For many years, fresh flowers have mysteriously appeared on the grave of Benjamin Allen, a soldier in the Confederate Army, who is buried in the cemetery. They have also been found on the grave of an unknown soldier. Are they the gifts of some mysterious Confederate sympathizer? Or are they tokens of grief from beyond this world? Camp Chase was located on Livingston Avenue in Columbus and during the Civil War, it served as a Confederate prison camp and was considered a horrible one, as most of the prisons were during the war. Some 2,000 prisoners died there of disease and malnutrition and so it is not surprising that the place has come to be considered as haunted. Many of these soldiers who died were buried in the prison cemetery and it is here that the famed "Lady in Gray" still walks and leaves gifts of flowers behind. She is said to be a young woman who wears a gray traveling suit in the style of the Civil War era. She walks through the cemetery with her head bowed and appears to be weeping. She has been observed walking directly through trees and through the iron cemetery gates. In the summer of 1988, during a Civil War re-enactment, many of the people present heard the sounds of a woman crying. There was no woman present but the weeping sounds were unmistakable. It was believed to have been Lady in Gray, still grieving over the loss of some forgotten soldier.
Columbus, Ohio is located in the center of the state and serves as the Ohio capital.
Camp Chase Cemetery is located on Sullivant Avenue.
Copyright 1998 by Troy Taylor
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