Description: View of Johnson's Island, while the American Civil War was happening this island was considered an ideal place to house POWs. Anyone kept there would have a hard time getting away from the place without any help because of the remote nature of the island. Despite this, Johnson's Island was in an ideal place for supply lines to reach. The prison was built without having much trouble if any getting the necessary materials for, and food was shipped in without issue. Even for the prisoners, life on Johnson's Island was not so bad, they were fed and they were treated relatively well as the prison was specifically made to house men of military rank who most often had rich relatives who were willing and able to send them extra money. This is in contrast to the atrocious conditions experienced in other facilities. The island became a part of a daring attempt to create chaos for the Union and force the Union army to divide its ranks and defend Ohio against an unexpected Confederate campaign. The audacious plot was thought up by Charles Cole and John Yates Beall. Cole managed to use his influence to win over Union officials in Sandusky and had a small number of Confederate soldiers become a part of the Union Army. The plan was for Beall to commandeer a civilian ship along with a number of Confederate soldiers. The plan was to use this civilian boat to take control of the Union ship stationed on Lake Erie. To successfully take control of the ship, Cole would eat dinner with the Union officers who would be drugged before Beall took control of the Union ship. The plot was foiled when Cole was found out as a spy, while Beall's men decided to revolt against him. In the end, Cole was arrested and put away, and Beall sentenced to death for his role in the scheme. The U.S. had no need for the island after the war, and eventually the island would be settled and used by civilians. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06733
Subjects: Civil War--Prisoners and prisons; Civil War 1861-1865; Erie, Lake; Erie County (Ohio)
Places: Sandusky (Ohio); Erie County (Ohio); 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: This image shows a covered bridge near Chester, Ohio, where John Morgan made his escape. John Hunt Morgan was a prominent Confederate cavalry officer in the American Civil War. The Northern soldiers took Morgan and most of his captured men to Columbus after an attempted raid into Ohio. The enlisted men were confined in the Camp Chase Confederate prison camp. Morgan and several of his officers were held at the Ohio Penitentiary. Morgan arrived there on October 1. He and several of his men immediately made plans to escape. They tunneled out of a cell into an airshaft on November 13, 1863. They remained in their cells until November 27, when Morgan and six of his soldiers used the airshaft to reach the prison yard. They then fashioned a rope from their prison uniforms and scaled the wall. Utilizing some of the one thousand dollars that his sister had smuggled into the prison inside a Bible, Morgan purchased a train ticket to Cincinnati. He then made his escape across the Ohio River into Kentucky. After his escape, Morgan returned to the Confederate army. He led cavalry forces in Tennessee and Kentucky. On September 4, 1864, Northern soldiers surrounded a farmhouse near Greenville, Tennessee, where Morgan was staying. The Confederate general attempted to escape from the house, but was shot by the Union soldiers. Morgan died from his wounds. General John Hunt Morgan is buried in Lexington, Kentucky. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06520
Subjects: Bridges--Ohio River; Civil War--Prisoners and prisons; Civil War 1861-1865
Places: Chester (Ohio); Meigs County (Ohio)
 

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: Photograph of Camp Chase Confederate cemetery, Columbus, Ohio, ca. 1954. The area was used as a staging, training and prisoner of war camp during the American Civil War. Today, all that remains is the Confederate Cemetery containing 2,260 graves. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03512
Subjects: Cemeteries--Ohio; Ohio History--Military Ohio; Civil War--Prisoners and prisons
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Gravestones at Camp Chase Confederate cemetery, Columbus, Ohio, ca. 1954. Camp Chase was used as a staging, training and prison camp during the American Civil War. All that remains today is the Confederate Cemetery containing 2,206 graves. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03513
Subjects: Cemeteries--Ohio; Ohio History--Military Ohio; Civil War--Prisoners and prisons
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: Charles W. Atkins at the 1954 Memorial Day service held at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio, by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Dixie Chapter. Atkins' grandfather, William A. Atkins, was a Confederate Army soldier who died at Camp Chase while a prisoner of war. Camp Chase was a staging, training and prison camp during the American Civil War. All that remains today is the Confederate Cemetery with 2260 graves. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03515
Subjects: Cemeteries--Ohio; Ohio History--Military Ohio; Civil War--Prisoners and prisons
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Johnson's Island, shown in an aerial here, was a military camp founded in 1862. Johnson's Island was a Union prison for Confederate officers during the American Civil War. It was located in Sandusky Bay of Lake Erie, near Sandusky, Ohio. The prison was built on this island for several reasons. Because of the island's isolated location, it would be very difficult for prisoners to escape. At the same time, the island was near several important Ohio cities and lines of road, rail and water transportation. It was relatively easy to acquire building supplies to construct the prison, as well as to secure food to feed the inmates. The prison at Johnson's Island opened in April 1862. It continued to house prisoners until September 1865. Estimates vary on the number of prisoners who spent time at Johnson's Island, but it is likely at least ten thousand men spent time there. Following the Civil War, federal officials sold the prison's buildings and land. Most of the island became farmland. By the 1950s, Johnson's Island became a residential community and a popular vacation spot. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06582
Subjects: Johnson's Island Prison Camp; Civil War--Prisoners and prisons; Lake Erie Islands (Ohio)
Places: Port Clinton (Ohio); Ottawa County (Ohio)
 

Description: Illustration of "Johnson's Island, Sandusky Bay, Depot of Confederate Prisoners," from Henry Howe's "Historical Collection of Ohio," 1909. Johnson's Island, leased for $500 per year from Leonard B. Johnson during the Civil War, was the site of a prisoner of war camp for Confederate officers along the Lake Erie coast of Ohio. While it was the only Union prison camp exclusively for officers, there were regular soldiers there as well. During the war, approximately 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers were processed through the camp. It was guarded by the 128th Ohio Voluntary Infantry. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04257
Subjects: Civil War--Prisoners and prisons; Ohio History--Military Ohio; Johnson's Island Prison Camp
Places: Johnson's Island (Ohio); Sandusky (Ohio); Erie County (Ohio)
 

Description: Aerial view illustrating Johnson's Island Confederate Prison and Cemetery. Johnson's Island, leased for $500 per year from Leonard B. Johnson during the Civil War, was the site of a prisoner of war camp for Confederate officers along the Lake Erie coast of Ohio. While it was the only Union prison camp exclusively for officers, there were regular soldiers there as well. During the war, approximately 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers were processed through the camp. It was guarded by the 128th Ohio Voluntary Infantry.. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04258
Subjects: United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865; Civil War--Prisoners and prisons; Ohio History--Military Ohio; Johnson's Island Prison Camp
Places: Johnson's Island (Ohio); Sandusky (Ohio); Erie 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)