Augusta State University

Sisters Emily and Lucy Galt etched their names and the date, 1861, into a window at Bellevue Hall using Emily's engagement ring before her fiancé left to fight for the Confederacy. Campus legend holds that Emily, on learning he'd been killed, threw herself from that same window in grief — but historical records tell a different story: Emily went on to work as a matron at St. Joseph's orphanage and care for her ailing mother, and later suffered from mental illness that led to her being admitted to Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia, where she eventually died. The etched window itself survives in the university's collection. Students and staff still report footsteps on the stairs, window blinds opening after being closed, and office doors creaking open with no one there.