Camp Chase was a military staging and training camp established in
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...
in May 1861 after the start of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
. It also included a large Union-operated
prison camp for Confederate prisoners during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
.
The camp was closed and dismantled after the war and the site has been redeveloped for residential and commercial use, except for the Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery,
which contains 2,260 graves of Confederates who died in captivity both in Camp Chase and in
Camp Dennison near
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
.
Camp Chase was located in what is now the
Hilltop neighborhood of
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...
. Camp Chase is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
History
Camp Chase was an
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
training and prison camp established in May 1861, on land leased by the
U.S. Government.
It replaced the much smaller Camp Jackson which was established by Ohio Governor
William Dennison Jr as a place for Ohio's union volunteers to meet.
It originally operated from a city park. The main entrance was on the
National Road
The National Road (also known as the Cumberland Road) was the first major improved highway in the United States built by the Federal Government of the United States, federal government. Built between 1811 and 1837, the road connected the Pot ...
west of
Downtown Columbus, Ohio
Downtown Columbus is the central business district of Columbus, Ohio. Downtown is centered on the intersection of Broad Street (Columbus, Ohio), Broad and High Street (Columbus, Ohio), High Streets, and encompasses all of the area inside the Inner ...
. Boundaries of the camp were present-day Broad Street (north), Hague Avenue (east), Sullivant Avenue (south), and near Westgate Avenue (west). Named for former Ohio Governor,
Salmon P. Chase
Salmon Portland Chase (January 13, 1808May 7, 1873) was an American politician and jurist who served as the sixth chief justice of the United States. He also served as the 23rd governor of Ohio, represented Ohio in the United States Senate, a ...
, who was
Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury
The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
; it was a training camp for Ohio volunteer army soldiers, a parole camp, a
muster outpost, and later a prisoner-of-war camp. The nearby
Camp Thomas
Camp Thomas was a United States Regular Army (United States), Regular Army training facility located in North Columbus, Ohio (now Columbus, Ohio, Columbus), during the American Civil War. It was primarily used to organize and train new infantry r ...
served as a similar base for the
Regular Army
A regular army is the official army of a state or country (the official armed forces), contrasting with irregulars, irregular forces, such as volunteer irregular militias, private armies, mercenary, mercenaries, etc. A regular army usually has the ...
. As many as 150,000 Union soldiers and 25,000 Confederate prisoners passed through its gates from 1861 to 1865. By February 1865, over 9,400 men were held at the prison. More than 2,200 Confederates are buried in the Camp Chase Cemetery.
Western Virginia
Western Virginia is a geographic region in Virginia comprising the Shenandoah Valley and Southwest Virginia. Generally, areas in Virginia located west of, or (in many cases) within, the piedmont region are considered part of western Virginia.
T ...
and
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
civilians suspected of actively supporting
secession
Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...
, including former three-term
United States Congressman
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...
Richard Henry Stanton
Richard Henry Stanton (September 9, 1812 – March 20, 1891, born Bob Stanton) was a politician, lawyer, editor and judge from Kentucky. Born in Alexandria, DC, he completed preparatory studies, attended Alexandria Academy, studied law and ...
were held at the facility.
The prison camp also held Confederates captured during
Morgan's Raid
Morgan's Raid was a diversionary incursion by Confederate cavalry into the Union states of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia during the American Civil War. The raid took place from June 11 to July 26, 1863, and is named for the commander ...
in 1863, including Col.
Basil W. Duke
Basil Wilson Duke (May 28, 1838 – September 16, 1916) was a Confederate States Army, Confederate general officer during the American Civil War. His most noted service in the war was as second-in-command for his brother-in-law John Hunt Mo ...
.
The camp was closed in 1865, and by September 1867, dismantled buildings, usable items, and 450 patients from Tripler Military Hospital (also in
Columbus
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to:
* Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer
* Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio
Columbus may also refer to:
Places ...
) were transferred to the new National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Dayton, Ohio (Now Dayton VA.) Building materials taken from dismantled buildings were sent to help build the Dayton facility which opened in 1867 and became the largest veterans home in the nation. In 1895, former Union soldier William H. Knauss organized the first memorial service at the cemetery. In 1906 he published a history of the camp.
The
Confederate Soldier Memorial was dedicated in 1902. From 1912 to 1994, the
United Daughters of the Confederacy
The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, ...
held annual services to commemorate Confederate soldiers who had been held and died there. The Hilltop Historical Society now sponsors the event on the second Sunday in June.
Prison conditions
The living conditions at Camp Chase were inadequate for a number of reasons. The prisoners were never intentionally starved, but because the
Union army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
focused on feeding its own soldiers first it often left the prisoners with little to no food.
The largest number of soldiers and officers held at Camp Chase at a single time was in 1863 when the prison camp held around 8,000 men.
Because of the large number of prisoners crowded in a relatively small area, there was also a large outbreak of
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
and other deadly diseases. This resulted in the death of hundreds of prisoners in the winter of 1863–1864.
