McCollum-Chidester House

Union soldiers fired into the upstairs walls of this 1847 Camden home trying to find John Chidester, accused of spying for the Confederacy, and the bullet holes remain visible alongside cannon damage on the exterior. A figure in military clothing with a sword has been photographed in the east bedroom's cathedral mirror, and Natural State Paranormal captured footage of anomalies intensifying when Civil War swords were placed on the dresser.

The bullet holes are still in the wall. Upstairs in the McCollum-Chidester House in Camden, you can see exactly where Union soldiers fired into the plaster in 1864, trying to find John Chidester, who was hiding in a small closet just feet away. They did not find him. He survived, fled to Texas, and did not come back until the war ended. Two of his sons were not as lucky. Both died defending the Confederacy, not far from the house where they grew up.

Peter McCollum built the house in 1847. He was a merchant from South Carolina who purchased the building materials in New Orleans and had them shipped upriver to Camden by steamboat. It was the first planed lumber house in Ouachita County, possibly in all of southern Arkansas. McCollum hosted politicians, steamboat captains, and dignitaries including General Albert Pike and Judge Edward Cross. By 1860, Camden was Arkansas's second-largest town.

John Chidester, a stagecoach operator, bought the house in 1863 for ,000 in gold. He ran the Butterfield Stagecoach line's Arkansas headquarters out of it, operating a route that stretched 1,560 miles from Fort Worth to Yuma. He and his wife remodeled the home, adding two bedrooms and enlarging the dining room.

The war came directly to the front door. During the Red River Campaign of 1864, the house was commandeered first by Confederate General Sterling Price, then by Union General Frederick Steele, who used the parlor and east bedroom as his headquarters for eleven days. Steele accused Chidester of spying for the Confederacy, intercepting Union mail from his own stagecoach routes and handing it to Confederate troops. That accusation led to the shooting incident upstairs.

Cannon-fire damage is visible on the exterior bricks. Between the musket-ball craters in the plaster inside and the cannon scars outside, the house is one of the most physically marked Civil War sites in Arkansas. None of it is a replica.

In the late 1980s, photographer Elmer Lee captured something in the east bedroom's cathedral dresser mirror. The image showed a figure wearing military clothing, tall boots with pants tucked into them, and what appeared to be a sword or sabre. Lee took the photo before digital manipulation existed.

In November 2020, Natural State Paranormal set up cameras and equipment in the east bedroom and recorded three hours of footage. During one three-minute span, orbs and visual anomalies appeared in the room on video. When the team placed Civil War swords on the dresser, activity intensified. An SLS camera detected a figure at the foot of the bed, appearing to hold on to the bedpost.

Danny Harrell, the museum's office manager, says the entities in the house "are friendly and pop in sometimes to say hello." TripAdvisor reviews include one titled "Civil War Ghost?" from a visitor who described their own encounter. The house is now operated by the Ouachita County Historical Society, which purchased it from Chidester family descendants in 1963, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Tours run Wednesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

You do not have to imagine what happened here. The walls show you. Plaster craters from .58-caliber musket balls, cannon damage on the bricks, a closet barely large enough for a grown man to crouch in. The man in military clothing who keeps appearing in the east bedroom might be anyone from that era. But he picked the right house.