Description: This bird's-eye view shows the layout of Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio. Established in 1861, Camp Chase served as a recruitment and training center for the Union Army and as a prison camp for captured Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. There are over 2,200 Confederate soldiers buried in the cemetery at Camp Chase. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04216
Subjects: Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery (Columbus, Ohio); United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865; Prisoners of war; Prisons--Ohio; Ohio History--Military Ohio
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: This image is a view of Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio. Rows of headstones mark the soldiers' graves. Visible in the left center background is a bronze figure of a Confederate soldier standing atop a stone arch. The cemetery is located in a residential neighborhood. Organized in 1861, Camp Chase initially replaced Camp Jackson, located near Columbus, as a recruitment and training center for the Union Army. The facility was named after Salmon P. Chase, Treasury Secretary under President Abraham Lincoln and former governor of Ohio. However, Camp Chase became a prisoner-of-war camp early in the war. The first inmates at Camp Chase were chiefly political and military prisoners from Kentucky and Western Virginia allegedly loyal to the Confederacy. Union victories at Fort Donaldson, Tennessee, on Feb. 16, 1862, and at Mississippi River Island No. 10, on April 8, 1862, brought an influx of Confederate prisoners to Camp Chase, most of whom were enlisted men and non-commissioned officers. During 1863 the prison population at Camp Chase numbered 8,000 men, its peak. Like many prisons in the north, Camp Chase was ravaged by disease; during late 1864, a smallpox epidemic resulted in many deaths. During the course of the Civil War, more than two thousand Confederate prisoners died at Camp Chase. Initially, prison officials buried dead prisoners in a Columbus city cemetery. In 1863, however, the prison established its own cemetery. Remains were reinterred in the prison cemetery after its opening. Following the war, thirty-one Confederate bodies from Camp Dennison near Cincinnati were moved to the Camp Chase cemetery. The Union military closed Camp Chase at the end of the Civil War. Efforts to mark the graves of the Confederate dead within the cemetery began by the mid-1890s. Led by William H. Knauss, a wounded Union Army veteran, this movement succeeded in bringing together both Union and Confederate veterans’ organizations to pay tribute to those interred in the cemetery. Memorial services have been held at the cemetery every year since 1896. On June 7, 1902, a monument to the Confederate dead was erected at the cemetery. In 1904, Congress allocated funds for the maintenance of Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery. Most of what remains of Camp Chase today includes two acres of land, consisting primarily of the Confederate cemetery. Officially, the Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery contains an estimated 2,168 remains in 2,122 graves. Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery has two monuments. The first depicts a bronze figure of a Confederate Civil War soldier standing atop a granite arch, his rifle held vertically in front of him, with both hands resting on the top of the barrel. Originally the memorial consisted of a wooden arch inscribed with the word “AMERICANS,” but in 1902 the wooden arch was replaced with this 17' tall stone memorial. The second monument is a 3-foot-tall boulder underneath the stone arch. Installed in 1897, the boulder bears an inscription that reads: "2260 Confederate Soldiers of the war 1861-1865 buried in this enclosure." (This statistic disagrees with the official record.) The Camp Chase site, including the Confederate Cemetery, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06659
Subjects: Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery (Columbus, Ohio); Camp Chase (Ohio); Civil War; Cemeteries--Ohio; Civil War--Prisoners and prisons; National Register of Historic Places
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Dated ca. 1933-1939, this aerial photograph shows Camp Chase, a military prison located four miles outside of Columbus, Ohio, which held Confederate troops during the American Civil War. Camp Chase eventually replaced Camp Jackson as a recruitment and training center for the Union Army. During the course of the Civil War, over two thousand Confederate prisoners died at Camp Chase. This photograph is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B05F04C_003_1
Subjects: Military Ohio; Civil War; Camp Chase (Ohio); Military prisons; Federal Writers' Project
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph of a young girl attending a Memorial Day service held at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio, by the Dixie Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1954. Camp Chase was a staging, training and prison camp during the American Civil War. All that is left today is the Confederate Cemetery with 2,260 graves. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03514
Subjects: Cemeteries--Ohio; Ohio History; Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery (Columbus, Ohio); Civil War--Prisoners and prisons
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: The monument memorializing Camp Chase in Columbus, OH. The reason for Camp Chase being built was twofold, it was designated as a place for preparing enlisted men for war. In addition, Camp Chase served as a prison for various people who were either captured soldiers, or were confederate sympathizers. Camp Chase was no small prison either, estimates for the high point go as high as several thousand men kept in the camp in a cramped densely populated environment. The camp was by no means easy for those who were unfortunate to be captured and put in the prison. Infections spread quickly here in the rough cramped conditions, and it was not uncommon for large numbers of men to die from illness. Further complicating the entire situation was the inability of the Union to be able to consistently provide food to the inmates, supplies were scarce because of the war raging throughout the country. The structure shown in the picture was built to memorialize all those who had died in the camp. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06765
Subjects: Civil War--Prisoners and prisons; Civil War 1861-1865; Columbus (Ohio); Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery (Columbus, Ohio)
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Ohio
 

Description: On June 4, 1898, a memorial service was held at the Confederate Cemetery, formerly Camp Chase. Camp Chase was a military prison located 4 miles away from Columbus for captured Confederate soldiers. This cemetery was the burial ground for confederate soldiers who died in prison. The Confederate Glee Club of Louisville, Kentucky is pictured here. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B05F04C_016_1
Subjects: Cemeteries; Camp Chase (Ohio); Veterans; United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Cemeteries--Confederate.
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)