Civil War Medical Museum

The Civil War Medical Museum in Gordonsville has been used for many different purposes since construction finished in 1860. When the building opened as the Exchange Hotel it was, as the name would imply, a bustling hotel located next to a major railroad junction, but two years later its prime location forced it to become part of the Gordonsville Receiving Hospital, caring for wounded soldiers on both sides of the Civil War. More than 70,000 men were treated in the facility during the war, with 700 of them buried in the surrounding grounds.

After the war it became a Freedman’s Bureau Hospital for freed slaves, and later returned to its intended purpose as a hotel. Today the building has been fully restored and now operates as a museum, containing many artifacts from the Civil War. It is also said to be haunted by some of the soldiers who were treated within its walls.

Among them is a man believed to have been the Union corporal who was the last patient to leave at the war’s end. Cold spots and doors closing on their own have been witnessed, as have inexplicable sounds and the apparitions of a nurse, child, and a Major Quartermaster named Richard. Some of the ghosts have been known to speak to guests, including that of a black cook named Anna who tells guests she is frying chicken.