
The Legend of Black Aggie
Posted: 01.30.2025 | Updated: 01.30.2025
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Black Aggie became a mecca for Baltimore teenagers coming to test the myth that sitting in Aggie’s lap would cause sudden death. A couple of the teens looked down in front of Aggie’s statue to find Felix Agnus’s grave. Read on to find out who Felix Angus is and why this statue continues to haunt cemetery visitors. If you’re looking to learn about Washington D.C.’s haunted history, book a ghost tour with DC Ghosts.
Who is Black Aggie?
Black Aggie is the name given to a statue that was placed on the grave of General Felix Agnus in Druid Ridge Cemetery, located in Pikesville, Maryland. People would often break into the cemetery late at night to see if the mysterious lore about the statue was true.
The Story of Felix Angus

Felix Agnus lived a full life. Born in France in 1839, he traveled the world at age 13. At 20, he joined the French Third Regiment of Zouaves to fight in the war against Austria. Angus later fought alongside Guiseppe Maria Garibaldi, helping to unify Italy.
In 1860, Agnus came to America with his mother and sister, settling down in Newport, Rhode Island. He later moved on to New York City, where he worked for the famed Tiffany & Co. as a sculptor and silver chaser.
Angus’s involvement in the war didn’t end in Italy. He enlisted in Duryee’s Fire Zouaves as a private during the American Civil War and was quickly promoted to lieutenant after he helped to save the life of his captain.
Agnus was severely wounded at the Battle of Gaines Mill and was sent back to Baltimore to recover, taken care of by Charles Fulton’s daughter Annie. After he recovered, he joined the 165th New York Zouaves, a unit that saw a ridiculous amount of hard fighting for the rest of the war.
By the end of the war, Agnus had been promoted to Brigadier General and carried many wounds on his body. He was often quoted saying, ‘Shot 13 times, always in the front.’
As fate would have it, Agnus married his caretaker, Annie Fulton, and made Baltimore his home. He purchased a family plot in Druid Ridge Cemetery to ensure that he and his family were buried together.
The Creation and Lore of Black Aggie

Around that same time, a sculptor named Edward Pausch created Black Aggie, a copy of the statue ‘Grief,’ which stood in Rock Creek Cemetery in memory of Marian ‘Clover’ Adams, who took her own life by drinking photography chemicals.
Agnus purchased the copy of ‘Grief’ and had it placed at his family plot in Druid Ridge to watch over himself, his wife Annie, and his mother, who are all buried on the plot.
The statue, a somber seated figure in a shroud, was installed at the cemetery in 1926 and has been surrounded by countless urban legends since then. Here are just a few:
- Someone spending a night in the statue’s lap would be haunted by the ghosts of the people buried there.
- The spirits of Druid Ridge used the statue as a meeting place, and no grass would grow on the ground where the statue’s shadow lay.
- At night, the statue would come alive, either physically moving across the cemetery or opening its glowing red eyes.
These legends obviously attracted unwelcome attention from local teenagers and ghost explorers who were looking for answers to the strange lore. People were caught breaking into the cemetery at night to visit the statue and see for themselves which of the stories were true, as well as vandalizing the pedestal.
The Agnus family, upset and disheartened by the statue’s attention, tried to donate it to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which decided against displaying the statue and instead placed an authorized recasting of the original memorial.
Black Aggie was moved from museum storage to a courtyard behind the Dolley Madison House on Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., where she currently rests. The pedestal is the only piece that remains at Druid Ridge Cemetery today.
Haunted Washington D.C.
So, are all of the Black Aggie stories just that? Stories? Or are there other energies at play manipulating the statue that had grown so popular? Perhaps it was just lore created by bored Maryland teenagers looking for a spook on Saturday night. Regardless, Black Aggie will go down in history as Maryland’s (and now Washington D.C.’s) most haunted statue.
If learning about Washington D.C.’s dark side sounds like your idea of a good time, be sure to book a ghost tour with DC Ghosts today and step into the city’s haunting past.
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Sources Cited:
- https://www.dyingtotelltheirstories.com/home/2019/12/4/felix-agnus-is-buried-in-the-shadow-of-black-aggies-memory-in-druid-ridge-cemetery
- https://www.dyingtotelltheirstories.com/home/2017/11/9/black-aggie-the-urban-legend-of-druid-ridge-cemetery
- https://cemeterytravel.com/2016/05/20/the-legend-of-black-aggie/
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