Then and now · 2026-10-20
This Columbus neighborhood was a Civil War prison camp
You asked about Westgate. Much of it sits on Camp Chase, the Civil War camp the U.S. government opened in May 1861 four miles west of Columbus. As many as 150,000 Union soldiers trained there and up to 25,000 Confederate prisoners passed through. By September 1867 it had been dismantled; the 1872 county atlas shows only the "Rebel G. Yd." That year a group of Quakers bought 463.5 acres here, and in 1923 the first six houses of the new subdivision went up on Binns Boulevard. Westgate Park sits just west of the old camp line. The Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery on Sullivant Avenue holds 2,260 graves. The orange outline is approximate, drawn from the streets historians give as the camp's edges.
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Sources:
- Camp Chase: May 1861-1865, dismantled by Sept. 1867; as many as 150,000 Union soldiers and 25,000 Confederate prisoners; 2,260 graves; bounds Broad St, Hague Ave, Sullivant Ave and near Westgate Ave (Wikipedia, Camp Chase)
- Westgate: Quakers bought 463.5 acres on Jan. 23, 1872; laid out 1923, first six houses on Binns Boulevard; Westgate Park 46.3 acres (Wikipedia, Westgate)
- 1872: Caldwell's atlas of Franklin County, Franklin Township (public domain, Wikimedia Commons)
- Photo, 1909: Photo from Centennial History of Columbus and Franklin County (1909), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Photo, 2021: MikePyatt, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Cracked Buckeye, "This Columbus neighborhood was a Civil War prison camp", https://crackedbuckeye.com/videos/this-columbus-neighborhood-was-a-civil-war-prison-camp/, built 2026-10-31, accessed [date].
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