USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > The story of Camp Chase; a history of the prison and its cemetery, together with other cemeteries where Confederate prisoners are buried, etc > Part 3
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The land was leased by the government during the war and continued to April 23, 1879, when it was bought by the govern- ment and described as the Confederate cemetery formerly occu- pied by the Camp Chase rebel prison. At the close of the war the barracks were torn down and the old lumber used to build a fence around the cemetery.
There was a wooden headboard with name and number of company, State, and date of burial inscribed, placed at each grave. Subsequently the government replaced this with a substantial plank, with the same inscription, but in a few years all decayed. Eventually, because of neglect, the ground became a bramble patch.
When Ex-President Hayes was Governor, Mr. Henry Briggs, a farmer in the neighborhood, was employed to clean up and take care of the cemetery and to be paid $25 per year out of the contingent fund. This was continued until Mr. Bishop was elected Governor. when he ordered it stopped. The place became a wild waste again until Hon. J. B. Foraker became Governor. He then caused Adjt. Gen. Axline to correspond with the general government and explain the condition it was in and the disgrace it was to the State, urging that it be given attention. The action resulted in an appropriation sufficient to build a substantial stone wall around Camp Chase Cemetery and an iron fence around the Confederate burial ground at Johnson's Island.
A large bowlder was procured and bears the inscription : "2,260 Confederate soldiers of the war 1861-65 buried in this inclosure."
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THE STORY OF CAMP CHASE.
There were from Virginia, 337; Kentucky, 158; Tennessee, 239; Alabama, 431 ; Texas, 22; Georgia, 265; South Carolina, 85; North Carolina, 85; Arkansas, 25; Mississippi, 202; Florida, 62; Maryland, 9; Missouri, 8; Louisiana, 52; and unknown, about
HON. J. B. FORAKER.
280. Of these, 135 were buried in the City Cemetery, southeast of Columbus, and afterwards removed to this inclosure.
At Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati, there are buried 116 Con- federate soldiers-from Alabama, 7; Arkansas, 2; Mississippi, 4: Texas, 5; Louisiana, II ; Tennessee, I ; and unknown. 36. Many of these were taken home by their people, and the others were brought to Camp Chase.
At Johnson's Island there are buried 206 Confederate soldiers-
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CARING FOR THE GRAVES-1897.
from Alabama, 19; Arkansas, 16; Virginia, 20; Georgia, 12; North Carolina, 17; Louisiana, 3; Mississippi, 16; Tennessee, 20; Missouri, 5 ; Kentucky, 7; South Carolina, 4; Florida, 5; Choctaw Cavalry, 3; John Dow, from Pulaski, Ohio, a citizen; and un- known, 57-making a grand total in Ohio of two thousand five hundred and eighty-two.
With the work last year you are all familiar ; the newspapers gave us credit as Americans doing honor to our great country. I would like for you to read some of the many letters received from the friends and relatives of those buried here. I will give a few extracts from a letter received from Gen. George Moorman, of New Orleans, La., Adjutant General of the Confederate or- ganization :
It will be a revelation to many, and will come in the nature of a surprise and benediction, that, while kindred and loved ones are scattering flowers over the graves of their dead on Southern soils, strangers-aye, our former foes-are decorating with spring's choicest flowers the graves of our known and unknown dead who sleep upon Northern soil, so far from home and kin- dred, but who, as you justly say, will always live in history as patriots. God bless you and Gov. J. B. Foraker and Mr. Henry Briggs, and all honor to the memory of Ex-President Hayes, for the noble Christian spirit you have displayed in the preserva -- tion of these neglected graves of the dead from every Southern State !
All that was said that day cannot be reproduced, but the story of the occasion would not be complete if passages from the ad- dresses of Colonel Young and Judge Pugh were omitted. Colonel Young said :
We are gathered this afternoon to contemplate one of the sequences to the happenings of that crucial period in human history. I should be wanting in a conception of the proprieties of this occasion if any reference were made to the cause of that great struggle upon which the people of the North and South entered at that hour. These braves over which you are here to scatter these beautiful flowers-heaven's sweet messengers-are peaceful but eloquent witnesses of the awful sacrifice the war entailed. The struggle lasted fifteen hundred days, the deaths from all causes averaged three hundred every twenty-four hours.
