Galveston's oldest church cemetery holds Civil War dead from both sides, storm victims from 1900, and a father-son graveside reconciliation from the 1863 Battle of Galveston
2216 Ball St, Galveston, TX 77550
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Cemetery grounds publicly accessible; ghost tours separately priced
Access
Wheelchair OK
Level churchyard cemetery with paved walkways adjacent to the church
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1841 · Oldest Episcopal Cemetery in Texas · Edward Lea Civil War Burial — Battle of Galveston 1863 · Confederate and Union Dead Buried Together · Yellow Fever Epidemic Burials · 1900 Hurricane Casualties · Father Benjamin Eaton Crypt
Trinity Episcopal Cemetery is among the oldest burial grounds in Galveston, established alongside the parish that Reverend Benjamin Eaton founded in February 1841. Additional land was donated in 1844, expanding the cemetery and creating the burial ground that has served the congregation — and the city's dead — through the full arc of Galveston's history.
The cemetery's Civil War section holds the grave of Lieutenant Commander Edward Lea, first officer of the Union gunboat Harriet Lane, who was mortally wounded during the Confederate retaking of Galveston on January 1, 1863. Lea was shot in the abdomen and side during the assault; he died in the arms of his father, Major Albert Miller Lea, who was serving in the Confederate artillery on the opposing side. Father and son were in the same battle, on opposite sides, and ended the day together in a Galveston hospital room. Lea was 25 years old. His tombstone bears the words he reportedly spoke as he died: 'My father is here.' His captain, Jonathan M. Wainwright, was buried beside him. The grave has become one of Galveston's most-visited Civil War sites, regularly commemorated by Civil War roundtables and naval historical organizations.
Reverend Eaton, who died in 1871 after thirty years of service to the parish, is buried in a crypt beneath the altar of the church rather than in the cemetery itself. Two of his successors died during the yellow fever epidemics of the nineteenth century; those priests and their parishioners from epidemic years are buried in the cemetery's older sections.
The Great Storm of September 8, 1900, killed fifteen Trinity parishioners when the church's south wall collapsed under the storm surge. Those killed while seeking shelter in the church building were added to the cemetery's burial record, linking the physical ground directly to the hurricane that defined Galveston's identity for the following century.
Ghost City Tours operates both a general ghost walk and a dedicated cemetery tour that includes Trinity Episcopal Cemetery as a featured stop, describing it as one of Galveston's most historically layered and reputedly haunted burial grounds.
Sources
Trinity Episcopal Cemetery appears on both Ghost City Tours' general Galveston ghost walk and their dedicated haunted cemetery tour, billed as a place 'where the living and the dead share the same narrow walkways.' The paranormal tradition attached to the cemetery is consistent with its documented history: storm victims, Civil War soldiers, epidemic dead, and long-serving parishioners.
No specific named apparition has been documented in available sources for this cemetery — the ghost-tour framing describes categories of dead rather than identified individuals. Confederate and Union soldiers buried side by side after the January 1863 battle are invoked as presences, a tradition consistent with the documented historical record. The fifteen parishioners killed in the 1900 storm have generated accounts of sounds and sensations in the vicinity of the older graves.
The most historically specific element — the grave of Lieutenant Commander Edward Lea, with its documented deathbed reconciliation between a Union officer and his Confederate father — has generated visitor attention that functions independently of ghost-tour marketing. People who know the historical story come to stand at the grave, and accounts of atmospheric experiences at that specific marker circulate in both historical and paranormal communities.
The 1900 storm section of the cemetery, which holds the most recent significant burial event, is cited in regional paranormal sources as the most active area for unexplained sounds. Ghost City Tours includes the cemetery in their itinerary year-round, and the site is accessible to self-guided visitors during daylight hours.
Notable Entities
Ghost City Tours operates a dedicated cemetery walking tour that includes Trinity Episcopal Cemetery as one of Galveston's most historically significant and reputedly haunted burial grounds. The tour covers Civil War burials, 1900 hurricane casualties, yellow fever epidemic dead, and the cemetery's paranormal traditions.
The cemetery adjacent to Trinity Episcopal Church holds the grave of Lieutenant Commander Edward Lea, the Union naval officer mortally wounded at the January 1, 1863 Battle of Galveston. Lea died in the arms of his father, who served on the Confederate side as a major of artillery; his tombstone bears his final words: 'My father is here.' Confederate and Union soldiers buried side by side here after the battle make this one of the few Civil War sites where both sides share the same ground.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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