Hello Lois, yes I would agree that all prisons during the War were sad. There are several ways to read about Camp Chase and probably one of the best ways is at this very site. Go to prisons at this site and just start scolling down, you will see many threads about Camp Chase. William H. Knauss and his book "The Story of Camp Chase" published in 1906 is still at some libraries and is perhaps the best book on the subject.
This is an article that I wrote a few days ago and if you scoll down to the very bottom where it says related articles and go the Camp Chase photos and while there hit the boulder and it will allow you to see Thomas Haile's grave. So that is a bonus for you.
I just came back from doing more research and on Feb. 20, 1865 according to the local newspaper in Columbus, Ohio the temperture dropped to 18 degrees below 0. I don't think they included wind chills back then.
More than 50 percent of the dead at Camp Chase would die in 1865! That is saying something since the War only lasted for 99 days in 1865. So you ancestor was with the majority. There was NO excuse unlike the South for having such a high death rate at Chase. During the first half of the War something like 100 plus prisoners had died at Chase.
Dennis Brooke lives in Randolph County Georgia and Franklin County Ohio when he's not on the road doing research on the War Between the States. He is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran eligible for SCV membership and has numerous ancestors who were in the Union army including one physician (not related to this case).
EMAIL THIS PRINT THIS
The Ghoul of Camp Chase, the Honored Citizen of Columbus Ohio – Essay by Dennis Brooke
This story is dedicated to the five Confederates who NOT only made the ultimate sacrifice for their God and Country but never, until now, had their story told. Ever since the War their story has remained untold and NOT even a tombstone to mark their one time grave. This story is dedicated to them and their memories as soldiers, husbands, and fathers. Webmaster's Note: We understand that SCV Camp 1535 in Columbus, Ohio is working with VA and NPS officials to place new graves stones for the missing Confederates and/or to install a memorial plaque at the Camp Chase Cemetery that tells of their fate. Details are not 100% solid yet, but ceremonies will hopefully be held sometime in 2005 or early 2006. It is hoped that the memorial plaque will read something like the text below:
Body Snatchers at Camp Chase
Near this site on Thanksgiving night November 24, 1864 five Confederate bodies were disinterred from their graves for the purpose of selling their remains to a Cleveland Medical College for dissection material. A local physician J.R. Flowers among others were arrested by the Camp Chase Post Commander, Colonel W.P. Richardson for the crime. The soldiers corpses were never recovered. This plaque is dedicated to those victims of the crime. Hiram Bland, Jonathan P. Lindley, John W. Lester, A.J. Hensley, and Thomas J. Stephens.
We all know the cliche that the victors write the history and that includes which stories to omit. Thanks to some determined Southern researchers, the long-buried facts are being exposed to light. In the immortal words of Thomas Jefferson, "There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world." Those who would disrespect these Confederate veterans, have disrespected ALL American veterans, past and present.
Seldom has a more vile and macabre crime raised its ugly head from the annals of American history. The crime was all but covered up and buried (pun intended) until a Georgia resident started to piece together his family history. David McDonald of Cobb County had trouble in finding his ancestor, one Confederate Private Jonathan P. Lindley. [David McDonald is a member of SCV Camp McDonald #1552 in Kennesaw.]
When I first heard of the story from Marlitta Perkins and her website, I was skeptical. Perhaps arrogant might be a better word for I have been studying the War for forty years and never heard mention of this story. But promising to keep an open mind, we were about to discover a lost piece of history. Over 250 hours of my research have been committed to this story and many others contributed work directly and indirectly; a whole new chapter of our past is unfolding. It is with the memory of the Georgia Confederates that I offer this story via the GHC website, for your consideration.
It seems as though the Lindley family had trouble in the past insofar as finding graves for their ancestors. One such Lindley, James Lindley was a Captain in the Loyalist militia captured by American "rebels" at the Battle of Kettle Creek in Georgia and hanged in the vicinity of Ninety-six, South Carolina---but his grave was not marked. Another Lindley was killed at the Alamo and his body, like the rest, was burned by Santa Anna in March 1836.
Jonathan P. Lindley was captured during the battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864 along with scores of others. They were taken to the infamous Camp Chase prison, via Nashville, Tennessee, and Louisville, Kentucky. Jonathan P. Lindley never returned home and unlike many others at Camp Chase he does NOT have a tombstone marking his grave. That may be because his body is NOT there.