In the South, whence these dead warriors came, there were no exempted communities and but few unstricken households, and the tidings from the front came freighted with woe and sadness. Every breeze that sighed in the trees was a requiem for some
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THE STORY OF CAMP CHASE ..
one's dead, and every rustle of the wind among the pines was a mourning song for that Southern land. If we had some quantity by which we could measure grief, or figures by which we could calculate the worth of sobs or the value of woman's tears, what
COL. BENNETT H. YOUNG.
countless treasures the people of America could lay aside as the possession of those who bore the trial of the war of the sixties !
The scene which we witness here to-day in the great State of Ohio, which also made tremendous sacrifice in the war and gave much of its best and noblest blood to maintain the Federal cause, has but few parallels in the history of the world. It is
-
!
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CARING FOR THE GRAVES-1897.
nearly thirty-four years since, as a prisoner of war, I was con- fined in Camp Chase, and at the moment I recall with vivid recollection the surroundings where several hundred Confed- erates were summoned from the inclosure for transportation to Camp Douglas, at Chicago.
We had come in a few months to realize some of the most dis- tressing phases of war. The excitement, commotion, and the din of a great war then encompassed the city on every side, and the uppermost thought in every mind was the prosecution of hostili- ties and the enforcement of Southern submission.
.
That great contest, the most stupendous the world ever saw, is ended. There are none but freemen in this great land. The shackles of the slaves have been broken, and the principles for which the Federal army fought have prevailed. But though Federal armies triumphed and the doctrines maintained by the North have become the accepted law of the land, yet the mag- nanimity and the humanity of a few people remain untouched and undimmed, and I defy human history to produce a record of an event similar to this.
Surely there can be no higher testimonial to republican insti- tutions or to the breadth and nobleness of American manhood and womanhood than that I, as one who fought those you loved and sent to do battle for your cause, should on this beauti- ful afternoon find you decorating the graves of those who op- posed you and listening to the kindly words which I speak at the sepulchers of departed comrades.
It would be untrue to the great Confederate host whom I represent if there were expressions of sorrow or regret for the loyalty and faithfulness of the Southern people to their section in that conflict; but it would be equally untrue to the highest sentiments of a brave and chivalrous people if I did not with the most grateful words and with the highest admiration and profoundest gratitude offer sincerest praise and unmeasured thankfulness for such magnanimity to the Southern dead.
They made the costliest sacrifice man can make for any cause, and the mournful fact that few who loved them have come to weep at their sepulchers or place fresh flowers on their graves pleads with irresistible eloquence the generosity of those with- in whose gates they died and so sadly found a place of burial. Somewhere in the stricken land whence they came loving hearts mourn their loss. There are vacant chairs that will never be filled, there are firesides which will never be the same. because these warriors never will return, and there are those who will love on in silence and in tears until the end.
The mothers who mourn these sons here buried in your midst, the sisters who weep for the return of brothers who here went down to the oblivion of unknown sepulcher, and all who long for the sight of vanished forms and the sounds of silenced
?
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THE STORY OF CAMP CHASE.
voices, which found the end in these Confederate graves, will rise up and call you blessed, and somewhere in the register of heaven there will be a place to record the graciousness and mercifulness of these unselfish and benignant acts.
At the conclusion of his oration Colonel Young unfolded a faded gray jacket and recited two verses of the touching poem,
JUDGE DAVID F. PUGH.
"The Jacket of Gray," and when he had finished the entire audi- ence broke forth in one great shout.
Space forbids and the reader would doubtless weary if all the speeches of all the years were reproduced in this volume, so it is that only portions of even such excellent addresses as those of Colonel Young and Judge Pugh are given.
Judge Pugh on this occasion said :
The poverty of human language is such that the heroism of
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CARING FOR THE GRAVES-1897.
both Union and Confederate soldiers cannot be described. They fought honorably and died honorably. These men whose graves are being decorated were not victors : their cause failed, but their failure was a priceless blessing to both South and North. Both Blue and Gray can clasp hands and rejoice over that common victory.
The whole land was made to blush with blood and was drenched with tears; peace, happiness, and joy fled from thou- sands of firesides : the land was filled with cripples; the wail of the orphans crying to heaven and the moans of the widows saddening the earth were over all the land.
