Camp Chase - Cemetery Signs
Camp Chase
Camp Chase - Franklin County Historical Marker
Camp Chase
Marker Text: Near this site on May 27 and 28, 1861 Camp Chase, a Civil War post, was established as a training center for recruits pouring into Columbus in answer to President Abraham Lincoln's call for volunteers. The property was located immediately west of Hague Avenue and south of the Old National Road, today West Broad Street. General William S. Rosecrans laid out the camp on a site known as the racegrounds which he had “plowed, rolled, and smoothed” for the drilling of recruits.
Numerous attempts by Confederate prisoners to escape prompted Camp Chase officers to construct a 12-foot fence around the entire camp. By June 12, 1861 the new camp contained 160 houses and by June 20 it became officially known as Camp Chase, honoring ex-Governor Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury in Lincoln's cabinet.
Location: W. Broad and Binns Boulevard
Camp Chase - Franklin County Historical Marker
Camp Chase
Marker Text: The first Confederate prisoners arrived at Camp Chase from western Virginia, July 5, 1861. Within two weeks 4,200 rebel prisoners had been received at Camp Chase. During the early days of 1865 there were 7,000 prisoners at Camp Chase, a number which increased to 9,416.
In its years of government service Camp Chase served a four-fold purpose: It was first used as a training installation, a prison for Confederate captives, a place of detention for paroled Union soldiers and finally served as a mustering-out place for northern regiments. On July 5, 1865 the prison commandant notified the War Department that Camp Chase was without prisoners . . . and on July 14, 1865 the prison property was offered for sale at public auction.
Dedicated July 13, 1961
Erected by The Hilltop Kiwanis Club and The Franklin County Historical Society.
Location: W. Broad and Binns Blvd.
Camp Chase - Map
Camp Chase
Map of the Camp Chase boundaries (from the Franklin County Historical Marker)
Camp Chase - Monument
Camp Chase
Camp Chase - Ohio Historical Marker
Camp Chase
Front Text : "Camp Chase"
Camp Chase was a Civil War camp established in May 1861, on land leased by the U.S. Government. Four miles west of Columbus, the main entrance was on the National Road. 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 and Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, it was a training camp for Ohio soldiers, a parole camp, a muster-out post, and a prisoner-of-war camp. As many as 150,000 Union soldiers and 25,000 Confederate prisoners passed through its gates from 1861-1865. By February 1865, over 9,400 men were held at the prison. More than 2,000 Confederates are buried in the Camp Chase Cemetery.
Back Text : "Camp Chase"
Four future Presidents passed through Camp Chase, A. Johnson, Hayes, Garfield, and McKinley, and Confederates captured during Morgan's Raid in 1863 included Gen. Basil W. Duke. The camp was closed in 1865 and by September 1867 dismantled buildings, usable items, and 450 patients from Tripler Military Hospital (also in Columbus) were transferred to the National Soldier's Home in Dayton. In 1895 former Union soldier William H. Knauss organized the first memorial service at the cemetery and in 1906 wrote a history of the camp. In 1902 the memorial Arch was dedicated. From 1912 to 1994, the United Daughters of the Confederacy held annual services. The Hilltop Historical Society now sponsors the event on the first Sunday in June.
Ohio Bicentennial Commission
The Longaberger Company
Hilltop Historical Society
Blue & Gray Magazine
Dixie Chapter UDC
Sons of Confederate Veterans
Ohio Historical Society
1999
Camp Chase - Vicksburg Cannonball
Camp Chase
Civil War - Camp Delaware
Civil War
Marker Text:
"Camp Delaware 1862-1864"
Near this site, the Union army established two camps on either side of the Olentangy River during the Civil War. Both were known as Camp Delaware. The first camp, situated on the west side of the river in the summer of 1862, was where the white recruits of the 96th and 121st regiments of Ohio Volunteer Infantry were mustered into service. A second camp, on the east side of the Olentangy, was established in the summer of 1863 and became the rendezvous point for most African-American Ohioans joining the army. The 127th Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry-later renamed the 5th Regiment United States Colored Troops, the 27th U.S. Colored Troops, and members of other African-American units were mustered into service at Camp Delaware.
S. Sandusky Street & Olentangy Avenue
Delaware, Ohio
Civil War - Camp Jackson
Civil War
In 1851, Dr. Lincoln Goodale donated a tract of forest and rolling hills to the city for its first park. In April 1861, Goodale Park was converted into Camp Jackson when Governor William Dennison ordered the creation of the camp to train volunteers for the Union Army. As many as 8,000 troops were stationed at Camp Jackson at its peak. Future presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley were among the officers stationed there. By this time, Dr. Goodale was a member of City Council and a member of the park oversight committee tasked with ensuring the terms of the Goodale Park land deed were met. Violation of the terms of the deed, which required that the land always be used as a park for the people of Columbus, would cause ownership of the land to revert to Lincoln Goodale or his heirs. By June 1861, Camp Jackson's military operations were moved to Camp Chase located four miles west of Columbus, and Goodale Park was returned to its original purpose.
