Camp Chase

Camp Chase
Company type	Military camp
Industry	Military training and prisoner-of-war camp
Founded	May 1861; 165 years ago
Fate	Decommissioned and dismantled after the Civil War
Headquarters	Columbus, United States

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article Camp Chase, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 7 August 2025

Camp Chase was established in May 1861 in Columbus, Ohio as a military staging and training facility soon after the onset of the American Civil War. During the conflict, it also functioned as a major Union-operated Prisoner-of-war camp housing Confederate captives.

After the war concluded, the camp was decommissioned and dismantled. Today, the area has been redeveloped for both residential and commercial use, with the exception of the Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery, which holds 2,260 graves belonging to Confederate prisoners who died at Camp Chase and Camp Dennison near Cincinnati. Situated within what is now the Hilltop neighborhood of Columbus, Camp Chase is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.

History

In May 1861, Camp Chase was created as a Civil War training ground and prison camp on land leased by the federal government. It succeeded the smaller Camp Jackson, which Ohio Governor William Dennison Jr. had established for Union volunteers from Ohio. Positioned roughly four miles west of Downtown Columbus, its borders encompassed areas now known as Broad Street, Hague Avenue, Sullivant Avenue, and near Westgate Avenue. The camp was named after Salmon P. Chase, former Ohio Governor and Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury. Throughout its operation, it served multiple roles including a training site, parole center, discharge point, and eventually a prisoner-of-war camp. Nearby Camp Thomas catered to Regular Army troops. Between 1861 and 1865, approximately 150,000 Union soldiers and 25,000 Confederate detainees passed through Camp Chase. By February 1865, inmate numbers exceeded 9,400; over 2,200 Confederate prisoners are interred in the Camp Chase Cemetery. The facility also detained civilians suspected of aiding secessionists and held prominent captives such as Col. Basil W. Duke following Morgan's Raid.

The camp ceased operations in 1865; by 1867 its buildings and materials were transferred to the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Dayton, Ohio—currently recognized as the nation’s largest veterans’ home. William H. Knauss, a former Union soldier, initiated the first memorial service at the cemetery in 1895 and authored a history of the camp in 1906.

The Confederate Soldier Memorial was unveiled in 1902. From 1912 through 1994, annual commemorative events were organized by the United Daughters of the Confederacy at the cemetery; these ceremonies are presently overseen by the Hilltop Historical Society each June.

Prison conditions

Conditions within Camp Chase were substandard. While there was no deliberate starvation policy against prisoners, food rations were often minimal due to Union resource priorities. The camp population peaked around 8,000 inmates in 1863, resulting in severe overcrowding and outbreaks of smallpox along with other illnesses that caused hundreds of fatalities during the winter months of 1863–1864. Comparable hardships were experienced by prisoners on both sides throughout the war, leading to prisoner exchange agreements between Union and Confederate forces involving roughly 10,000 soldiers to reduce suffering.

The Lady in Gray

The Lady in Gray is a well-known ghost story associated with Camp Chase Cemetery. She is described as a young woman wearing gray attire and carrying a white handkerchief. Originating shortly after the Civil War, folklore recounts her wandering among graves searching for a lost lover. Sightings were common for several years before she vanished completely.

Present-day Camp Chase

The area once occupied by Camp Chase, aside from the two-acre Confederate Cemetery, has been transformed into the mixed residential and commercial neighborhood known as Westgate. A cornerstone from the original camp is displayed in front of the Westgate #623 Masonic Temple located in Columbus's Hilltop district. Established during the late 1920s and early 1930s, Camp Chase is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. The Confederate Cemetery falls under the administration of Dayton National Cemetery, which also oversees five other National Cemeteries.

Acts of Vandalism

During a widespread movement to remove Confederate monuments on August 22, 2017, vandals decapitated the statue of a Confederate soldier atop the Camp Chase memorial. While the statue’s head was stolen, the hat remained intact. The individuals responsible were never apprehended. Restoration of the statue was carried out under the supervision of Dayton National Cemetery, and it was returned to its original place in May 2019.

References

Historical Marker #27-25, 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