Camp Chase

Camp Chase was an American Civil War training and prison camp established in May 1861, on land leased by the U.S. Government. The Confederate Soldier Memorial was dedicated in 1902. From 1912 to 1994, the United Daughters of the Confederacy held annual services to commemorate Confederate soldiers who had been held and died there. The Hilltop Historical Society now sponsors the event on the second Sunday in June. == Prison conditions ==

The living conditions at Camp Chase were inadequate for a number of reasons. The prisoners were never intentionally starved, but because the Union army focused on feeding its own soldiers first it often left the prisoners with little to no food. The largest number of soldiers and officers held at Camp Chase at a single time was in 1863 when the prison camp held around 8,000 men. == The Lady in Gray ==

The Lady in Gray is purportedly an apparition that haunts Camp Chase Cemetery. The story goes that the ghost 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. == Camp Chase today ==

Aside from the two-acre Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery, the land that formerly housed Camp Chase has been redeveloped as a residential and commercial area known as Westgate. A corner stone to the camp is located in front of the Westgate #623 Masonic Temple, in a community in the Hilltop section of west Columbus. This development was built in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Camp Chase is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery is managed along with five National Cemeteries by the Dayton National Cemetery. == Vandalism ==

On August 22, 2017, part of a chain of removal of Confederate monuments and memorials, the statue of a Confederate soldier on top of the camp memorial was pushed off the arch and in the process had its head broken off. The vandals were never found. They stole the head of the Confederate statue but not the hat. The statue has been repaired under the auspices of the Dayton National Cemetery and was re-installed in May 2019. ==Photos==

File:Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio. Prison of the rebels captured by U. S. forces. LCCN2007675765 (cropped).jpg|Camp Chase File:Camp chase 2.jpg|The Confederate Soldier Memorial before vandals broke off the statue at the top in 2017 File:Camp Chase, Colombus, OH, US (13).jpg|The memorial after vandals broke off the statue in 2017 File:Camp_Chase,_Colombus,_OH,_US_(08).jpg|Gravestones and the main memorial File:Camp_Chase,_Colombus,_OH,_US_(04).jpg|Text of the carved stone == See also ==