Many
POW
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...
camps had the same conditions on both sides of the war. Because of this, the
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
and the
CSA
CSA may refer to:
Arts and media
* Canadian Screen Awards, annual awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television
* Commission on Superhuman Activities, a fictional American government agency in Marvel Comics
* Crime Syndicate of Amer ...
agreed to exchange prisoners to stop the suffering of men on both sides. Ultimately around 10,000 soldiers were exchanged between both sides.
The Lady in Gray
The Lady in Gray is purportedly an apparition that haunts Camp Chase Cemetery. The story goes that the ghost is looking for her lost love, and cannot find him in the cemetery. The woman is described as young, in her late teens or early twenties, dressed entirely in gray, and carrying a clean white handkerchief. The legend of the Lady in Gray dates back to just after the Civil War, when visitors to Camp Chase spotted the woman walking through the cemetery, trying to read the carved names on the marked grave markers. She was seen quite often for several years, before disappearing completely.
Camp Chase today
Aside from the two-acre Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery,
the land that formerly housed Camp Chase has been redeveloped as a residential and commercial area known as
Westgate. A corner stone to the camp is located in front of the Westgate #623 Masonic Temple, in a community in the Hilltop section of west Columbus. This development was built in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Camp Chase is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
. Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery is managed along with five National Cemeteries by the Dayton National Cemetery.
Vandalism
On August 22, 2017, part of a chain of
removal of Confederate monuments and memorials
More than 100 monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America (CSA; the Confederacy) and associated figures have been removed, all but five since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn do ...
, the statue of a Confederate soldier on top of the camp memorial was pushed off the arch and in the process had its head broken off. The vandals were never found. They stole the head of the
Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
statue but not the hat.
The statue has been repaired under the auspices of the
Dayton National Cemetery and was re-installed in May 2019.
Photos
File:Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio. Prison of the rebels captured by U. S. forces. LCCN2007675765 (cropped).jpg, Camp Chase
File:Camp chase 2.jpg, The Confederate Soldier Memorial before vandals broke off the statue at the top in 2017
File:Camp Chase, Colombus, OH, US (13).jpg, The memorial after vandals broke off the statue in 2017
File:Camp_Chase,_Colombus,_OH,_US_(08).jpg, Gravestones and the main memorial
File:Camp_Chase,_Colombus,_OH,_US_(04).jpg, Text of the carved stone
See also
*
Camp Chase Industrial Railroad
*
Camp Chase Trail
The Camp Chase Trail is a paved multi-use trail in Madison and Franklin counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. It serves as the Southwest Columbus segment of the Ohio to Erie Trail. The entire length of the Camp Chase Trail is part of the Great Ame ...
*
Camp Dennison
*
Hilltop Area
*
Johnson's Island
Johnson's Island is a island in Sandusky Bay, located on the coast of Lake Erie, from the city of Sandusky, Ohio. It was the site of a prisoner-of-war camp for Confederate officers captured during the American Civil War. Initially, Johnso ...
*
Ohio in the Civil War
During the American Civil War, the State of Ohio played a key role in providing troops, military officers, and supplies to the Union army. Due to its central location in the Northern United States and burgeoning population, Ohio was both political ...
*
List of Civil War POW Prisons and Camps
References
* Historical Marker #27-25, located at 2900 Sullivant Avenue, Columbus, Ohio, installed by the
Ohio Bicentennial Commission, 1999.
Miller, Robert Earnest, "War Within Walls: Camp Chase and the Search for Administrative Reform," Ohio History 96 (Winter Spring 1987): 33 56
External links
*
Comprehensive Camp Chase Cemetery headstone inventoryAerial photo of Camp ChaseCamp Chase Confederate Cemeteryat
Find a Grave
Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present fin ...
Letters from Camp Chase inmate Knauss, William H.; The story of Camp Chase; 1906*
*
ttp://CampChase.us Columbus Sons of Confederate Veterans: Camp Chase WebsiteCamp Chase Confederate Cemetery - National Cemetery Administration
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Chase
Chase or CHASE may refer to:
Businesses
* Chase Bank, a national bank based in New York City, New York
* Chase Aircraft (1943–1954), a defunct American aircraft manufacturing company
* Chase Coaches, a defunct bus operator in England
* Chase Co ...
Forts on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio
American Civil War army posts
Chase
Chase or CHASE may refer to:
Businesses
* Chase Bank, a national bank based in New York City, New York
* Chase Aircraft (1943–1954), a defunct American aircraft manufacturing company
* Chase Coaches, a defunct bus operator in England
* Chase Co ...
American Civil War prison camps
Defunct prisons in Ohio
Historic American Landscapes Survey in Ohio
History of Ohio
Ohio in the American Civil War
Military monuments and memorials in the United States
19th century in Columbus, Ohio
National Register of Historic Places in Columbus, Ohio
1861 establishments in Ohio