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Camp Chase ambrotype

Description:

For many years, this battered ambrotype was the only widely known photograph of Camp Chase. It views the prison compound from the wall, with its sentry platform, that surrounded this part of the camp. The shed-like barracks may have been among the first erected at the camp.

In 1861, the federal government authorized the creation of Camp Chase, which was organized on Sullivant Avenue in Columbus. Camp Chase served as a recruitment camp for Union soldiers as well as a prison for both Southern officers and enlisted men during the course of the Civil War. Following the completion of the prisoner of war camp at Johnson's Island in Lake Erie, Union officials sent most Confederate officers at Camp Chase to this new location, leaving enlisted men at Camp Chase.

Living conditions at Camp Chase were harsh for the Southern prisoners. During the course of the Civil War, over two thousand Confederate prisoners died at Camp Chase. Originally, prison officials had the deceased interred in the Columbus city cemetery. In 1863, the prison established its own cemetery, and the bodies already buried in the Columbus cemetery were re-interred in the prison cemetery.

The ambrotype process is a photographic process invented in the mid-1850s. The process creates a glass negative, which appears as a positive when placed against a black background.

Creator:

Unknown

Creation Date:

ca. 1861-1865

Collection Title:

Ohio Historical Society Antique Photography Collection

Collection Number:

NA

Image Number:

TAH0949

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