This much we do know, Jonathan P. Lindley died on November 24, 1864 and was buried in grave # 511 at the Camp Chase Cemetery for a very short while.
According to the OR's [Official Record] Series 2, Volume 7, pages 1161-1162 the following is what happened at Camp Chase [Ohio] on Thanksgiving Day (November 24, 1864):
"On the night of the 24th instant the bodies of six deceased prisoners were stolen from the grave-yard attached to camp where prisoners only are buried. I arrested the perpetrators of this outrage and referred the matter to General Hooker and was by him directed to turn the prisoners and papers over to the prosecuting attorney of this county, which I have done. Respectfully referred to the Commissary-General of Prisoners."--W. P. Richardson.
And on November 30th 1864 the newspaper, the "Crisis," confirmed the macabre event, on page four column four.
"Body Snatchers"
"It has been discovered that an organized band of body snatchers, resurrectionists, exists in this city, whose practice it is to rob the graves at Camp Chase of dead bodies which are shipped to the medical college at Cleveland for dissection. Dr. Flowers of this city is said to be the leader in this business, and he was arrested in company with one or two less respectable assistants, last week, by the Post Commander at Camp Chase. The parties were discharged upon their parole, to appear at such time as the military authorities designate. There is a State law by which the robbing of graves is pronounced a high crime punishable by imprisonment in the Penitentiary. It is understood that twelve bodies were exhumed last week. Dr.Flowers excuses his action on the ground that the "subjects were needed at the Cleveland Medical College and that the bodies were those of rebels, who were fit for nothing but dissection!"
On December 2, 1864, the "Columbus Gazette" reported a similar story.
"Body Snatching"
"Considerable talk has been occasioned in this city this week, by the arrest, by the Military authorities at Camp Chase, of sundry persons from this city and Cleveland, Ohio, who had been engaged in digging up bodies of deceased rebels from the grave yard in that vicinity. This was done for the purpose of procuring subjects for the Cleveland Medical College. It is alleged that about a dozen bodies have been thus procured. The parties were released on their parole to appear at such time as the Military authorities shall designate. At the time of the arrest, it is stated, Dr. Flowers, of this city, was along with the parties arrested; but it is claimed that he had no connection with the matter further than to show the location of the burying ground. So great is the repugnance of the community to body snatching, that few will be found ready to justify the invasion of even a rebel's grave. Our Military authorities should see to it that the practice is stopped."
While Franklin County Ohio residents were reading this story in their local newspapers, the bloody battle of their county's namesake was raging in Tennessee. The body snatching story was pushed from the spot-light as the casualty lists started making their way up North from Franklin, Tennessee. In the following few days the reports from Andersonville began to fill the papers. Any sympathy for the victims of the body snatchers was quickly being forgotten.
Dr. J.R. Flowers liked to state that he had spent an entire week in the Union Army before being forced to retire. However, according to the Ohio Historical Society, he did NOT spend the first day in the military. Dr. Flowers did graduate from the Western Homeopathic Medical College in Cleveland, Ohio in 1861. Prior to that time he had worked as an assistant physician at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. He can be found at the institution in the census of 1860.
During the early days of our country some prisoners' bodies were turned over the the medical colleges as dissection material in order to deter crime. However the practice by the time of the War Between the States had long ended. Or had it? The practice was shrouded in secrecy and as facts are still coming to light, it's difficult to say.
According to a 1841 Ohio State Law, bodies were NOT to be removed from their graves. The penalty for such an offense could be prison confinement with bread and water only and or $1,000.00 fine or both or any combination thereof depending upon the judge.
Many medical colleges had been shut down in Ohio due to the business of stealing corpses from loved ones' graves. So great was the crime that one man invented the Clover Torpedo Bomb especially built for caskets. Upon opening the casket the bomb would be triggered and Ka-Boom! At least one body snatcher was killed in this way and two others severely wounded. It sort of gave a whole in meaning to R.I.P. (i.e., Rest In Pieces).
Because of the public outcry, a better place needed to be found to obtain dissection material for the anatomy rooms at medical colleges. The Federal military Prison at Camp Chase became the target. Here Southern soldiers were dying by the day, and many of them in their prime of life. At five dollars a body, the macabre crime was easy money. When the faculty at the Cleveland Medical College put in their order for bodies for the up coming winter quarter, Dr. Flowers was only too eager to volunteer. Because Johnson’s Island POW camp was surrounded by water, this may have saved similar Confederates the same fate at that location.
