Field NotesOhio
Upper Falls in the Old Man's Cave gorge, Hocking Hills, with visitors on the rocks

An independent field guide · 365 places

The field guide to outdoor Ohio

Parks and forests, ancient mounds, caves, waterfalls and back roads, with the story behind each place and where to eat and fuel up nearby.
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  • 117parks & forests
  • 64ancient mounds
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  • 40historic sites
  • 33road trips

Old Man's Cave, Hocking Hills · Photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0

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State parks & forests117 places, with cabins, campsites and trails117 places Waterfalls34 falls, with trail notes34 falls Mounds & earthworks64 ancient sites, from Serpent Mound to Newark64 ancient sites Caves & caverns12 show caverns, recess caves and rock shelters12 caves Lake Erie beaches20 public beaches, Conneaut to Toledo20 beaches Historic sites40 places, from the frontier to the Civil War40 places Road trips33 drives, from the Lincoln Highway to the Morgan Heritage Trail33 drives Oddities19 giants, ghosts and folk-art stops19 roadside stops The Buckeye TrailA 1,444-mile loop, all 26 sections1,444 miles

New to the guide?

Six places to start

One from every corner of the state, each with its full story inside.

01Old Man's CaveHocking Hills · SoutheastA gorge of waterfalls and recess caves where a hermit is said to have lived, with the park's visitor center. 02Great Serpent MoundAdams County · SouthwestA gigantic earthen snake on a hilltop over Ohio Brush Creek, built by a people whose name is still argued over. 03Brandywine FallsCuyahoga Valley · NortheastThe tallest waterfall in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, reached by an easy boardwalk with an accessible upper overlook. 04Marblehead LighthouseMarblehead · Lake ErieThe oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the Great Lakes, lit since 1821, on nine acres of limestone shoreline. 05Zoar VillageTuscarawas County · EasternA well-preserved communal village founded by German separatists in 1817, on the Ohio & Erie Canal. 06Longaberger Basket BuildingNewark · CentralA seven-story office building shaped like a picnic basket, with handles that are heated in winter.

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Lake ErieWest Virginia36 places368 places813 places135 places523 places2321 places2124 places2416 places1613 places134 places418 places182 places217 places1710 places1014 places142 places27 places76 places613 places133 places34 places414 places143 places3Harrison Lake State Park2 places22 places22 places26 places64 places4

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Parks, forests & wildlife areas

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117 parks in 7 regions

Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery

Columbus · Franklin County · Central Ohio
A Union prison camp's cemetery, with more than 2,200 Confederate graves
Civil War prison camp siteNational Register of Historic Places
2900 Sullivant Ave, Columbus Directions →Official source →

The last remnant of a large Civil War prison camp in Columbus, and one of the largest Confederate cemeteries in the North.

Camp
Established in May 1861 and named for Salmon P. Chase; it trained more than 150,000 Union soldiers
Prison
Held Confederate prisoners from June 1861; peak of more than 8,000 in 1863 and about 9,400 by February 1865
Disease
A smallpox epidemic and other illness killed hundreds, especially in the winter of 1863 to 1864
Cemetery
About 2,260 Confederate graves, including men who died at Camp Dennison
Monument
The Confederate Soldier Memorial, dedicated in 1909
Listed
National Register of Historic Places, April 11, 1973

The story

Camp Chase was set up on farmland west of Columbus in May 1861 as a training camp for Ohio's Union volunteers, and more than 150,000 soldiers passed through it, including four future presidents: Andrew Johnson, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield and William McKinley. In June of that year it received its first prisoner, and after Union victories such as Fort Donelson in February 1862 it filled with captured Confederates. Officers were sent to Johnson's Island, and the enlisted men who stayed made up most of the prison.

Conditions were poor and grew worse. An inspector's July 1862 report found 1,000 enlisted men held in leaking, unventilated barracks with bad food. When prisoner exchanges stopped in the summer of 1863 the population passed 8,000, and by February 1865 there were more than 9,400 men in a camp built for a few thousand. Smallpox and other diseases killed hundreds. More than 2,000 Confederates were buried in the prison cemetery by the time the camp closed in 1865, and families later removed 126 of the bodies. The camp was torn down and built over, and only the cemetery, with about 2,260 graves, survives. The men buried there fought for a Confederacy founded to preserve slavery, and the Confederate Soldier Memorial was dedicated in 1909, in the era when such memorials often carried a 'Lost Cause' account that played down slavery as the cause of the war.

Related sites

Visiting information you can trust

Content last reviewed
September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Primary official source
Official page
Location confidence
Verified entrance or visitor center
Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery, 2900 Sullivant Ave, Columbus
Check current conditions
Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets
Tickets or admission info

Prices, hours, closures, campsite availability and trail conditions shown elsewhere on this page are not live — always confirm with the official source before you go.

The Camp That Grew Too Big

In the beginning, Camp Chase was a picnic. Confederate officers captured in 1862 were allowed to wander Columbus, and the camp became a tourist attraction. Then an inspection showed how bad the conditions were, the rules tightened, and the officers were sent to an island in Lake Erie.

By 1864 the camp held ten thousand men in barracks built for a few thousand. The winter brought smallpox. A cemetery had to be started, and when the war ended it held more than two thousand graves.

Behind the legend

The early lax discipline, the 1862 inspector's report, the population numbers and the smallpox outbreak are in the history compiled from the Wikipedia and battlefield-trust accounts of the camp. The number of graves is given as 2,260 or 'more than 2,000', because some men were reburied here from other cemeteries and families removed others after the war. A historical marker states that 99 Confederates from Columbus City Cemetery and Camp Dennison were reburied here.

If you go

Visit the cemetery in daylight, read the markers and the historical panels about the prison, and pay respects quietly.

Visiting

Status
Cemetery open to the public
Managed by
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Hours
The cemetery is open during daylight hours.
Admission
Free.
Phone
See the VA National Cemetery Administration
Please note
A cemetery. Please be respectful.
Address
2900 Sullivant Ave, Columbus, OH 43204
Official information →DirectionsFind trails nearby on AllTrails →

Hours and prices change. Confirm with the site before you go.

Parks nearby

Alum Creek State Park
About 15 miles · A big lake park near Columbus.
Open
Delaware State Park
About 25 miles · A lake and fort-history park north of Columbus.
Open

Details last checked 2026-09-22. Confirm hours and prices before you go.

Know a place that belongs here, or spotted something out of date? Email hello@fieldnotesohio.com.