Decatur House Haunted by War Hero Commodore Stephen Decatur

May 3, 2010
Jill Stefko

Commodore Stephen Decatur - Public Domain

Naval hero Stephen Decatur's apparition has been sighted in his DC home, now a museum. According to legend, he saw the Jersey Devil in the Pine Barren.

Commodore Decatur and wife, Susan, moved into their grand new home in Lafayette Square, the first private residence in the White House neighborhood, in 1819. He died months later because of a wound he suffered in a duel. In addition to his ghost sighted, people have heard a spectral woman weeping in Decatur House.

Stephen Decatur War Hero

He was a distinguished Naval war hero because of his accomplishments in the War with France, the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812. His most daring exploit, while assigned to the USS Intrepid, was when he and his crew burned the captured American frigate, USS Philadelphia, in Tripoli waters.

Decatur’s Sicilian pilot, who knew the harbor, replied to a guard’s question, in Arabic, saying they were Maltese and lost their anchors in the storm. Could they berth next to the frigate? As they were by the Philadelphia, an alarm was raised. The raiding party scrambled up the side of the ship, using cutlasses and hatchets to attack Tripolitan guards. Twenty were killed. The rest jumped overboard. The raiders set the Philadelphia on fire and scurried back to the Intrepid. Although they were fired upon, they escaped safely.

Decatur Encounters the Jersey Devil

The Jersey Devil’s origins have different versions. The most popular one is that, when New Jersey Pine Barrens resident Mrs. Leeds learned she was pregnant with her thirteenth child, she said it was a devil. Upon birth, the creature had cloven hooves, a horse’s head, bat wings and a tail. It flew away.

Soon, there were reports of strange things happening in the area. Eerie screeches were heard. Livestock died mysteriously. Mysterious footprints were found. According to legend, Decatur heard it screech, then saw it when he visited the Hanover Iron Works in the Pine Barrens in the early 1800s.

He fired a cannonball through the creature. The gaping wound didn’t affect the beast, which flew away. 1909 was the year of the most media reported sightings of the beast. Over one hundred people saw it in southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.

Chesapeake-Leopard Incident Led to Decatur’s Death in a Duel

On March 22, 1820, the duel in which Decatur was mortally wounded took place at a dueling ground in Bladensburg, Maryland. It was rooted in something that happened thirteen years earlier. Captain James Barron was ordered to sail the warship USS Chesapeake to the Mediterranean in May 1807. He didn’t prepare the ship for battle properly.

In June, off of Hampton Roads, Virginia, the American frigate was stopped by the British vessel, Leopard, whose Captain, was Salisbury Pryce Humphreys. He demanded the Chesapeake relinquish four seamen alleged to have deserted from two British ships When Barron refused to surrender the men, the Leopard opened fire. After sustaining heavy casualties and damages, Barron surrendered his ship. The British boarding party captured one deserter and three British naturalized Americans. The Chesapeake sailed back to port.

The incident was considered a disgrace to the Navy. Barron was convicted of dereliction of duty at a court-martial and suspended from the Navy for five years. When he tried to rejoin the Navy in 1918, Decatur, opposed his reappointment. Barron felt that he was treating him unfairly and started writing letters to Decatur, accusing him of treachery. Finally, Barron challenged Decatur to a duel. Both men were wounded. Decatur died, while Barron survived.

Ghosts of Decatur House

The night before the duel, Decatur was depressed and stared sadly from his bedroom window. He was taken home to die after the duel. Susan was so distressed the she couldn’t look at him.

After his death, it's said that people saw his ghost looking sadly from the window at night. Witnesses have sighted his ghost after the window was walled up. Others have see his specter in the morning, going out of the back door, carrying a black box, as he did on the morning of the duel. The sounds of a weeping woman, believed to be Susan, have been heard.

Decatur House Today

After Stephen's death, Susan auctioned most of the home’s furnishings and moved to a small Georgetown house. She rented the house to prominent people, then sold it in 1836. During the Civil War, the federal government took acquired the building and used it the Headquarters for the Army Subsistence Department.

General Edward Beale of California bought the property in 1872. In 1956, Marie Beale bequeathed the Decatur House to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Decatur House was opened to the public as a museum in the early 1960s.