The term ‘ghosts’ refers to haunting memories of those who lived and died at the former fort, or who were buried at Fort Devens Cemetery. And while there have been sightings and mysterious activities, we imply no connection to any real ghosts. In this first of a three-part series, local correspondent David Keith recounts a conversation with Corporal Jason Grant, a character claiming to be Devens’s oldest resident, in which Grant relates legends rumored to be true.

The lady in black

Keith: How long have you been at Devens?

Grant: They shipped me here in the spring of ’39.

Keith: I’m writing an article called “The Ghosts of Devens,” about haunting memories…

Reportedly, piano music occasionally emanates from the Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Hall, which sits just across from Rogers Field where the Lady in Black has been known to roam. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Grant: I’ve got a ghost story for you.

Keith: But the term ‘ghosts’ doesn’t imply...

Grant: It will scare the socks right off your feet.

Keith: Fine, let’s hear it.

Grant: Back in the war between the states, Confederate prisoners were held at Fort Warren on Georges Island.

Keith: In Boston Harbor?

Grant: Yes.

Keith: But my article is about Devens.

Grant: I’m getting to that. One prisoner there, named Lanier, asks his wife Melanie to come spring him. So she travels all the way from Georgia, cuts her hair, and dresses in men’s clothing. Then, on a dark and stormy night, she rows to the island, carrying picks, shovels, and a rusty revolver. After squeezing through a cannon port in the wall of the fort, she mingles with the prisoners and finds her husband in the corridor of dungeons, where he’s being held.

Keith: Nice plan, now they’re both in jail.

Grant: But the idea is to dig a tunnel from their cells to the main parade ground and take over the fort.

Keith: With a rusty revolver?

Grant: It’s not my plan.

Keith: Sorry.

Grant: Anyway, they never get the chance because guards hear the digging and order the men onto the parade ground for a roll call. While they’re being counted, Melanie sneaks behind the guards and points her gun at an officer. ‘Set these men free or I’ll shoot,’ she says. The officer slaps the gun from her hand, sending it spinning toward the ground where it explodes on impact. As the smoke clears, she sees the body of her husband heaped on the ground, a gun fragment lodged deep in his temple.

Several graves in the Patton Road Cemetary are marked simply “unknown.” (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Keith: How ironic. What happens to the wife?

Grant: She’s tried as a spy and sentenced to die. Her final wish is to be buried in women’s clothing, but all they find is a long black theater gown used once in a play. She wears that to her hanging.

Keith: End of story.

Grant: Not quite. Soon afterwards, a sentry at the fort feels hands around his throat. Turning, he sees the ghostly apparition of a woman fleeing in black robes. Before long, she appears to all the men who witnessed her execution, some seeing female foot prints in the snow. She continues appearing at the fort, even years later, and during World War II a soldier entering the corridor of dungeons hears a woman’s voice say, ‘Don’t come in here.’ Ordinarily a man of valor, he turns and runs and spends the next 20 years in a mental institution.

Keith: That is very scary, but what does it have to do with Devens?

Grant: Have you heard of Rogers Field?

Keith: Isn’t that next to the Harvard Teen Center, where they have soccer and lacrosse tournaments?

Grant: Yep. Since the 1940s, people have seen visions of a woman matching her description gliding across the field. And police patrolling the area have heard piano music emanating from the abandoned movie theater across the street.

Keith: Why would she appear here?

Grant: In April 1939, the military took all the bodies buried on the harbor islands and moved them to Fort Devens Cemetery.

Keith: Can I see the graves of Mrs. Lanier and her husband?

Grant: Not likely. The markers disappeared or became unreadable long before they came here. Theirs are among the graves in the back marked ‘unknown.’

Keith: I never imagined there would be Confederate soldiers buried in New England.

Grant: Another fellow from the Confederacy, Lieutenant Johnston was here, but he was just passing through.
 

Next: A solder returns home and Poe’s inspiration.