The OES visited Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery on November 10, 2001 and have returned several times since. Camp Chase was a Civil War camp that was established in May 1861. While the camp originally was much larger, the cemetery today is about the size of a football field. Camp Chase served as a training camp for Ohio’s soldiers, a parole camp, a muster-out post and a prisoner-of-war camp. More than 150,000 Union troops and over 9,400 Confederate prisoners passed through Camp Chase between 1861 and 1865, when it closed at the end of the war. All of the building were dismantled, and the wood was used to mark the graves of the 2,260 Confederate prisoners buried in the cemetery. The first memorial service was held there in 1895 and a history of the camp was written in 1906. The memorial arch at the center of the cemetery was erected in 1902.
The cemetery is said to be haunted by the Lady In Gray, believed to be Louisiana Ransburgh Briggs. Ms. Briggs sympathized for the Southern cause and would go to the cemetery late at night to place flowers on the graves of the fallen Confederate soldiers. Since this was an unpopular belief to hold in Columbus, she wore a black veil to conceal her identity. It seems that Ms. Briggs continues her routine in death. Fresh flowers mysteriously appear at the tombstone of Benjamin Allen of the 50th Tennessee Volunteers on a regular basis. Eyewitnesses have spotted a veiled woman wearing gray who seems to vanish when further investigated. Some have reported seeing ghostly Confederate soldiers in the cemetery. Crying has also been heard on many occasions. Once during a Civil War re-enactment, many participants heard the crying which was followed by a huge gust of wind that blew over tables and tents. Many believe it was the Lady In Gray.
There were flowers on the grave of Benjamin Allen’s tombstone on several of our trips, but they were all artificial. We obtained some odd EMF readings in various areas within the cemetery, mostly near a handful of tombstones. Maybe the Lady In Gray was there that day, but we didn’t experience anything unusual. During a return trip to the cemetery with ABC/FOX NewsCenter on October 14, 2006, we did manage to capture two possible EVPs. The first was actually heard through headphones in real-time, sounding like a woman whispering, but the background noise was too excessive to determine what was being said. The second EVP was captured during an on-camera interview with OES Founder Jason Robinson. It sounded like a woman or child saying, “Who’s this?” as reporter Sean Cuellar asks a question. Stop by Camp Chase sometime and perhaps you’ll bump into the Lady In Gray. For historical photos of Camp Chase, click here. To see the Fox 28 NewsCenter broadcast about Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery, click here. For first-hand paranormal witness accounts from the cemetery, click here.
Location Information: Inactive Cemetery [Safe]
Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery is located at the intersection of Sullivant Avenue and Chestershire Road in Columbus; Franklin County.
Photographs
360° Panorama
EVP Recordings
| Whispering: Listen closely and you can hear what sounds like a woman whispering something. It is difficult to hear without headphones. | |
| Whispering Edit: The same recording as above, but with some noise removed to make the EVP more audible. | |
| Who’s This: Captured during the news interview with Robinson. After the reporter says, “Um,” the EVP says, “Who’s this?” |