River Raisin National Battlefield Park

Of 934 Americans at the 1813 River Raisin battles, 33 escaped. Investigators now catch EVPs of soldiers' screams in the same fields.

Of 934 Americans who fought at the River Raisin on January 22, 1813, only 33 escaped death or capture. The next morning, wounded prisoners left behind in the snow were killed by Native warriors after the British pulled out. The massacre gave the rest of the War of 1812 its rallying cry: "Remember the Raisin."

The fighting happened over five days in what's now Monroe, Michigan, back when the settlement was called Frenchtown. Two battles, four days apart. The first, on January 18, went the Americans' way. The second, on January 22, destroyed Brigadier General James Winchester's entire command. A counterattack led by British Colonel Henry Procter and the Wyandot war chief Roundhead wiped the Americans out on the north bank of the river. The massacre came the day after, on January 23.

It took nine months for U.S. forces to recover. Bodies were never fully accounted for. As recently as the year 2000, human remains were still being uncovered at the site.

Paranormal investigators have had a field day here. Richard Ellison of Dead Serious Paranormal, a Monroe-based group, described what he calls a psychic meld with a wounded soldier: "I could still notice my surroundings, but what I was seeing is very hard to describe. I could hear screaming and loud chant-like noises, but my vision was a blur." He thinks he was feeling the soldier's last moments. Ghost Hunters of Southern Michigan have investigated the grounds repeatedly and claim to have EVP recordings of cries and photographs of figures in 1813-era uniforms standing in fields and doorways.

Visitors to the battlefield have reported apparitions of American soldiers in old military dress, orbs and glowing lights at night, and a young girl in a white dress who seems to be looking for someone. Nobody knows who she is. The park sits on flat Michigan bottomland along the river, open and windswept. You can see for a quarter mile across those fields and still feel watched.

The River Raisin was authorized as a National Battlefield Park in 2009 and added to the National Park System in October 2010. It's one of four national battlefield parks in the United States and the only one commemorating the War of 1812. The visitor center at 1403 East Elm Avenue does a careful job of the history. The rangers will tell you about the 300-plus dead, the politics of Procter's withdrawal, the role of Tecumseh's confederacy. They won't tell you about the orbs. You have to go out into the fields for that part.

The hauntings here don't have a named ghost or a ticketed ghost tour, which is unusual for a site this bloody. What there is instead is a mostly empty field, a cold January history, and an unusual concentration of people saying they felt something. Monroe has more reported ghost sightings than any other city in Michigan, according to one recent count. A lot of that weight sits on the riverbanks where Winchester's men froze and bled.