When you’re heading to a college football game, the last thing on your mind may be running into old ghosts. If you’re going to a game at UW Madison, that could be just what you get. From Civil War soldiers to other tragedies, the area is a hotbed for various specters. Taking in a football game may be more exciting than you realize.

Camp Randall’s Purpose during the Civil War

The land where the stadium now stands originally hosted the Wisconsin State Fair in 1858. By the time 1861 hit, the government asked soldiers in the northern state to fight for the Union Army during the Civil War. The Wisconsin governor at the time, Alexander Randall, decided to use these fairgrounds as the training ground for the recruits.

This Camp Randall trained over 70,000 Wisconsin troops during the war. During a month in 1862, 1,200 Confederate prisoners of war were also held here, and 140 of them died and the rest were sent to Camp Douglas in Chicago since the area was unsuitable.

   Confederate's Rest - Forest Hill Cemetery

The Resting Ground for Soldiers - Confederate’s Rest

The prisoners of war were then buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in a mass grave. The stone cenotaph that contained the names of these 140 prisoners was removed and then transferred to storage at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.

The graves were not cared for until hotel manager Alice Waterman moved from Louisiana. She took it upon herself to maintain the plot herself until she died in 1897. She was also buried in a plot alongside them.

UW Student Donna Mraz

Other Camp Randall-Related Tragedies

While waiting on a grant for a steel and concrete stadium, there were some issues with the existing wooden bleachers. They collapsed during a game in 1915, and then some of the remaining wooden seats burned down in 1922.

In addition to that, an even worse event happened on July 2, 1982, in the form of an unsolved murder. There was a student named Donna Mraz, who was stabbed to death in front of Camp Randall Stadium. While they originally thought it was connected to a spree of serial killings that had been happening in the area over 14 years, it was later ruled as unrelated.

  
The Camp Randall Arch

The Ghosts

Forest Hill Cemetery is considered the city’s most haunted cemetery. Not only are there these 140 soldiers, but there are as many as 339 unmarked graves and headstones, and desecrated Native American holy ground.

These things combined make it an ideal place for ghosts to prowl. Some people have complained of headaches when they get near the military burial plots. Although these accounts are unverified, there have been accounts of the soldiers haunting the grounds where they perished, covered in Civil War uniforms and hospital dressings over their injuries. They seem to prefer the chilly game day mornings, and tailgaters have claimed to see them at that time wandering around the stadium where they died.

There is also a rumor of a lady in white who wanders the cemetery wearing a large hoop dress. What we don’t know is who she is or who she is mourning. Could it be that Alice Waterman never really left the Confederate Soldiers?

For more UW Madison campus spooky fun, check out our UW Campus Ghost Walk!