A team member and I first went to photograph the old cemetery because of its historic qualities. One day on my lunch break at work, my team member and I visited the cemetery and began to take photos from outside the fenced area. I had a feeling the entire time of someone watching me, but didn't look around in the woods a whole lot. We got our pictures and were out of there!

I first recognized the cemetery by seeing it listed on the Shadowlands website, I believe. It was listed as a haunted cemetery in Preble County, and I knew I just had to check it out. When we got there, I took the photos, a few overviews of the cemetery and then one readable headstone that sat close to the fence. I examined the picture later on at home of the headstone after just happening to catch a glimpse of a Civil War soldier standing in the woods just behind the cemetery! The detail was amazing. I could make out the shape of his hat, the way his hair curled around his face, and I could see his coat down to his waist. After that I couldn't make out much. It looked like he was standing there staring at us.

Back to the headstone, I noticed that the date read 1865, though that particular stone was for a young boy. Most of the stone there though were around the same age. A long time Preble County resident that I spoke to was not too surprised when I showed them the photograph. They were awed, but definitely not surprised. It was truly an eye-opening experience into the paranormal. Most paranormal photographs that I had seen prior to discovering what I had captured, I believed to be fakes. I mean, I definitely believe in the paranormal, but to capture an image of a remnant of the past or felt emotion, I just believed it to be impossible. I guess things truly do show up unexpectedly, though.

After looking into the photograph of the Civil War ghost a little more, I think he may be a general. Another teammate pointed out an area of the photograph off to the right where two more soldiers may be seen (there are some small differences in the dress between our detailed man and the other potential ghost soldiers). It's hard to tell what that area of the photograph actually shows, as the pictures at this cemetery were taken with a lower quality camera than we typically use. Nonetheless, the photograph was amazing, and shows us that some hauntings have truth.