The Cashtown Inn has stood along the old Chambersburg Turnpike for more than two centuries. Built sometime between 1797 and 1806, it served travelers passing between Chambersburg and Gettysburg. They came for food, rest, and a warm bed before continuing west. Its first owner, Peter Mark, accepted only cash. The inn took its name from his policy, and over time, it took on a much darker role.
By the summer of 1863, war had arrived in Pennsylvania. Confederate troops marched north under General Robert E. Lee, pressing toward a small town called Gettysburg. Before they reached the battlefield, many passed through Cashtown. Some never left.
The Civil War Takes Over Cashtown
The Cashtown Inn became a headquarters for the Army of Northern Virginia. Generals A.P. Hill, John D. Imboden, and Henry Heth took up residence inside its walls. Their men filled the surrounding fields, waiting for orders that would send them into the bloodiest battle of the war. Some say General Hill’s desire to seize the inn wasn’t purely strategic when he arrived on June 29th, 1863.
Years earlier, he had contracted gonorrhea, and the infection never fully went away. The symptoms returned often enough to cause trouble. Pain, fever, and swelling made it difficult for him to ride. Treatment in those days was harsh. Doctors used silver nitrate or mercury, or gave bitter draughts of copaiba and cubebs meant to flush the body.
The inn, however, promised something better, a natural spring that ran through the cellar. The air was clean, the water was cold and clear. For a suffering man, like Gen. Hill, it must have seemed like heaven. The spring can still be seen in the basement today, if you take a tour of the inn. Some say the air down there still feels different…haunted, maybe?
The fighting began on July 1. Confederate troops marched east from Cashtown, moving toward the Union lines outside Gettysburg. Some were wounded in battle and carried back to the inn, where the basement became a field hospital. Surgeons worked without anesthesia, sawing off arms and legs in a desperate attempt to save lives. It was said that the discarded limbs stacked against the wall blocked the light from entering the cellar. The smell of blood and death filled the air.
Sneden, Robert Knox. Map of the Battle of Gettysburg showing positions held July 1st & 3rd [S.l., to 1865, 1863] Map.
A House Full of Unseen Guests
The inn has never been quiet. For years guests and staff have reported hearing heavy boots pacing the hallways. Doors rattle and knobs turn as if someone is trying to get in, yet no one is there. One night, a guest staying in one of the rooms knocked on her neighbor’s door to ask if he’d been smoking a pipe. The scent of pipe tobacco filled her room. He did he didn’t smoke at all and was also trying to figure out where the scent came from.
Guests often ask about the figure seen standing in a first-floor doorway. No one knows who he is, but many describe a Confederate soldier watching silently from the shadows. He may be the same young soldier said to have died in the inn during the Battle of Gettysburg. According to local accounts, he was shot by a townsperson and brought to the inn for medical treatment. He died later in a second-floor bedroom. His presence has been reported again and again. Guests staying upstairs have also described hearing a loud sigh near the foot of the bed, followed by the muffled sound of men talking in the room.
Some guests wake to find their belongings moved. Others hear loud bangs in the night. One woman reported hearing a crash on the floor beside her bed, but when she looked, nothing was there. The next morning, she felt the mattress jolt as if someone had bumped into it.
The front porch holds its own secrets. A swing sits empty, rocking back and forth on still nights when no wind is blowing. Inside, the sound of men crying out in pain drifts through the hallways. Some have heard the sharp, unmistakable sound of wood striking wood, though nothing in the room could have made it. Could it be an echo from another time, the distant memory of rifles being stacked or the solid thud of a musket butt hitting the floor?
The inn keeps guest books in every room, and no matter the year, the stories echo the same strange details.
The Inn That Refuses to Fade
The inn remained in operation long after the war. Over the years, the building changed hands many times. Some owners used it as a private home. From 1913 to 1924, the structure housed a small civic library, offering books to Cashtown residents. Thankfully it was never converted to apartments and remains an operating bed and breakfast.
Hollywood took notice of the inn’s haunted reputation. The building appeared in the 1993 film Gettysburg, and Sam Elliott stayed inside while filming.
The Cashtown Inn has stood for more than two hundred years. It has served as a tavern, a stagecoach stop, and a wartime headquarters. More Confederate soldiers passed through its doors than any other building north of Richmond. Some, it seems, never left.
A Ghost Caught on Camera?
There’s a historic photograph of the Cashtown Inn that has circulated quietly in paranormal circles for years. At first glance, it looks like any ordinary image of the front of the inn. Faded, sepia-toned, and weathered with age. But look closer.
To the left of the man standing on the porch, there appears to be another figure. He is faint and somewhat transparent. You can make out the shape of his legs and torso, even his stance, but he does not cast a shadow. The shadow of one of the posts can be seen through his shoulder. He also doesn’t match the clarity or posture of the man beside him.
There is no clear explanation for him. He doesn’t appear to be a photographic flaw or a motion blur. A double exposure seems unlikely given how isolated and defined the figure appears. Pareidolia perhaps?
Some believe it is a Confederate soldier. A shadow of the thousands who once passed by on their way to battle. Others see it as proof that whatever walks the halls of the Cashtown Inn does not always stay inside. While no one knows who he is, once you see him, he’s hard to forget.
The Cashtown Inn is located on Old Route 30 in Pennsylvania, about 15 minutes from Gettysburg. You can book a room if you’re curious. You definitely won’t be the only one staying the night. The others just haven’t drawn breath in a very long time.