These were the immediate results of the war. But, in obedi- ence to the great law of compensation, labor was emancipated, our prosperous activities quickened and deepened, the energy and skill which had been used in destructive war were turned into peaceful and constructive industries, making a splendor of national progress which was unparalleled. It is doubtful if the four years of blood and unspeakable anguish were not, after all, more noble and glorious than have been the thirty succeeding years of peace.
It is honorable to come here and decorate the graves of these men. It is convincing evidence that the Union in its sublimest significance is established when such events as this occur.
Carrying two wounds made by Confederate bullets, I am perfectly willing that their graves may be decorated, and even to participate in it when their survivors are not numerous enough to do it. I am willing to admit that their heroism is a part of our national heritage. I am willing that their survivors or ad- mirers may erect monuments to perpetuate their memories. I am willing that their surviving comrades may be elected to as high an office as Vice President of the United States. I am will- ing on proper occasions to meet with them and celebrate the valor of both the Blue and the Gray. I am willing to join in prayer to our Heavenly Father that he will watch over and bless the veterans of both armies. This sort of fraternal forbearance and generosity is. in my humble judgment, one of the surest guarantees of stability for the future of our common country.
Mayor Black spoke briefly and recited the poem entitled "The Blue and the Gray."
Chaplain DeBruin pronounced the benediction, and the second memorial service or Confederate Decoration Day at Camp Chase was near the end and but little else was said.
The voice of an officer dressed in blue was heard to say: "Ready! Aim! Fire!" Captain Bidwell's company of the Fourteenth Infantry, Ohio National Guard, firing the salute.
2
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THE STORY OF CAMP CHASE.
(Later, when the war with Spain came, this company went with its regiment to the front, and there and since has been known as the Fourth Ohio.) Then, when the sun was low, there came pealing forth that most plaintive call on bugle: "Lights out!" Long ere this the South knew what had been done the year before; and as the crowd left, the odor of Southern flowers fol- lowed them as blessings follow righteous deeds.
That the letters received in response to notices sent to Confed- erate camps by direction of General Gordon may be fully under- stood I will state that I believed that the veterans of the Confed- eracy, with hearts as liberal as they were brave, might wish to aid in this work, and through Adjutant General Moorman the matter was explained to the various Camps, and the responses showed the unanimity of sentiment which prevailed throughout the South.
From the letters received each year it will be seen that the ex- Confederate has not ceased to remember that his Northern friends wished to pay loving tribute to his comrades so long - asleep.
The statement of receipts and expenditures for 1897 shows thirty-two Camps and individuals responding, and the list of ex- penses shows that they responded to some purpose. Amount re- ceived, $142.50 ; amount expended, $145.30.
In a great scrapbook all the letters received are filed, and when this story has been told they will be there-there to remain until the work is done and the laborer has gone to his rest. All item- ized receipts and expenses were sent to George Moorman, Adju- tant General of the United Confederate Veterans, and The Con- federate Veteran, published at Nashville, Tenn.
CHAPTER III.
THE INTEREST GROWING-1898.
Again Orators of the North and the South Pay Tribute to the Silent Dead-Patriotic Lessons Taught-The Confederate Glee Club from Louisville Is Present-Colonel Young, Captain Leathers, and Mr. Os- borne the Southern Speakers, Captain G. H. Bargar Representing the North-Letter from a Texas Veteran-A Lady from Atlanta Writes Encouragingly-"You Will Be Gratefully Remembered by Us; Yours for America on Land or Sea."
Welcome.
Here's to the Veterans of the South. They fought, it is true, in gray ; But the heart goes out in the word of mouth To greet them in love to-day.
The strife is ended, and now we stand, United in love's sweet thrall ; And we look aloft, as the hand clasps hand, To the one flag over us all. -Columbus Dispatch.
ON Saturday, June 4, 1898, there was held the annual decora- tion service at Camp Chase Cemetery. Col. Bennett H. Young came again and was most heartily welcomed by both Blue and Gray. Those who had heard his eloquent and patriotic address the year before wished to hear the music of his voice again.
Ex-Gov. Robert Taylor, of Tennessee, came also and delivered a most feeling address. With Colonel Young came the Confed- erate Glee Club of Louisville, Ky., which organization attracted a great deal of attention both from the public and the press. Capt. John H. Leathers, of Louisville, was also present, and spoke with great earnestness and feeling.
