Camp Chase Cemetery

Camp Chase began as a Union training ground on the western edge of Columbus. During the Civil War it also became a prison for Confederate soldiers and political prisoners. Captives arrived from battles across the South and were held in a camp that struggled to manage fluctuating numbers, disease, and wartime shortages. Those who died were buried nearby. By the end of the war, more than two thousand Confederate prisoners lay in what became the Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery.

The cemetery’s story continued after the prison camp disappeared. Families, former prisoners, Confederate veterans, Southern women’s organizations, Columbus residents, and Union veterans all took part in efforts to care for the graves. Their work unfolded during Reconstruction and the long effort to define what national reunion would mean. The cemetery became a place where remembrance crossed regional lines, though the language used to honor the dead often softened the political cause for which the Confederacy had fought.