Civil War - Columbus Arsenal and Barracks (Ft. Hayes)
Civil War
In 1863, Adjutant General C.P. Buckingham selected a seventy acre tract of land northeast of the city for the erection of an armory and arsenal (Columbus Barracks). The chosen site was an oak grove owned by Robert and Jannette Neil. In 1875, the War Department transferred the Columbus Arsenal to the General Recruiting Service and the site became the Columbus Barracks, a training base for recruits. In 1898, the Spanish-American War led to construction of new buildings to accommodate more recruits in residence. During World War I, the number recruits swelled after the Selective Military Conscription Act was signed into law in by President Woodrow Wilson, 18 May 1917. In 1922, the name of the post was changed to Fort Hayes in honor of Rutherford B. Hayes, an Ohio Governor and later President of the United States.
Civil War - Governor David Tod Mansion
Civil War
At the beginning of the Civil War, David Tod, a Democrat, joined the pro-Union alliance between the Republican Party and Ohio's War Democrats. The newly established National Union party supported David Tod in a successful bid for Ohio Governor in 1862.
During his tenure as governor, Tod lived at 530 E. Town Street in Columbus. The Tods entertained then-Senator of Tennessee, Andrew Johnson, later Vice President and President after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. David Tod lost his bid for re-election in 1864.
Civil War - John Hunt Morgan at the Ohio Penitentary
Civil War
Marker Text
Front : "General John Hunt Morgan, CSA"
On this site once stood the Ohio Penitentiary, which was built in 1834 and operated through 1984. Incarcerated here in July 1863 was Confederate General John Hunt Morgan, a cavalry commander known as the "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy," and about 70 of his officers. Morgan's Raiders brought the Civil War to the North with a spectacular raid through Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio in the summer of 1863. The raid ended with Morgan's capture in far eastern Ohio. (continued on other side)
Back: "Morgan's Escape"
Morgan surrendered the remnant of his command on July 26, 1863, near West Point in Columbiana County, the northernmost point reached by any significant force of armed Confederates during the war. He and his officers were sent to the Ohio Penitentiary rather than to a prisoner of war camp because of reports that captured Union officers had received similar treatment. This proved to be to Morgan's advantage: in November 1863, he and six of his officers escaped by tunneling from an air shaft beneath their cells into the prison yard and scaling the walls. Only two escapees were recaptured. Morgan returned to Confederate service and was killed in 1864.
Location: W. Spring and Neil Ave, Columbus, Ohio
Civil War - Lincoln at the Ohio Statehouse
Civil War
Marker Text: Lincoln at the Statehouse
“This slavery element is a durable element of discord among us... we shall probably not have perfect peace in this country with it until it either masters the free principle in our government, or is mastered by the free principle.”
On September 16, 1859, Abraham Lincoln addressed a small crowd from the east terrace of the Statehouse. In his first Ohio speech, Lincoln repeated his conviction that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” and took issue with Democrat Stephen Douglas’ concept of “popular sovereignty.” Published and widely circulated as an addendum to the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln’s Columbus speech helped stake a firm position for the Republican Party in the 1860 presidential campaign that followed. Lincoln twice returned to Columbus: once on February 13, 1861 to address a joint session of the legislature prior to his inauguration, and one last time, on April 29, 1865. From 9:30 a.m. until 4 p.m., Lincoln’s body lay in state in the Rotunda as 50,000 mourners filed through the Statehouse to pay their respects.
The Ohio Bicentennial Commission, Capital Square Review and Advisory Baord, and The Ohio Historical Society.
Civil War - Tod Barracks
Civil War
Marker Text: Tod Barracks, 1863
Side 1:
One of five Civil War military posts in Columbus, Tod Barracks, named in honor of Governor David Tod, was built in 1863 as the headquarters for military administration in central Ohio. Necessitated by Lincoln’s call for 300,000 new troops, the post was constructed in two months with United States Engineer, Captain John Tod, as supervisor. Carpenters of the 88th Ohio Volunteer Infantry from Camp Chase, three miles west, built it. Tod Barracks served as a recruiting depot, a rendezvous point for new recruits, and place where soldiers mustered-out after the war. Located adjacent to Columbus’ Union Station, the post also served as a transfer point for soldiers and officers traveling through Ohio.
Side 2:
Tod Barracks’ main administration building faced High Street; an arched entrance opened to a parade ground flanked by six barracks that quartered up to 5,000 enlisted soldiers. In addition, there was a guardhouse, two mess halls, small hospital, sutler’s store, and officers’ quarters and offices. The installation occupied almost nine acres and was surrounded by a twelve-foot high board fence. During the war, adjacent Goodale Park served as a campground for mobilizing regiments that could not be quartered at the barracks. Tod Barracks operated through 1866 while the Union army demobilized. The last remnant was torn down in 1911.
2003
The Ohio Bicentennial Commission, the Hadler and Peppe Families, the Greater Columbus Convention Center, and The Ohio Historical Society.
Location: High and Goodale Streets
Crime in 1929
City Reports