Here is one of the spookiest ghost stories I have ever heard or took part in. Yes I was part of this ghost story. It happened in Folly Beach South Carolina in a old beach house there. I had been living there for some time in the old beach house and had noticed some odd things from time to time but I had not seen a ghost in the house.

The front yard was really badly over grown and after dark the yard and path leading up to my front door was quite spooky. From time to time I would feel like someone was there in the yard watching me but I never actually saw anyone. And from time to time I would hear people talking in the yard but I just assumed it was real people out on the street in front of the house. At one point I went down to the local library and checked out the history of my house. I found it was built before the civil war and it was used as a field hospital by Union Forces during the civil war. In fact it was to my house where men of the 54th Massachusetts were brought after being injured badly in the attack on Ft Wagner which was then at the end of the island Folly Beach is now on. Many men died in my house while it was a civil war field hospital and there were even unmarked graves both in my yard and in the yards around my house. There were in fact graves under my house. Most of the dead from the 54th Massachusetts were buried in unmarked graves on Folly Island. Over the years storms have uncovered many of these graves.

One weekend my Mom and a female friend of mine and her's came to spend the weekend at my house and while they were there several unusual things occurred. Something they described as feeling like a small child or a large dog kept jumping onto the bed where my Mom and our friend were sleeping.

It really scared them and the next morning they were ready to go check in a motel. The spirit of what ever it was had never made its self known to me but it sure did to my Mom and our friend. The following morning after they had spent the night we all three smelled what smelt like burning flesh in the houses living room. And we saw the shadow of a man in the kitchen area. We spent the rest of the weekend in a motel and I returned to my beach house on Monday morning.

I lived on there for several months and from time to time I would smell the burning flesh smell and I often saw the shadow of what looked like a very large man. He would appear to be in the area of the front of the living room and would cast his shadow into the kitchen. I would hear unexplained voices all the time as would people living in houses in the same area of the beach. Some people claimed to see civil war era soldiers from time to time in the area. Many paranormal investigators say that any where where you have great tragedy you will also have hot spots of paranormal activity. Well the area of Folly Island and Folly Beach and the surrounding area has seen much death and tragedy with heavy fighting from the revolutionary war and the civil war occuring in the area. And restless spirits from both wars are seen often in the area.

Over the years I have came across many true ghost stories. Some I really believed and some I was really skeptical about. There is a graveyard on Boundary Street in Newberry South Carolina that has many great true ghost stories associated with it. One is told that if you visit the Boundary Street cemetery on a rainy evening especially after a thunderstorm you may see a black horse drawn hearse being pulled by a black horse with red fiery eyes. Over the years many people have reported seeing the horse drawn hearse.

In the same cemetery a young woman was buried in her wedding gown after she jumped to her death from the outdoor balcony of her parents house also on Boundary Street. She killed herself after hearing that her fiance had been killed in the civil war. She is seen often walking in the Boundary Street cemetery in her wedding gown.

The Boundary Street cemetery used to be much larger than it is now. The Boundary Street Elementary School was built on top of part of the old cemetery. And kids who are now grown tell of all kinds of strange things going on in the school when they went there as children. They tell of ghosts of people who would walk in thru walls and out thru another wall and of a strange lady in black who would order kids to get out of the graveyard even though they were in the schools ball field. It is said that there are graves under the ball field. Many people over the years saw the lady in black and students down thru the years would try to point her out to teachers but she would vanish right in front of their eyes.

The Newberry South Carolina College is said to be haunted by several diffent ghosts of students who commited suicide while they were going to college at the Newberry College. Over the years the college has been the scene of several suicides and the tower part of the main struture was involved in at least two suicides of girl students 65 years apart.

One of the female ghosts is often seen looking out a upstairs window and it is reported that doors open and close on their own and lights in various parts of the college go off and on by themselfs. There is a sink with a blood stain in it that comes back no matter how the sink is cleaned. A student in the 1950's cut his own throat over the sink and lay there over night before he was discovered. Why there have been so many suicides at the college no one can say. But some people say the place is just plain creepy and many students who have come from out of state to the college have left after only a few days giving the reason that they had to get away from the voices. What voices are there and why can only some people hear the voices.

Over the years the people of Pawleys Island South Carolina tell the ghost story of the Grey Man of Pawleys Island. It is said that when a bad hurricane is coming people will see the Grey Man on or around Pawleys Island. He appears as a warning to the people of the area that a bad hurricane is coming and they better prepare or their ghosts be be warning people next.

People have told of seeing the Grey Man for over 150 years and before Hurricane Hugo which virtually destroyed the South Carolina coast many people reported seeing the Grey Man. And if your ever in the area and see the ghost of the Grey Man you had better take warning.