Camp Chase(Ohio)

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*Camp Chase saw 25,000 Confederate prisoners come through. Those who are buried there died
of malnutrition, illness, exposure to cold or some combination.



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http://www.dispatch.com/live/conten...rs-wish-camp-chase-were-less-of-a-secret.html


The Columbus Dispatch

Supporters wish Camp Chase were less of a secret

Saturday, June 11, 2011

By Jeb Phillips

The cemetery at 2900 Sullivant Ave. may or may not be haunted by a woman looking for her lost love. Its headstones may or may not be pointed so Yankees can't sit on them.

The Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery always has been surrounded by a bit of mystery - and, the people who love it argue, anonymity. A stone wall hides nearly all of the white markers. Drivers could pass it for years without realizing that 2,260 Rebels are buried there.

"This is a treasure on the West Side," said Joe Briggs, 82, of Upper Arlington, whose family history is intertwined with the cemetery. He said that with the understanding that the treasure remains undiscovered for many.

Briggs and some others would like to bring a little more recognition to the place, 150 years to the month after Camp Chase began accepting its first Confederate prisoners.

The first step is the 116th annual memorial service celebrating the men buried there, scheduled for 3p.m. Sunday.

The Hilltop Historical Society has been in charge of the ceremony for the past 20 years and schedules it near the June 3 birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Camp Chase was officially dedicated on June 20, 1861.

The focus on the Civil War during this sesquicentennial anniversary of its beginning might bring a little attention to the camp, the people who care for it hope. The society expects a crowd of more than 100 people this year.

"I'm getting feedback from all over," said Monty Chase, a Historical Society board member, cemetery tour guide and distant cousin of the cemetery's namesake and Abraham Lincoln's treasury secretary, Salmon P. Chase.

Despite some of the place's tall tales, history books point to real reasons that the camp was important. It once covered 160 acres of what is now the Westgate neighborhood and served as a mustering ground for 150,000 Union troops during the war.

Camp Chase saw 25,000 Confederate prisoners come through. Those who are buried there died of malnutrition, illness, exposure to cold or some combination, the National Parks Service says.

As a cemetery, it's about the size of 11/2 football fields. One of the most enduring stories about the cemetery - a true one - involves a veiled woman who used to decorate the graves. Louisiana Briggs, a Missouri native, moved to Columbus near the end of the Civil War and later married a former Union soldier.

She wanted to honor the dead Confederates, but not bring shame to her husband. So she would cover herself when she brought flowers.

Joe Briggs is her great-grandson. He makes it clear that his great-grandmother is not the woman who is supposed to haunt the cemetery, though stories sometimes confuse the two.

Louisiana Briggs is the flesh-and-blood woman who tried to bring a little attention to the soldiers buried at Camp Chase - just what her great-grandson wants for them now.

Skara Brae,

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