The Two Most Haunted Cemeteries in Staunton, Virginia

Staunton, Virginia, has no shortage of history, and two of the city's oldest cemeteries have collected plenty of ghost stories along the way.

Trinity Church dates back to the 18th century, when the town itself was first being built, and many of the people who remain buried here were among the original settlers of the city.

People report seeing a ghostly figure roaming among the graves as if looking for something—or someone. Some say it's Mary Baldwin, the woman behind the college here in Staunton, watching over her town. Others believe the figure is a pastor, trapped in an eternal vigil over the church and its cemetery.

There's also the story of a weeping woman dressed in colonial-style clothing who has been seen lingering near the graves of children lost to smallpox. Then there are the sounds. People swear they've heard the creaking of wood from the church balcony, almost as though someone is walking across it. When they go to look, however, there's no one there.

As Staunton grew, so did the need for a larger cemetery. In 1849, Thornrose Cemetery opened on what was then the outskirts of town. It wasn't designed to be simply a place to bury the dead. Thornrose was beautifully landscaped and intended to function as a park as well as a cemetery, and family members of many of the people buried at Trinity Church eventually moved their loved ones here.

People sometimes say that Trinity Church is the graveyard of Staunton's settlers, while Thornrose belongs to its soldiers.

The Soldiers of Thornrose Cemetery

During the Civil War, wounded soldiers were brought to hospitals in Staunton, and many of them never left. Those who died were buried in mass graves around Thornrose Cemetery. Today, a massive stone arch bears the names of approximately 1,700 Confederate soldiers buried there.

With so many soldiers brought to Staunton wounded and dying, it's probably not surprising that some of Thornrose's best-known ghost stories involve men who never made it home.

Visitors have reported seeing shadowy figures dressed in Confederate uniforms moving among the graves. Some appear to be marching through the cemetery, while others simply stand among the headstones, almost as though they're lost. On quiet nights, people have even claimed to hear the distant sound of a bugle playing Taps while walking through the cemetery.

Then there's the woman in white.

According to the legend, she's repeatedly seen near the same grave, sometimes walking along the paths and other times kneeling beside the gravestone. The story says that she's searching for the child she lost during the war, returning again and again to the same place more than 150 years later.

Between the two cemeteries, you get an unusual look at two very different periods of Staunton's history. Trinity Church holds some of the people who were here when the town was still taking shape, along with stories of colonial figures wandering among their graves. Thornrose came later, and its stories are much more closely connected to the Civil War and the thousands of soldiers who passed through Staunton's hospitals.

Whether any of those people are still walking through the cemeteries is another question. But if you believe that a place's history has anything to do with its chances of becoming haunted, both Trinity Church and Thornrose Cemetery have had plenty of time to collect a few ghosts.