Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery

The days following the bombardment of Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861, hundreds of Ohio men were headed to Columbus to answer President Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers to end the rebellion in the south. Camp Jackson was created just north of Columbus to process the volunteers. Due to the large numbers of men reporting, it was decided to move the camp away from town.

The location chosen for the new camp was 4 miles west of the then city limits of Columbus, on a tract of land known as 'The Racegrounds'. The camp was boarded on the north by the National Road (US Route 40). Extending south the camp would contain an area of 160 acres. Camp Chase Union Military Camp was established May 27-28, 1861, under the command of General George B McClellan.

The original use of Camp Chase was to be as a recruitment and training center for the Union Army. With the detainment of Southern sympathizers, primarily judges, legislators and mayors from Kentucky and Virginia, a prison area inside the stockade was created. The original prison was designed to hold 250 prisoners and was located in the southeastern corner of the camp. The prison area was increased in size twice to accommodate the prisoners housed there.

The first prisoner brought to Camp Chase arrived June 29, 1861. On July 5, 1861, the first batch of Secessionist captives brought to the prison was a party of 23, mostly wealthy and influential citizens of Virginia. It is interesting to note they were released a few days later. It seems during the early days of the war political prisoners were kept for only a short time.

In February 1862, after the Union's victories over the Confederates at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson on the Tennessee River, a large number of captured Confederate officers and enlisted men were brought as prisoners of war to the Camp Chase prison. With the opening of the Union prisoner of war camp at Johnson's Island on Lake Erie in April 1862, Confederate officers were transferred there and enlisted men were held at Camp Chase.

Captain Samuel Cowan was one of the officers captured after the battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862. He along with the other officers and enlisted men were transferred to Camp Chase prison camp in Columbus, Ohio.

Captain Cowan's duty prior to being captured was as a commissary officer in the Confederate Army. As such it was not uncommon for him to wear civilian clothing instead of a uniform. This fact helped him evade capture during previous run-ins with Union troops.

Soon after his arrival at Camp Chase, Captain Cowan discovered an old friend who was an officer in the Union Army stationed as part of the command of the prison. This officer and his wife visit with the Captain and offered him clothes and money which he accepted. When the orders to transfer him and the remaining officers to Johnson's Island on Lake Erie he took a chance.

While standing in line waiting for the order to move, Captain Cowan held conversation with two of the guards. While talking with them he drew out two five dollar gold pieces and showed them to the guards. He offered each of them one of the gold pieces if they would let him pass out of the lines. The sum of money was too tempting and the guards let him pass. His civilian clothing came in handy as they allowed him to move off without detection. Traveling the 4 miles to Columbus he entered a barber shop got a shave, a shine, and a haircut. After which appeared more like a private citizen than an escaped prisoner.

Captain Cowan was able to catch an east bound train out of Columbus headed to Pittsburgh. While traveling to Pittsburgh, he was inspected closely at least twice by the authorities searching for an escaped prisoner. Upon reaching Pittsburgh he stayed, for a few weeks, with a cousin who lived there. Then he traveled to New York where his uncle had business. Meeting with many old friends in New York he was supplied with money and other needs. Through this network he was able to return to Louisville and eventually to his command in Atlanta.

Initially, Camp Chase was to operate as a way station for prisoner exchanges as the North and South agreed to in July 1862. Prisoners could expect to spend a short time, maybe 90 days in the camp, before being repatriated to the South. When the agreement was mutually abandoned a year later the facility swelled with new prisoners. The length of time a prisoner was held went from about 90 days to 12 to 18 months.

Life in a prisoner of war camp is never pleasant and Camp Chase was no different. One of the degrading aspects the prisoners here had to endure was a paying public taking tours of the camp to view them. In the summer of 1862 actions such as this provoked an investigation from a higher military authority. The practice was stopped in July of that year.

The investigation, conducted by Captain H. M. Lazelle, revealed many disturbing facts.

The prisoners were divided into messes of eighteen men. They were housed in small buildings, twenty feet by fourteen feet and those not shingled tended to leak because of defects in the boards used. The biggest concern was the fact there was little ventilation because the foundations of the buildings rested directly on the ground. Water gathered underneath the floorboards when it rained and remained there.

