Elmwood Cemetery

A historic cemetery in Shepherdstown containing headstones dating to the Revolutionary War era. The cemetery holds the remains of soldiers from multiple American conflicts and is a stop on the Shepherdstown Mystery Walk ghost tour.

Elmwood Cemetery in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, is the final resting place of hundreds of Civil War dead and one of the most spiritually charged burial grounds in a town that has been called the most haunted in America. The cemetery's origins date to 1780, when Abraham Shepherd -- the town's founder -- set aside one acre of land for use by the Elders of the Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church. The Methodist Church added half an acre in 1833. But it was the Civil War that transformed Elmwood from a quiet churchyard into a mass burial site.

On September 17, 1862, the Battle of Antietam -- the bloodiest single day in American history -- was fought just a few miles across the Potomac River in Sharpsburg, Maryland. More than 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or went missing in a single day of combat. Shepherdstown, the nearest town on the Virginia side of the river, became one enormous field hospital. According to paranormal researcher Janet Hughes, approximately 8,000 wounded soldiers were brought to the town in the days following the battle. An old local saying holds that the streets of Shepherdstown ran with blood. Every church, home, and public building was pressed into service as a makeshift hospital.

Three days after Antietam, on September 20, 1862, the Battle of Shepherdstown -- also known as the Battle of Boteler's Ford -- was fought as Confederate forces retreated across the Potomac. More soldiers fell. Those who died from their wounds in the improvised hospitals of Shepherdstown were buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

In 1867, the Southern Soldiers' Memorial Association of Shepherdstown was organized to acquire a proper burial site for the Confederate dead. The Association purchased a lot from Jacob Line adjacent to the Methodist Cemetery in 1868, and the cemetery was officially chartered in 1869. A granite monument to the Confederate dead was dedicated in 1870, and in 1935, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the state of West Virginia erected a monument listing the names and regiments of 535 area men who served in the Confederacy.

Today, Elmwood Cemetery contains the graves of approximately 285 Confederate veterans, including 114 who died at or after the Battle of Antietam. Many remain unidentified. Among the notable burials is Henry Kyd Douglas, who served as a staff officer to Confederate generals including Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson himself. The cemetery also holds the remains of Revolutionary War veterans, World War I and World War II veterans, scholars, and civilians.

Visitors to Elmwood report an atmosphere of deep, oppressive sadness that intensifies near the Confederate section. The Spirit of Elmwood tour guides visitors through the cemetery, sharing the stories of those interred there. In a town where the Destination America television series Ghosts of Shepherdstown documented so much paranormal activity that tourism increased by 311 percent by November 2016, Elmwood Cemetery remains a place where the weight of history and the presence of the dead feel indistinguishable.