725 Ursuline St.
New Orleans, LA 70116
29.96178,-90.062187
New Orleans has always been so
steeped with lore and legend, it is no wonder it is so haunted. As with any
outlandish tales, people elaborate upon these legends, often sensationalizing
them until they become more fiction than fact. The grizzly stories that make up
the haunted history of New Orleans are no exception. So far, we have learned
about sadistic sultans, torturous madams, Voodoo priestess and hypnotizing dentists. Although these stories have been verified as fact, we will never know
if they happened exactly as reported or were they slightly embellished upon to
sound just a tad bit creepier.
One of these last popular tales that
we will cover in the great city of New Orleans is one of those last stops I
took on that infamous haunted history tour as a teenager. The Sausage Man
House, as it is commonly named is not a bath house for well-endowed men, as the
title may suggest. A small private residence on Ursuline Street, I first read
of this insane story in the 1940’s book Gumbo
Ya-Ya. I know I’ve mentioned this book several times but I highly recommend
that you read it. Being written in the forties, it is told in a tome that books
are no longer written in and it truly is unique. As I have said, this story has
been told for years and there are different variants so I will stick with the
most widely told version. Who knows, this story may very well be completely
fictitious, but I felt I had to include it. It would be futile to try and
compile such a large collection of haunted New Orleans stories and not include
the famed Sausage Man House.
31.176164,-92.060612
Adjacent to my hometown, lays the
small city of Marksville. During my teenage years I would hear of numerous
haunted stories coming from a small nook of Marksville known as the Fort
Derussy Battlefield and Cemetery. The informative antique 1945 book, Gumbo
Ya-Ya, vaguely refers to the area as, “the haunted woods near Marksville
where the local people refuse to go after dark.” Normally, I would lump the two
locations into one story but the cemetery holds such a special place in my
heart that I must differentiate it from the historic battlefield. For now
though, we will focus on what the area is primarily known for; a Civil War
fort.
The fort received its name from
Colonel Louis G. Derussy, commander of the 2nd Louisiana Regiment of
volunteers during the Civil War. As we have learned with our other locations,
the Red River Campaign was becoming a large military movement. As this was
beginning to form, Union troops began to establish their positions by moving up
from Simmesport via the Atchafalaya River. Colonel Derussey was aware of this
and he knew that his primary goal was to build a defense along this anticipated
path.
The presumptions were correct, as
Union troops approached Fort Derusssy in May of 1863. As they approached, they
immediately began attacking several Confederate gunboats; the Cotton and
the Grand Duke. Despite the Confederate losses, the Union retreated down
the river, only after destroying part of the fort. The Confederacy rebuilt and,
a year later on March 14, 1864, led by Colonel William F. Lynch and Colonel
William T. Shaw, the Union troops returned, this time, with a fight on their
minds.