The inadequate housing condition was aggravated by the fact the prisoners cooked their meals in these small buildings. As a result the prisoners were heated to an insufferable extent by the stove, which no matter the weather, forced them out into the "boiling" sun or rain to avoid the heat.

The food provide to the prisoners tended to be of low quality and quantity. The Union authorities never intentionally starved the prisoners. The primary goal of Northern officials was to feed and equip the men serving in their own army. This commonly resulted in shortages for the prisoners.

After the submission of Captain Lazelle's report a new administration was installed at the camp. Rules were tightened, visitors prohibited, and mail censored. Prisoners were allowed limited amounts of money to supplement supplies with purchases from approved vendors and civilian merchants selling their wares from the backs of their wagons. The latter became restricted when it was discovered they were smuggling liquor to the prisoners.

After the abandonment of the prisoner exchange agreement in July 1863, the Camp Chase population swelled. The camp was designed for 3,500 to 4,000 prisoners, now it was jammed with close to 8,000. The resulting crowded and unhealthy living conditions at the camp would take a heavy toll on the prisoners.

Considering many of the prisoners often arrived debilitated, depressed, and hungry, then adding to that the shoddy barracks, low muddy ground, open latrines and above ground open cisterns opened the camp to a breeding ground for disease. Despite efforts by sincere military and community physicians and nurses, the death rate for Camp Chase prisoners would eventually be 343.2 per 1000 prisoners.

During the winter of 1863-1864, there was an outbreak of smallpox. Hundreds of prisoners died, mainly because they had not been vaccinated against the disease. Other contagious diseases such as streptococcus A, erysipelas (a type of skin infection), scurvy, typhoid fever, pneumonia and some died of being just too weak or infirm to carry on. Malnutrition also added to the death toll either directly or indirectly.

This excited U.S. Sanitary Commission agents who were demanding reform.

Originally, prison officials buried the prisoners who died in a Columbus city cemetery. In 1863, the prison established its own cemetery. The bodies which had been buried in the Columbus cemetery were re-interred in the prison cemetery. Following the war, thirty-one Confederate bodies from Camp Dennison near Cincinnati were moved to the Camp Chase cemetery.

In a report by Col. W. P. Richardson the commander at Camp Chase, a gruesome crime took place in the Camp Chase Cemetery. He reported it on November 26, 1864. His report read as follows:

"On the night of the 24th instant the bodies of six deceased prisoners were stolen from the grave-yard attached to camp where prisoners only are buried. I arrested the perpetrators of this outrage and referred the matter to General Hooker and was by him directed to turn the prisoners and papers over to the prosecuting attorney of this county, which I have done. Respectfully referred to the Commissary-General of Prisoners."

The grave robbers were a Dr. Joab R. Flowers and two other men. They were arrested for stealing the bodies. The bodies were to be taken to the Cleveland Medical College and used as dissection material.

The deceased prisoners were:

Grave # 507 Hensley, A. S. Co. B, 45th VA CAV, d. Nov. 23, 1864. Removed!
Grave # 508 Hook, Curtis, Co. D [Bullard Guards], 59th GA Inf.; d. Nov. 24, 1864. Removed!
Grave # 510, Lester/Luster, J(ohn). W; Co. A, 33 TN Inf.; d. Nov. 24, 1864; Removed!
Grave # 511 Lindley, Jonathan P., 1st Conf. Cav.; d. Nov. 24, 1864; Removed!
Grave # 512, Stephens, T. J., Co. B, 16th LA Inf; d. Nov. 24, 1864; Removed!
Grave # 513, Blund, Hiram, Co. I, 1st GA Inf; d. Nov. 24, 1864; Removed!

Hiram Blund however turned out to be Hiram Bland. And Curtis Hook's body was returned to his grave when the grave robbers were caught. The other five soldiers' bodies were never returned and today not only are their bodies missing but their markers as well.

Nothing was ever done to the grave robbers as they never stood trail. But after Thanksgiving night they returned to easier graveyards to rob.

