THE STORY
Reported Haunting
Longstanding Camden folklore holds that the nighttime silence of Rectory Square Park is sometimes broken by the roll of unseen drums followed by a full-throated rebel yell. The story was documented by noted South Carolina folklorist Nancy Roberts. No apparition is normally reported with the sounds.
Rectory Square Park is one of Camden's original public squares, laid out on the town's 1798 plan. Once known as Kershaw Park, it was renamed Rectory Square in 1912. The park contains the Pantheon, a 1911 monument honoring six Confederate generals born in Kershaw County. South Carolina folklorist Nancy Roberts recorded a longstanding paranormal tradition associated with the park: witnesses have reportedly heard the dramatic roll of Confederate-style drums followed by a loud rebel yell breaking the nighttime silence. No apparition is traditionally associated with the phenomenon, and there is no established evidence that the sounds correspond to a battle or deaths occurring within the park itself.