Field Notes Ohio

Ohio's parks, forests and wildlife areas with camping, the ancient mounds beside them, and the Buckeye Trail that links them. Stories, trails, wildlife, and where to eat and fuel up nearby. Book campsites on ReserveOhio.
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The Buckeye TrailA 1,444-mile blue-blazed loop around Ohio, with all 26 sections.
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Mounds & Earthworks43 ancient sites, including the Great Serpent Mound and the Newark Earthworks.
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Historic Sites39 places, from Fort Steuben and Zoar to Camp Chase and the Rankin House, from the frontier to the Civil War.
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Road Trips33 drives, from the Lincoln Highway to the Morgan Heritage Trail.
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Lake Erie Beaches20 public beaches from Conneaut to Toledo and the islands, with a map.
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Oddities & Roadside Attractions19 giants, ghosts and folk-art stops, plus a Mothman just over the line.
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Caves & Caverns12 show caverns, recess caves and rock shelters, with a map.
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Waterfalls34 falls from the Cuyahoga Valley to the Hocking Hills, with trail notes and a map.
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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

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 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

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.