On July 5, 1865, the Camp Chase Prison Commandant notified the United States War Department that Camp Chase was free of prisoners. All available equipment, along with remaining ill soldiers, were transferred to Dayton, Ohio where the Veteran's Affairs Department is still in existence.

The years following the War saw the removal of the Camp Chase stockade and buildings. The land was parceled off and sold to various farmers. In 1905 most of the farmers and their families had either died or moved on. The land was sold to real estate developers and subdivided for housing. The cemetery remained, surrounded by its stone wall, yet it was falling into disrepair and overgrowing vegetation.

In 1868, William H. Knauss, a former Colonel in the Union Army and wounded at Fredericksburg, went to North Carolina and Virginia on business. While there he came to know the ex-Confederate soldier who was acting as his guide. They soon determined they both had been wounded during the battle of Fredericksburg. A friendship was formed, and both agreed to return to their homes determined to assist the comrades of the other, as best they could.

When Mr. Knauss came to Columbus in 1893, he learned of the Confederate cemetery on the west side of the city where over 2000 Confederate soldiers had died while imprisoned at Camp Chase. He discovered the burial place was in very bad condition. The gates and gateposts had crumbled; the grounds were overrun with vegetation and animals. Mr. Knauss arranged with Mr. Henry Briggs, owner of a farm opposite of the cemetery, to be caretaker for the sum of $25 per year; in the spring a few friends distributed some flowers about the place.

In 1895, Mr. Knauss planned a small memorial service. The trees were trimmed, the gates and gateposts reset, and the brush once again cleared. Three days before the planned service, all participants backed out, fearing reprisals from friends.

In 1896 and 1897 a more favorable atmosphere prevailed. Almost 1,500 people attended the 1897 service. In 1902, the annual Memorial Service was turned over to the local chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy. In 1995, on the 100th Anniversary of the services, the Hilltop Historical Society assumed organization of the memorial services. Memorial services have been held at the cemetery every year since 1896 and are held on the second Sunday in June. Services begin at 3:00 PM.

On June 7, 1902 a memorial arch of rough hewn granite blocks was unveiled at the cemetery. The arch was erected and paid for through public donations. This arch is topped by a bronze statue of a Confederate private soldier who now stands guard over the graves. It spans a huge boulder, a landmark of the cemetery, bearing the inscription: "2260 Confederate Soldiers of the War 1861 - 1865 Buried in this Enclosure." A single word is carved into the stone arch under the soldier's feet: "AMERICANS."

Headstones for the deceased originally were pretty much nonexistent. Some of the single graves were marked with names carved or painted on boards, but not many. It took an act of Congress in 1906 for the white marble headstones to be erected at all graves in the Cemetery. The headstones are placed in numerical order beginning on the west side of the cemetery. It is impossible to determine if there is a body to match each headstone; hence disinterment is not allowed.

The headstones at the Camp Chase Cemetery have a unique shape for military headstones. Normally a white marble military style headstone is rounded on the top. The headstones used for marking Confederate graves are pointed. Rumor has it this design was done on purpose "so those Northern folk won't sit on them."

There is reportedly a Lady in Gray, an apparition, which haunts the Camp Chase Cemetery. The story goes she is looking for her lost love and cannot find him in the cemetery. The woman is described as young, in her late teens or early twenties, dressed entirely in gray, and carrying a clean white handkerchief.

The legend of the Lady in Gray dates back to just after the Civil War, when visitors to Camp Chase spotted the woman walking through the cemetery, trying to read the carved names on the marked grave markers. She was seen quite often for several years, before disappearing completely.

Lady in Gray is often seen standing over two graves in particular: that of the Unknown Soldier and the one belonging to Benjamin F. Allen, a member of the 50th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, Company D. There is very little known about Benjamin Allen's time at Camp Chase or how he died. Occasionally, after the Lady is spotted at these graves, flowers appear lying next to the tombstones.

During a Civil War reenactment near the cemetery in 1988, many people reported hearing the mournful weeping of a woman. The sound continued for a minute or two, but no source for it was ever found. It is believed that the sobbing came from the mysterious "Lady in Gray."