The chief addresses were by Colonel Young, of Louisville, and Capt. Gilbert H. Bargar, of Columbus. Each of these gentlemen fought in the war of 1861-65, Colonel Young with the South and Captain Barger on the side of the North.
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PREPARING FOR DECORATION SERVICE, CAMP CHASE, 1898.
DECORATION SERVICE, CAMP CHASE, 1898. SHOWING GLEE CLUB FROM LOUISVILLE, KY., TO LEFT OF BOWLDER.
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THE STORY OF CAMP CHASE.
Only one sentiment prevailed through the entire occasion-the dead were honored as men who fought bravely, and by Americans was their bravery recognized. In recording the events of that occasion it is fitting to quote from the Press-Post of June 5 the sentiments uttered so happily in keeping with the day:
There may be found within the pages of fiction a more thrilling scene than that witnessed at Camp Chase yesterday afternoon when the veterans who wore the blue stood side by side with the veterans who wore the gray, and strewed flowers upon the graves of the unknown dead buried at Camp Chase, yet in reality such another beautiful picture will hardly ever be wit- nessed.
To those who stood by the graves of the known and unknown Southern dead, and saw the battle-scarred soldier of the North slowly and reverentially advance to the little green-covered mounds and tenderly lay upon them garlands of roses or fresh and fragrant cut flowers, there was a lesson engraved upon their minds that the ravages of time can never erase. It was the act of a hero to the memory of a fallen and defeated foe ; an acknowl- edgment to his Southern brother, whom he respected for his con- victions and honored for the bravery he displayed in offering his life for what he considered was right.
From the sunny Southland came the men who had fought while wearing the gray and against the glorious old flag to lay upon the silent sepulcher of their fallen brother and comrade a token of remembrance in the shape of a floral offering and live over in memory the terrible scenes of war and conflict through which they had passed side by side with those who fell on Northern soil, and whose ashes repose in Northern dust far from the land they loved.
Soldiers, your brothers in arms and kindred by birth, it is true, rest far from home; but their graves are not neglected, nor are they permitted to go unwatched and unattended. The men of the North were your foemen during the dark days of war. when brother was arrayed against brother and father did battle against son; but all feeling of animosity and revenge has long since been buried, and to-day they are your brothers in all that sacred name implies, and as years roll by and seasons come and go the little green mounds in Camp Chase, where your dead are sleeping their last long and eternal sleep, will each year be dec- orated by the hands of the children of the men who fought your dead in honorable warfare. The graves of your loved ones are in the keeping of men and women of the North whose pleasure it will be to each year visit their lonely and narrow habitations and, as the song birds sing their carols from the treetops, deposit on those graves flowers pure and sweet, and tenderly care for them.
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THE INTEREST GROWING-1898.
To those who journeyed from the South to be present at the beautiful ceremonies held at Camp Chase no words are necessary to remind them of the lesson taught by the single act of strewing the graves with flowers. They are silent witnesses to the act declaring that in the Northern breast there remains no sectional hatred; that all grievances of the past were buried in the graves of the heroes whose little cells were covered with flowers, and that no more shall there be heard, North or South, that this is a divided country. It was a symbol that there is no North or South, but that we are all a united and solid country now and forever.
With what feelings of pride and gratification must those people of the South have turned from the graves of the Southern dead. realizing that their loved ones were in the tender care of friends and that hands which at one time were hostile to them will each year cover these lowly mounds with nature's offerings and moisten the gift with a tear. Such scenes as that witnessed yes- terday are the little oases in the desert of life, and serve to make all happier and more content.
The Columbus Dispatch on that occasion said :
The taking part in the exercises, not alone in Columbus, but in all places where there are buried Confederate soldiers, by the boys in blue is not considered by either the Blue or the Gray as the sacrificing of thought or conviction as to the issues of the war.
By recognizing in this manner the bravery of the dead, they gladden the heart of many a Southern man or woman who knew and loved these men in life. Such deeds knit closer the bonds of unity between the North and the South. Particularly at this time is the act of to-day significant, when the boys of the North- land and the Southland are standing shoulder to shoulder under one flag fighting for a common cause. Think of it a moment- Michigan and Georgia in the same brigade; Illinois and Florida in another; a Confederate General commanding a corps and the boys from the North envious of those so fortunate as to be in his command. The whirligig of time works wonders which are hard to understand, but in this day and age the fights are all toward harmony and peace; the soldiers of the two sections long ago learned that the war is over, and the exhibition of to-day was only a manifestation of that return of peace at which all the world wonders.
