Camp Chase and the Evolution of Union Prison Policy by Roger Pickenpaugh (review)

BOOK RE VIE\ VA Frontier Indiana ( 1996) and Ii : Frontier Rep? iblk:Ideology and Politic,in tbe Ohio Country, 17, YO1 ,%' 25 ( 1986). I lowever, Owens. unlike most biographers, does not seem fond of his subject. Harrison comes across as petty, selfserving , and even whining" ( 198). lat lack of admiration or affecti( in flir his subject makes the book less read:ible th:in it might have hcell. Elizabeth Oliver Lee West Virginia Universitv Roger Pickenpaugh. Camp Chase and tbe E' vollifion of Union Priso, 1 1} olicy, Tuscaloos:i: IJniversity of Alah,inia Press, 2007. 175 pp. ISBN: 978081731582 cloth), 535.00. The outbreak of the Civil U/ ar caitght the federal , 4 vertinient unprepared to feed, house, · and supply the tliousands of men it would soc) n have on its hands as solCamt ) Chase AND,Mf f, OW,! 01,S OFUNIOMPe$ 0MPOUc diers or enciny prisoncrs . ln Camp Chase and tbe E· uolution of Union Prison Po/ iry, R oger Pickenpaugh provides a narrative history of one of the camps pressed into service to nieet this need,revealing that fedcral prisolicreainp policy was a reaction to events rather than a result of planning. Until the last year ofthe war,the history of Camp Chase was onc of improvisaticin ;ind administrative tzirbulence. Camp Chase, located in central Ohio about four miles west of Columbus,did not start out ; Is a prison camp. It w.s established as a training camp to deal with the new regiments that flooded into Columbus after Fort Sumter and promptly iwerflowed city parks ·, itid tlic state c·, ipiti)1. Soon . 2 few prisoners started to arrive. these early inmates were a mix of pcilitical prisoners, border state residents arrested forsecessionist sympathies, and genuine Confederate mildiers. Camp Chase emerged as a major prison c# Inp early in 1862 when the capture of Fort Donclsin left the Union scrambling to find places to put the prisoners . Tlie number of Confederates held at C:imp Clinse fel]after tile two sides signed In exchange cartel iii July 1862, but the camp then g, Kined anotlier role as a base for returning Union parolecs. Union authorities believed that the practice of allowhig 11·,iri,led soldiers to return home while aw· aiting exchange encouraged men to surrender · as a way of getting a furlough, so they instead sent parolees to await their exchange in militan· camps. Ihere they were treated with c, illozi:neglect. I,iny simply absconded to their homes until they were exchanged. ' Ihose wlic, remained % itin bec. zine unmanageable. Ilic collapse of the exchange cartel iii the summer of 1863 gradually cnded Camp Chase's supply ofparolecs. But it increased tlic number of Contciler ·: itc prisoners : inii the time they were held. Conditions fur the prisoners got wcirsc after Julie 1864 when the War Department ordered that prisoners' rations be reduced by 20 percent t<, retaliate for the suffering of Union prisoners in Confeder, Itc liands. Tlic prisoners were . ilso 111-ccluiplied to deal witli cold northern winters. 1) uring the final winter of the war,new recruits arrived and the revi\' al of the exchange cartel brought new parolees. Ironic:lly,during this time, wit], the end of the zv·, ir in sight, the de: itli r: irc among Confederate prisoners peaked. Camp Chase received its final surge of inmates when Union eildiers returned tor demobilization. By the end of the summer the prisoners and the demobilizing soldiers were gone. Within ·, 1 tiw vears the federal government sold most of the land, leaving 86 0 H I O V,\ I. LE Y 111 STORY HOOK REVIEWS onli· a cemetery for the Confedcrates who had died while impriicined at Camp Chase. Camp Chilse jintl t/ c K·:· 0/ ution qjUnion Prison Policy is refreshi,igly free from polemical accusations mid defendveness. The redder is ii<, t scecred ti) cotiellisic)nS but is given the inti, rm·. itioti with which to form a conclusion. By looking at the history of Camp Chase as : military installation . Pickenpaugh is : 11)| e to show the camps role as · a prison in its context. All who spent time at Camp Chase had the s, ime complaints . ibout mud, leaky barracks ,and intermittent shortages of food and other supplies. All suffered from the penny piliching of the federal government . Ilie Ci,nfeder.itc prisoners suffered the most because ther had to endure such conditions the lonecst. 7112 reader also get:i the iiiipression tli·,It 1, risoners'lot depended greatly on chance factors, such is the chfiracter of the command:int or whether the facilities had caught up with a recent increase in populatio,1. Pickenpatigh' s wrirk ic primarily a history of Camp Chase,but the author tells much of this story through the lives of the men who were there, whether as soldiers , parolces.guards.cir I, risoners. Doing so humanizes the narrative and pmvides a window into the thinking of the time. The author desents much credit for warning his redders ; ibout the pittlills <, t sources,such as letters that hail to pass a celitor and postwar mellic, irs written iii tlle heat of ctilitroversy. Because the author mixes his chronological account of Camp Chase with topical chapters, readers inust take care to locate events in the timeline. llie inwk would also bc impi-( wed by tlie iijclusioti Of tables of e. imp population and mcirtality rates,but these are minor pr<, blems. Gimp (: bas: and tbe F. i· olution of Union I' riso, 1 Policy should he read bv unvone interested in Civil War SPRING 2008 prisons, ; ind it should also be ofinterest to readers who want ro know what life in a Union c-, iml)was like. Valerie L. I Iudson The Ohio State University Lynn ENiedermcier. Eliza Calvert liall: Kent,irky / lutbor and Suffragist. 1. exingtcnE Univer# ti· Press £ Keiducky, 2007. 312 pp. 1513N: 9780813124704 cloth), 545.00. Lynn E. Nicdcrincier chronicles the life ind work of author Eliza Calvert IIall , a turn of the century Kentucky reforinist vho wrote under tlie pen name of " I.ida" Calvert Obenchain. Through careful gerutini · of tlic three parallel tracks of Lida' s life, she sheds light on the process by which critical changes in women's legal and political rights took l1; ice. The author asserts tliat Lida' s aduCacy of " simple justice for her sex, including the right to vote, earn and control her ou· n Eliza 0 4MFU, wages,keep or dispt, se of her own property, and develop her own mind,cannot be separated frc, in her fiction writing. Moreover, bv subordinating these nvi) passions to tlie rigors of housekeeping,she " became starkly acquainted"with the choices women of her generation faced ( 2).With insight and subtlety,Niedermeier probes tlic layers of familial relationships.expectations imposed by time, class, and place, : ind the sense of duty that bound I.ida to the c: ire ot her husband ·, ind fi, ur children, even ·, ts she sought and achieved a broader,more public life through participation in the women' s rights inoitment und sustained a successful career as u writer of popular fiction. 87 ...