White Point Garden and the Battery, Charleston: Pirate Hangings, Ghosts and History

White Point Garden fills the southern tip of the Charleston peninsula, where the Ashley and Cooper rivers meet the harbor. Bounded by East Battery, Murray Boulevard, King Street and South Battery, it is shaded by huge live oaks, scattered with monuments and old guns, and edged by the Battery, the raised seawall promenade that is one of the most walked stretches in the city.

It is also one of Charleston’s best-known haunted places, because of what happened here in the autumn of 1718. Most walking ghost tours stop beneath its oaks. This guide tells the real story of the pirate hangings, the ghost stories that grew from them and the long history of the park since.

History of White Point Garden

The southern tip of the peninsula was known in the colony’s early years as South Bay and then Oyster Point, and only in the early 1800s as White Point. Much of the present park sits on later landfill, which gave it its sharp-edged end.

In September 1718, Colonel William Rhett led about 130 militiamen on two sloops to the Cape Fear River and, after a battle of several hours, captured Stede Bonnet, a Barbados planter turned pirate known as the Gentleman Pirate, and about 45 of his men. The crew were kept in the public watch house and Bonnet in the home of the town marshal, from which he escaped on October 24, only to be recaptured on Sullivan’s Island.

Judge Nicholas Trott’s court sentenced the crew, and most of them were hanged at White Point on November 8, 1718. A marker placed in 1943 near the northeast corner of the park says 29 of Bonnet’s men died; the evidence suggests 29 were sentenced and 22 hanged. Bonnet himself was hanged at White Point on December 10, 1718, after Governor Robert Johnson refused clemency. The same marker recalls the pirates of Richard Worley, hanged in 1719. Tour accounts say the bodies were left hanging as a warning before being thrown into the marsh.

Through the 19th century the point became a public promenade. A bathing house stood at the end of King Street from about 1840 to 1881. In the Civil War, Confederate batteries lined the point, and in August 1863 Union guns on Morris Island shelled the lower peninsula and the houses along the Battery. Black Charlestonians gathered here on Independence Day during Reconstruction and into the Jim Crow era, though otherwise kept out of the park.

The park filled with memorials: the Defenders of Fort Moultrie with a statue of Sergeant William Jasper (1877), a bust of William Gilmore Simms (1879), a Hunley memorial (1899), the bandstand of 1906 to 1907 and the Confederate Defenders of Charleston statue (1932), along with memorials to the crews of USS Hobson and the submarine USS Amberjack, a 2007 statue of William Moultrie and a collection of cannons, one of which turned out to be a fake.

The ghosts of White Point Garden

The hanged pirates

The ghost stories here all trace back to 1718. Tour guides tell of visitors who have seen a figure hanging from one of the old oaks, faces that appear in the bark of a tree, and screams that echo across the park at midnight. Near Water Street, the story goes, some have seen the faces of executed pirates in the water.

None of these accounts has a named witness or a record behind it; they come from ghost tour companies and are told for atmosphere. The shoreline has moved with landfill since 1718, and the marker gives only the general area of the hangings. But the colony did hang dozens of men near this corner of the city, and it is hard to stand here at night without thinking of it.

A ghostly pirate who screams

One tour company says a single pirate still haunts the spot and seems to enjoy screaming at passers-by. Others connect the stories to Stede Bonnet himself, who is also said to haunt the Provost Dungeon at the Old Exchange a few blocks north, although that building did not exist until 50 years after his death.

Civil War sentries

Some visitors connect the park’s atmosphere with its Civil War batteries and the shelling of 1863. The stories are vague, but the guns on display, including Confederate columbiads used in the defense of Fort Sumter, make the point easy to imagine as an armed camp.

Where to look

• The pirate marker: The 1943 marker near the northeast corner, close to East Battery and Water Street, recalling the hangings of 1718 and 1719.
• The oaks of the northeast corner: Where tour guides place the hanging figure and the faces in the bark.
• The seawall: Look out over the water at night, where pirates’ faces are said to appear.
• The bandstand: The 1906 Victorian bandstand at the heart of the park, lovely under the lamps after dark.

Visiting White Point Garden

White Point Garden is a free public park, open all day and into the evening, and the Battery seawall is always busy with walkers. Street parking along Murray Boulevard and South Battery fills quickly, so walk down from the French Quarter or King Street.

Many of Charleston’s walking ghost tours finish here, so joining one is the easiest way to hear the pirate stories on the spot. Combine it with the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon on East Bay Street, where Charleston legend puts Bonnet, and with 20 South Battery, the haunted inn facing the park.

• Visiting Public city park, open daily
• Ghost hunting No organized ghost hunts; most walking ghost tours stop here

Tips for your visit

• Come at dusk and walk the seawall from East Battery round to Murray Boulevard.
• Find the pirate marker near the corner of East Battery and Water Street.
• Look across the harbor to Fort Sumter on the horizon.
• Stay at 20 South Battery across the street, the former Battery Carriage House Inn.
• Respect the monuments and the neighbors: this is a residential area at night.

More haunted places nearby

• 20 South Battery (Battery Carriage House Inn): the haunted inn facing the park
• The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon: where Charleston legend puts Stede Bonnet
• The Old Charleston Jail: Charleston’s most haunted building
• Haunted hotels in Charleston
• Haunted places in South Carolina
• Haunted places in Charleston

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.

• Wikipedia: White Point Garden
• Wikipedia: Stede Bonnet
• Ghost City Tours: White Point Garden
• Charleston Living: Telling Charleston's most chilling tales (2026)
• Charleston.com: Haunted Charleston, the restless spirits of former residents
• Southern Spirit Guide: South Carolina haunted places