Camp Thomas
Camp Thomas was a United States
Establishment
With the outbreak of the Civil War and the bombardment of
Temporary structures were erected for the new camp's headquarters, as well as the guard room and hospital. Streets were lined out and tents erected as shelters for the incoming new recruits, who began arriving in mid-August. Among the prominent officers at Camp Thomas during the war was Captain William J. Fetterman, who arrived five days after Carrington opened the camp. He would later be killed and his troops massacred by Sioux Indians. Major William Axton Stokes, later a leading Philadelphia attorney, for a period commanded Camp Thomas.
18th U.S. Infantry
For most of the war, Camp Thomas served as the headquarters for the
On 3 November 1861, a
The camp remained active throughout the war as headquarters for the 18th U.S. Infantry, and served as a training base for fresh recruits needed to refill the ranks after significant combat losses at battles such as
Frequent attempts were made to convince the Army to erect more permanent structures than tents and the three canvas-roofed timber buildings, but these were denied. Columbus officials hoped that brick or stone buildings would prove more lasting (and keep the base open after the war); they also wanted a military cemetery established for the dead of the 18th U.S. Infantry. Nothing came of the plans.
Following the Civil War, the camp was decommissioned. By order of the Secretary of War, Camp Thomas was discontinued as a recruiting depot for the Regular Army early in October 1866. Buildings erected for the camp were sold, with some converted to houses in the vicinity of the camp. By 1900 most traces of the camp were essentially gone. The final known (and documented) wooden structure from the camp (that had been used as a barber shop well into the late 20th Century) was razed in the early 1990s.
References
- Johnson, Mark W., That Body of Brave Men: The U.S. Regular Infantry and the Civil War in the West. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81246-0.
- Lee, Alfred E., The History of the City of Columbus, Ohio. Volume II. New York and Chicago: W. W. Munsell & Company, 1892.
Notes
- ^ Johnson, p. 20.
- ^ "Columbus Civil War camps housed soldiers, prisoners". thisweeknews.com.
- ^ Lee, Volume II, p. 133.