The story of this haunted cemetery in South Carolina is a heartbreaking tale. It involves a young woman, who faced with the reality that her husband would be joining the Union forces during the Civil War, decided to remain by her husband’s side. So Florena Budwin from Philadelphia dressed as a man and enlisted alongside the love of her life so they wouldn’t be parted. Budwin’s husband was an artillery captain and the two remained together until he died in battle. Soon after, Florena Budwin was captured and imprisoned in what was notoriously the most brutal Confederate prison ever. It was located in Andersonville, Georgia.
Andersonville Prison, shown here in a drawing by a former prisoner, had despicable conditions for prisoners. There were shortages of food and water, and the 26.5 acres that housed 45,000 prisoners of war in the 14 months during the Civil War were unsurprisingly unsanitary.
Budwin arrived at Andersonville in February 1864. By the fall, the Union forces were said to be approaching the prison. As a result many of the prisoners were immediately transferred to other prisoner of war camps. Budwin, still disguised as a man, was sent to a POW camp in Florence, South Carolina.
The newly opened prisoner-of-war camp just outside of Florence was called the Florence Stockade and also known as the Confederate States Military Prison at Florence. The new camp encompassed 23.5 acres and housed approximately 18,000 prisoners of war during the six months it was in operation.
Here in Florence, still disguised as a man, Florena Budwin helped tend to ill and wounded Union soldiers. The death rate was said to be as high as 20 or 30 per day. Several months into her stay at the Florence Stockade, Florena became ill herself. An attending physician examined her only to discover she was a woman. And for the final weeks of her life she was treated differently. She got her own room, received clothing donated by the locals, and given more nutritional food. Budwin recovered.
But in the end, Budwin became ill again and succumbed to pneumonia. She was only 20 years old. Her death in February 1865 occurred only days before all of the prisoners of war at Florence Stockade were released.
It's estimated that 2,300 of the prisoners of war at Florence Stockade died during the period the prison was open from September 1864 -- February 1865. Their remains were buried in 16 trenches that remain to this day in a location that would have been just outside the original walls of the prison.
Each of those trenches are marked at the end with a single monument indicating the number of Union soldiers that are interred in the single trench.
Historians are still working to identify those Union soldiers buried in the trenches. But there is one Union soldier whose name was common knowledge at the time of her death:
Florena Budwin indeed has a marker with her name on it at the Florence National Cemetery. And not only that: it's said that Florena's ghost still lingers in the area. One visitor to Florena's grave marker reported seeing an orb floating above the marker and also hearing groans and moans from the trenches containing the remains of the Union prisoners of war.
Florence National Cemetery is not only the final resting place for those 2,300 Union prisoners of the Civil War, but is also the hallowed ground which inters approximately 10,000 more individuals (and even some of their family members) who served in the U.S. Armed Forces.
The cemetery is divided into two parts: the old part where Florena Budwin's marker and the 16 trenches are located, and a new part across E. National Cemetery Road with an entrance located on Stockade Road in Florence, South Carolina.
Incidentally, Budwin is known as being the very first woman ever interred in a National Cemetery in the U.S.
Want to visit this hallowed ground? The Florence National Cemetery is located at 803 E. Cemetery Road in Florence. It’s open for visitation seven days per week during daylight hours only.
For another haunted cemetery in South Carolina, be sure to take a day trip over to the tiny town of Graniteville to check out Graniteville Cemetery. Before you go, read all about the tragic history of Graniteville.
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