Welcome to the SCV Camp Chase site.  As the name indicates this site is maintained and written by SCV members.  (Special thanks also to Pam Stanley).  Although the War Between the States is long over sometimes it can still stir emotional opinions.  We hope you will find new and fresh information about Camp Chase and its cemetery contained within this site.  It is our goal to present the facts and let the reader determine his or her own conclusions.  Somewhere in between the North and the South lays the truth of that terrible ordeal. (1861-1865)   
 

The iron fence you see in this photo on top of the stone wall was erected in 1911 by a company from Dayton, Ohio.  There were many political prisoners at Camp Chase especially early in the War.  Many of them came from Western Virginia and Kentucky.  At times the entire male populations from the households were taken to Camp Chase as was the case for the Galford family from Taylor County. (now West Virginia).  All three Galfords were arrested and taken to Camp Chase:  the grandfather, son and the grandson who was 17 years old.   The grandfather Thomas Galford who was well into his 70's died at Camp Chase making him the oldest prisoner to die there.   As with all civilians who died at Camp Chase prior to August 1, 1863, they have no tombstones at the cemetery.  At least one mother and daughter from Tennessee were also held as prisoners at Camp Chase for a period in 1863. 

 

 

 

The Confederate cemetery in Columbus's Hilltop neighborhood marks the place where, 140 years ago, a prisoner of war camp stood. At that time the location was well outside the city limits. In May of 1861 a Union military training ground was established here under the name Camp Jackson; by July of that year, when the first prisoners were admitted, its name had been changed to honor President Lincoln's Secretary of State (and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court), Hamilton County native Salmon P. Chase.

At first, Camp Chase took only officers as prisoners, with enlisted men going to Fort Warren, near Boston Harbor. A large number of officers came from 1862 Union victories at Fort Donalson, Tennessee, and Mississippi Island No. 10. In 1863 a new stockade was built on Johnson's Island in Lake Erie, and most of the Camp Chase officers were sent there. By 1863 there were 8,000 men incarcerated behind the high, staked walls of the Camp.

Although there were at least 160 buildings at the camp, giving it the appearance of a sizable town, most of the prisoners--especially enlisted men--were housed in tents, as you can see in this photo, taken over the wall sometime during the war.

 
The camp served other functions while it housed captured Rebel soldiers. Units were mustered into regiments there, and regiments that had finished their service were discharged. Union POWs released from Confederate prisons were processed through Camp Chase. Among the Ohio Volunteer Infantries based there were three future presidents: Lieutenant Colonel James Garfield served in the 42nd OVI, while Major Rutherford B. Hayes and Private William McKinley were both part of the 23rd.

 

 
The camp as a whole occupied only about six acres of land between the National Road (now Broad Street) and what is today Sullivant Avenue. Its eastern border was the current Hague Avenue. The map below, taken from a 1994 Timeline article about Camp Chase, gives the relative location of the barracks, POW camp, and other associated buildings.

 

   

More than 50% of all of the Confederate deaths at Camp Chase occurred in 1865, the shortest year of the War.  Likewise February the shortest month of the year would claim 499 deaths.  Almost 25% of all of the Confederate deaths at Camp Chase (1861-1865) occurred in February of 1865. 

 

There were many reasons for the high death rates at almost all Northern prison camps including Camp Chase in 1865.  Many of the prisoners taken to Camp Chase in late December of 1864 and January of 1865 came as a result of the Battle of Nashville, TN.  The Confederate Government had trouble keeping its army fed and clothed near the end of the War.  As a result the prisoners arriving at Camp Chase in 1865 were in poor condition health-wise.  The winter of 1864-1865 was extremely cold.  Prison policy at Camp Chase was for each prisoner to report for roll-call each morning and stand while a count was taken of the prisoners.  Many in bare feet had to stand on ice and snow while they were counted.  The penalty for not attending roll-call was no food for the day.  On January 18, 1865 the temperature in Columbus fell to -18 degrees. Back in the day, they did not account for a wind-chill factor.  Needless to say not very many prisoners ate that day.  With only one blanket per prisoner and no heat at night the conditions for the prisoners at Camp Chase in 1865 were brutal.  Although the North had plenty of food to give to the prisoners, their concern was that a healthy prisoner might become an escaped prisoner.  Therefore, the Confederates were given just enough food to barely survive.  With the news of the Union deaths at Southern prison camps such as Andersonville, little sympathy was given to the Confederates at Camp Chase.

