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Camp Jackson

With the Civil War’s outbreak, both the North and the South were ill prepared for the conflict. Ohio Governor William Dennison hoped to utilize the state’s militia forces to assist President Abraham Lincoln in reuniting the nation.

Located in Columbus, Ohio, Camp Jackson was a Northern military training base during the American Civil War.

With the Civil War’s outbreak, both the North and the South were ill prepared for the conflict. Ohio Governor William Dennison hoped to utilize the state’s militia forces to assist President Abraham Lincoln in reuniting the nation. Unfortunately for Dennison, many of Ohio’s militia units were no longer in existence. Those units that continued to operate were primarily social organizations that rarely practiced military maneuvers. Following the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1861, President Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand volunteers to subdue the Confederate States of America. Despite the lack of a well-trained militia, Governor Dennison beseeched communities to send their militia companies to Columbus for possible use by the North during the Civil War.

To process Ohio’s volunteers, Governor Dennison ordered the creation of Camp Jackson at Columbus. Officials organized Ohio's first volunteer infantry units at Camp Jackson. Authorities sent many of these organizations immediately to Washington, D.C. to protect the nation's capital. Officers dispatched other regiments to Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati, Ohio, to protect Ohio's southern border from Confederate invasion.

Military authorities eventually replaced Camp Jackson with Camp Chase, which was also located in Columbus.

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