaking to him and when he turned expecting to see him, no one else was in the room. However, the photograph of the black figure was far more disturbing to him. "That really shook me up, because I knew the place was haunted but I never wanted to see a ghost, and I saw that on camera and didn't really wanna stay here anymore."

Even on the day of our investigation, there was more unexplained. Employee Brian Riley says,"I walked down the hall and peeked into the Dixie Room and all the lights were on. So, I turned them off and left. About two minutes later, I came back through and peeked back in and all the lights were back on - that happened two or three times today."

Even while we were there, something surprised us all. A shelf that had been there some time was found collapsed and twisted. Harry Sharp was surprised by the find as the shelf was fine just two days prior - standing against the wall. We examined the shelf and found all the weight to be on the bottom, which made it seem even stranger that the shelf was twisted down and if almost stepped on by an unseen force.

Throughout the evening, we took seventy pictures. The camera says they are there but the images are inaccessible. Something else that remains to be unexplained.

Lib Galloway summed up our visit to Duff Green well, "Well, I used to think that anybody who believed in haints or ghosts had to be an idiot, but after I experienced some myself I decided its the height of arrogance to say I don't understand therefore it does not exist. I don't know what it is, but I know what I've seen and what I've heard and I know there's something."

1856 - House built by Duff and Mary Green

1861 - the iron grillwork of the balconies was cut off and donated to the Confederate Army for the manufacturing of ammunition.

Late 1860's - House used as hospital and home for displaced soldiers.

1880 - Greens sold mansion it to Peatross family

1880 - The platforms of the balconies were removed

1880-1930 - Sold to be an orphanage and nursing home

1931- Salvation Army purchased home for $3000 to be organization's local headquarters.

1985 - Sharps purchased mansion, having never been renovated or restored since it was built in 1856. Sharps undertook a two-and-a-half-year restoration with the approval of the U.S. Department of the Interior. In some rooms, they stripped as many as 27 coats of paint from the walls. Twelve-foot doors between the library and dining room were stripped to reveal solid cypress wood, which the Sharps left unpainted so that its lovely grain could be admired. They replaced missing fixtures, including all of the home's chandeliers and all but two of its thirteen original mantels. They learned that, through the years, the Salvation Army had sold the fixtures and chandeliers to raise operational funds. Original molds are located for the balconies and they, too, are restored.

Known Ghosts of Duff Green:
Mary Green: - She has been seen numerous times by several employees. Described as beautiful with blonde hair with green dress.. She has made physical contact with the breakfast cook, massaging her shoulders while the cook makes breakfast.

Young Green Daughter - Bounces a ball down the main staircase and runs up and down stairs. Also, seen as small child with blond hair and wearing a white nightgown.

Confederate solider - Always seen in Dixie Room sitting in chair with amputated leg and staring blankly ahead. 50 different guests have seen this solider, not knowing about him.

Attic white light - Central heating and air repair crews have reported a white light zipping around the attic.

Figure on step - Photographic evidence of entity on front steps. Cleanly a dark humanoid figure with translucent head.

Lady in white - Reported by one guest standing near her bed when she awoke from sleep.

Footsteps - Heard constantly in hallways and outside.



Results of Investigation:
Digital Pictures - 70 pictures taken but images are not accessible. Possibly due to exposure to electromagnetic paranormal energy.

Hi-8 Footage - The same familiar "wooden knocks" were captured in the attic twice, but the "white, zipping light" described by air conditioning repairman was not scene. However, a collapsed work shelf provided a surprise to the owner and investigation team.

Tri-Field Meter - Monitored corner of bed where woman in white had been seen by a former guest. The electromagnetic readings were fairly consistent, therefore revealing no evidence of paranormal activity at that time.

Other Experiences - Dean McKnight recalled feeling a "bone-chilling blast of cold air" in the hallway where Mary Green's ghost has been seen.
Producer Rick Garner was taping a segment with Brian Riley when he felt a light touch of a finger on his left side. He did not see or hear anything else, although the hair on his left arm stood on-end. Rick felt massive electromagnetic fields in several rooms in Duff Green, a sensation that confirms to him the presence of paranormal activity. The feeling is similar to coming in contact with an electrical field.

Call Duff Green at 1-800-992-0037 or visit their website.



Watch Tour of Dixie Room



Watch Catherine Miller Full Interview



Watch Harry Sharp Full Interview


Watch David Sharp Full Interview


Watch Caretaker Lib Galloway Full Interview



Watch Caretaker Brian Riley Full Interview


Watch Evidence of Attic Disturbance

Watch Details about Footsteps

Comments

  1. The audio for Catherine Miller's interview cuts out about 10 seconds in.

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