 

More than 50% of all of the Confederate deaths at Camp Chase occurred in the shortest year of the War that being 1865.   Likewise February is the shortest month of the year however 499 men would die at Camp Chase in February of 1865 alone.  Almost 25% of all of the Confederate deaths at Camp Chase (1861-1865)occured in February of 1865. 
 

 
 

The Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery was established on August 1, 1863 and its first burial was on August 4, 1863.  The Confederates had a simple name for the cemetery "the bone yard"  Prior to the CCCC the men were buried at the Columbus  EAST Cemetery near where the Columbus Children's Hospital is today.  Prior to March 4, 1862 the men were buried at the NORTH cemetery near High Street across from the railroad depot.  In May of 1869 under an order from the Great Lakes Department Commander was given to remove the Confederate dead from these two cemeteries and place them within the CCCC. Of the 58 known Confederate graves to be disinterred 8 bodies were missing from the NORTH and EAST cemeteries.  The 50 dead were re-interred in what is now known as row 43 of the CCCC.   It was also at this time that the Confederate dead from Cincinnati, Ohio were brought to the CCCC.  Their final resting place is to the extreme Northeast of the cemetery.  By the end of May 1869 the Confederate dead in Ohio were confined to the CCCC and Johnson's Island.  Of the four Confederates who died during the War and are buried at the Greenlawn Cemetery at least two of them were Union troops who had wrong tombstones assigned to them.  The other two Confederates are still being looked into. 
 

 
A cemetery was established at the Camp near the end of 1863. The Confederate dead who had been buried in the city cemetery were moved back to Camp Chase. They were buried under cheap wooden markers in a plot surrounded by a low fence. When the war ended, most of the camp itself was dismantled. Some of the cabins where POWs had been housed were used as cheap shanties for a few years, but for the most part every indication that the military base had been there was gone--except for the graveyard, which was left to deteriorate.
It wasn't until 1895 that William Knauss, a retired Union Colonel who had been injured on the battlefield at Fredericksburg, found the graveyard and determined to restore it. He held memorial services there, featuring speakers such as Governor Nash, and drew crowds as big as five thousand by 1898. One by one, the soldiers received proper stone monuments instead of wooden slats. Their regiments and states of origin were carved beneath their names--a whole field full of men from Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and the Carolinas, buried in the capital of the state that produced Phil Sheridan, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Ulysses S. Grant.

 

 

 

 

The marble tombstones in this photograph were first brought to the Camp Chase Cemetery by rail via horse and wagon from Columbus, Ohio in the spring of 1908.  The winning bid was given to the Blue Ridge Marble Company from Nelson, Georgia at a price of $2.90 per stone.  From these same quarries came the majority of the marble monuments we now have in Washington, DC including the Lincoln Memorial. 

Each year on Memorial Day the Columbus' Brig. Gen. Roswell S. Ripley Camp 1535 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy honor those heroic souls who gave all in the struggle for Southern Independence.

