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 with its main entrance on the National Road and boundaries at present-day Broad Street to the north, Hague Avenue to the east, Sullivant Avenue to the south, and near Westgate Avenue to the west. Named for former Ohio Governor and Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, it served as a training camp for Ohio soldiers, a parole camp, a muster-out post, and a prisoner-of-war camp. From 1861 to 1865, as many as 150,000 Union soldiers and 25,000 Confederate prisoners passed through it, and by February 1865 more than 9,400 men were held at the prison. More than 2,000 Confederates are buried in Camp Chase Cemetery. Four future Presidents, A Johnson, Hayes, Garfield, and McKinley, passed through the camp, and Confederates captured during Morgan's Raid in 1863 included Gen. Basil W. Duke. The camp closed in 1865, and by September 1867 dismantled buildings, usable items, and 450 patients from Tripler Military Hospital in Columbus had been 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. The memorial Arch was dedicated in 1902. From 1912 to 1994, the United Daughters of the Confederacy held annual services, and the Hilltop Historical Society now sponsors the event on the first Sunday in June.

Columbus, Ohio · United States