One of Baton Rouge's oldest burial grounds, this 1820s cemetery became a Civil War battlefield on August 5, 1862 — soldiers from both sides used its tombs as cover while the Confederate dead went into a mass grave on the grounds.
422 North 19th Street, Baton Rouge, LA 70806
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public access. Open during daylight hours.
Access
Limited Access
Older cemetery with uneven ground, raised tombs, and unpaved sections
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1820 · One of Baton Rouge's Oldest Cemeteries (established 1820s) · Battle of Baton Rouge Fighting on Grounds (August 5, 1862) · Confederate Mass Grave from 1862 Battle · National Register of Historic Places (1985) · BREC-Maintained Historic Property
Magnolia Cemetery was established in the 1820s and has served as one of Baton Rouge's principal burial grounds for nearly two centuries. The cemetery occupies a city block bounded by Main Street to the north, Florida Boulevard to the south, and 19th and 22nd Streets to the west and east. Its collection of nineteenth-century above-ground tombs and mausoleums reflects the distinctive burial architecture of southern Louisiana.
The cemetery's most historically significant event occurred on August 5, 1862, during the Battle of Baton Rouge. Confederate forces under General John C. Breckinridge launched an assault on Union-held Baton Rouge in a bid to retake the city. During the street-level fighting, infantry from both sides used the cemetery's tomb walls, iron fencing, and mausoleums as improvised cover and fighting positions. The battle ended inconclusively in terms of the city's permanent ownership, but the Confederates suffered heavier casualties.
The Confederate soldiers killed in the engagement were not transported back to Confederate-controlled territory. Instead, they were buried in a mass grave on the Magnolia Cemetery grounds — a fact documented in Wikipedia's entry for the cemetery and confirmed by historical markers. The cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 in recognition of its architectural and historical significance.
Magnolia Cemetery is maintained by the Baton Rouge Recreation and Park Commission (BREC) and remains open to the public.
Sources
Paranormal accounts at Magnolia Cemetery tend toward the visually ambiguous rather than the specific. Visitors describe shadowy figures — silhouettes that move between the raised tombs or appear briefly between mausoleums before disappearing when approached. Unlike the more detailed apparition reports at the nearby Baton Rouge National Cemetery, the Magnolia accounts rarely attribute uniforms or period dress to the figures.
Spectral lights are separately reported: small, drifting illuminations visible in the older sections of the cemetery, particularly in the areas closest to the Confederate mass grave. The accounts appear in local journalism and cemetery-tourism documentation but have not been the subject of published paranormal investigations.
The cemetery's documented history — soldiers fighting among the tombs, mass burial of combat dead on the grounds — provides more factual darkness than most of the paranormal claims. The 1985 NRHP designation and its continued active use as a burial ground have kept it part of Baton Rouge's living landscape rather than an abandoned site.
Explore one of Baton Rouge's oldest active cemeteries, established in the 1820s and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The grounds contain nineteenth-century mausoleums, above-ground tombs, and the Confederate mass grave from the August 1862 battle. The cemetery borders Main Street to the north and Florida Boulevard to the south.
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Baton Rouge, LA
Established in 1868 under the federal national cemetery program, Baton Rouge National Cemetery was created to consolidate the graves of Union soldiers who died in Louisiana and neighboring Arkansas during the Civil War. It holds nearly 3,000 graves, approximately 500 of them belonging to unidentified soldiers whose remains were relocated from sites at Plaquemine, Louisiana, and Camden, Arkansas.
Forest Park, IL
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New Orleans, LA
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