The players:

General Joseph Hooker  (In charge of the Department of Ohio)

Lt. Sankey  (provost marshal at Camp Chase)

Colonel William Pitt Richardson (Camp Chase Commander)
Dr. Joab Flowers (Man in charge of the body snatching incident at Camp Chase)
William Sterling (hired by Dr. Flowers to steal bodies at Camp Chase and used as contact to ship the dead bodies to Cleveland, Oh)
Mr. Carpenter (a local blacksmith hired by Dr. Flowers for manual labor and used his horses and wagons to transport the bodies to the railroad depot for shipping)
34th Iowa (known as the gray beard regiment, the only civil war regiment to be made up of senior citizens and used to guard prisoners at Camp Chase)
 

The Southern soldiers stolen from their graves:
Curtis Hooks  from the state of GA
Lester            from the state of TN
Hiram Bland   from the state of GA
Andrew J. Hensley  from the state of VA
Thomas Stephens   from the state of LA
John Lindley           from the state of GA

General Joseph Hooker was born in the same year that Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner in 1814. He graduated West Point in 1837 and was also a veteran of the Mexican War. As with the Civil War, Hooker seemed to have issue with his commanders even during the Mexican War and at the beginning of the Civil War Hooker's first request for an army appointment had been denied and Hooker had found himself in the position of having to borrow money to return East from California. Through a series of defeats for the Union Army Hooker found himself in charge of the Union Army after several complaints against its commanders. General Hooker was routed by Lee and Jackson during the battle of Chancellorsville in which Hooker complained that General Howard had let him down. Three days prior to Gettysburg Hooker was replaced by General Meade. Hooker would go on and command in Chattanooga, Tn under Grant. When General Grant promoted General Howard over Hooker, Fighting Joe had had enough. General Hooker would take command over the Northern Department on October 1, 1864 which included Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan.

 

Alexander Sankey was born Near Cambridge Ohio in the county side of Gurnsey County. During the pre War years he was a county deputy for Gurnsey. When the War broke out Alexander Sankey enlisted in the 74th OVI as a private and found himself guarding prisoners at Camp Chase under his Colonel Granville Moody. When the 74th Ohio pulled out of Camp Chase the 88th Ohio took over the duties of guarding the prisoners. And offer was made to private Sankey in that if he would reenlist with the 88th Ohio he would be made a 1st Lt. Lt. Sankey would go on and become the provost marshal at Camp Chase and he would find himself stationed at Camp Chase for the entire War a decision for which he later regretted. If one man could tell a story of Camp Chase it would be Alexander Sankey if nothing else because of his duration at Camp Chase. After the War and Army life Alexander Sankey lived in Kansas and petitioned the government several times asking for more money on his pension. His main issue was health related. Alexander Sankey said in his papers that the water at Camp Chase had caused his illness for which he would not recover. While sitting in his rocking chair in 1899 Alexander Sankey passed away and is buried in Blue Mound, Kansas.

 

Colonel William Pitt Richardson had been a lawyer prior to the War and also served as the Monroe County Ohio prosecutor. He also had been a Mexican War veteran entering the service as a private in Company B. of the 3rd Ohio Infantry and quickly rose to the rank of Corporal. The Colonel of the 3rd Ohio Infantry during the Mexican War was George Wythe McCook (member of the fighting McCooks) who was also a lawyer prior to the Civil War. McCooks law partner was Edwin M. Stanton. McCook also served as Ohio Attorney General from 1854-1856. During the Civil War McCook also was the commandant of the prisoner of War camp at Fort Delaware.

William Pitt Richardson entered the Union service as a Major of the 25 O.V.I. and within a year rose to be it's colonel. During the battle of Chancellorsville (General Joseph Hooker commanding) in which the 25th Ohio had been a member of the 11th Corps Colonel Richardson was badly wounded in the arm, a wound that would later contribute to his death in the 1880's. Like McCook, Richardson would also be a commandant of a prisoner of war camp known as Camp Chase. And like McCook, Richardson would also be elected as the Ohio Attorney General in 1864. To say that these two officers knew each other goes without saying and it also goes without saying that they held very strong ties to the most powerful men in the country. Richardson Avenue located on the Hilltop in Columbus Ohio which was a part of the original Camp Chase was named after him.

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