Thus it will be seen that papers differing politically were pleased to express upon one subject the same sentiments. In no other land could this happen-and if we linger long over these scenes, who but a soured pessimist can complain, so full of peace and
:
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THE STORY OF CAMP CHASE.
ยท joy were they-and to-day these scenes and memories, to an Amer- ican who loves his country, are inexpressibly beautiful. Without hindrance of nature or fault of man the programme was carried out as planned, and, as was the case the year before, the entire event was interesting.
At two o'clock the Chairman called the assembly to order and in concluding his remarks said: "We may shout, 'Blow, bugler, blow!' but the shrillest note can never, no never, again call the matchless armies of Lee and Grant to carnivals of death."
The programme proceeded as follows: Song, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," by the Confederate Glee Club of Louisville, Ky .; prayer by Rev. John Hewett, an ex-Confederate, pastor of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Columbus, Ohio. This prayer, rich in its tenderness, was as follows:
O God, who art everywhere and over all, the same yesterday and to-day and forever ; the Creator of all nations, the Father of all families, and the Friend of all enemies; as we stand by the graves of soldier brothers we lift up our souls to Thee and invoke Thy spirit of love to direct and rule our hearts.
Remembering Thy great goodness to us as a nation, we repent of the sins of former days which brought us in fratricidal strife. We forget the heat of anger which raged in the hearts of men of a common blood in a common country and threatened our na- tional ruin, and here in the presence of the living and the dead we lift our minds in united prayer and thanksgiving to our com- mon Father and God.
Beneath the shadow of years that are past we behold to bless the outstretched hand of a power divine bestowing love for the healing of our nation's wounds, causing the Blue and the Gray to blend in harmony with a will divine in loyalty to a common flag.
O God, we thank Thee for this revelation of national unity and human fraternity which Thou hast made, and we pray Thee to give it the quality of permanence; and in token of the sin- cerity of our gratitude we here clasp hands over the graves of our American brothers and dedicate ourselves anew to the service of Thee, our common Father, and of this, our common country. Let this occasion be, indeed, a true Mohanisni-a place of the meeting of two hosts ; not merely of two hosts-the living and the dead-but of two hosts that once were enemies, but now are friends, whose spirit now as one beholds the face of our Father which is in heaven. Having come here as a representative of the Blue and the Gray to strew flowers upon these graves in lov- ing memory of those who counted not their lives dear unto them-
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THE INTEREST GROWING-1898.
selves in the defense of disputed rights, may the varied and min- gled fragrance which these flowers shed abroad ascend to heaven as the incense of the fraternal feeling which fills our breasts and claim a blessing for our united country! In the far- away homes from which our brothers came to find their graves here lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance, and.let the peace of God which passeth all understanding settle and gladden the souls whose longing eyes look for the day when there shall be a restitution of all things and a union of hearts and of lives which neither war nor death can ever dissolve.
O Thou who maketh men to be of one mind in a house, put far away from us all pride and prejudice and all causes of dissen- sion and discord, that our land may bring forth that increase of truth and justice whereby all nations of men shall be made to live. To all who sigh for freedom grant that we may be the instrument in Thy hands for the fulfillment of their desires now on this earth and hereafter in the new and permanent glory of heaven.
Hear our united prayers also in behalf of our soldier brothers, North and South, who in the service of our country and in the cause of humanity and freedom go forth against the enemies of both. Give them faith, courage, and endurance, patience, gentle- ness, and obedience. Preserve them in the midst of the tempta- tions of the camp and of the field, from the perils of the ocean and of the land, from the pestilence that walketh in darkness and the sickness that destroyeth in the noonday. Keep them under the shadow of Thy wing and restore them to their homes in - safety. And so such as may fall in battle or by sickness do Thou, O Lord, graciously grant the preparation of repentance unto eternal life, where the flowers of love are forever strewn and never fade or change; through the infinite love and merits of the Saviour of all men, and unto Thee shall be the praise forever and ever. Amen.
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