The method was fairly simple. The Camp Chase Cemetery was 1/3 of a mile south of the prison itself. Established on August 1st of 1863, it was located on Sullivant Avenue. The cemetery itself was NOT on Federal property but rather on county property. According the the newspaper "The Ohio State Journal," a special Thanksgiving feast was to be held at Camp Chase for the soldiers on guard duty and other Union soldiers on that Thanksgiving Day. Dr. Flowers, knowing that a quarter moon was due that night and knowing of the hot meal that the guards had consumed, waited till darkness to begin his second job.
Everything had been planned in detail including what they would say if caught. Dr. Flowers had a lot of experience and his methods he thought were excellent. Body snatchers many times used wooden spades to mask the noise. Dr. Flowers knew that he would NOT have to dig too deep to recover his subjects. A hangman’s noose was placed around the neck and the body was pulled from its grave. Because the stealing of a shroud or clothing invoked an additional penalty and because the snatchers wanted a non-diseased body, a knife was used to cut away any clothing. Then the nude corpse was stuffed in a sack, noose and all. Early that day, five Confederate soldiers had died and were buried, they were:
Jonathan P. Lindley of the 1st Confederate Infantry buried in grave # 511
John W. Lester of the 33rd Tennessee buried in grave # 510
Hiram Bland of the 1st Georgia buried in grave # 513
Thomas J. Stephens of the 16th Louisiana buried in grave # 512
A. J. Hicks of the 34th Virginia Battalion Cavalry in grave # 514
Perhaps because A.J. Hicks was the start of a new row and thus closer to the guards or maybe because trees did NOT provide the cover as the others had done or maybe because Flowers and company simply ran out of time his grave was left alone. The other four would vanish into the night.
The day before, on November 23rd, two Confederate soldiers had been buried. They were:
A.J. Hensley of the 45 Battalion Virginia Infantry buried in grave #507.
Stephen Jones of the 1st Florida Cavalry buried in grave # 509.
Of these two, Hensley’s body was taken. Perhaps because Jones had died of small-pox his body was left.
On November 22nd, Curtis Hooks of the 59th Georgia was buried in grave number 508. Perhaps his body was decaying too much or perhaps the body snatchers got scared but for whatever reason his body was dug up, but left behind. The records at NARA are quite clear on this subject. For the five missing Confederates the same entry is made above their names: "Disinterred by some unknown hand on the night of Nov. 24, 1864."
Hiram Bland was from Bulloch County, Georgia. One of Hiram’s descendants is Thomas D. Houston. Tommy Houston is a member of the Brig. General Robert H. Anderson SCV Camp #1919 in Hinesville. Mr. Houston acquired the CMSR [Compiled Military Service Record] of Hiram Bland in 1997 and forwarded the information to other Bland descendants and the author.
Private Bland enlisted in the Toombs Guards of the 9th Georgia and saw action in Virginia. Hiram came down with typhoid fever in late 1861 and after being weakened by the fever was finally discharged for debility and old age [he was 40] on July 18, 1862. Living back home in Georgia may have given Hiram a second wind, for he enlisted in the 1st Georgia Infantry and was captured along with Lindley on July 22, 1864 at Atlanta. If hospital life did NOT agree with Hiram, prison life would surely NOT. His wife and children awaited his safe return but instead the blue uniforms of Sherman’s Army invaded Bulloch County. By the time Sherman was giving Savannah to President Lincoln for Christmas, Hiram Bland’s body was being dissected for perhaps the last time.
The Cleveland Medical College was located along the railroad depot in Cleveland. Dr. Flowers' method of transporting his "material" was by rail. The doctors at the medical college also provided railroad employees with needed health care. The stealing of bodies was highly organized and secret. A secret oath was sworn and anyone betraying it was killed. Many doctors took the secrets with them to their grave while others revealed their secrets many decades later.
Late in November of 1864 five Confederate bodies were transported in boxes to the Cleveland Medical College for dissection. The sign on the boxes simply read "merchandise." It is ironic that in less than five months later another body would be heading south along that same railroad track. Inside this well-known casket would be the cadaver of President Lincoln heading from Cleveland to Columbus, Ohio.
Colonel William Pitt Richardson [author of the O.R. entry 11/24/64] had lost his right arm at Chancellorsville and was appointed as Post Commander of Camp Chase. Prior to the War he had been an attorney in Monroe county Ohio. In early November of 1864 some things would change in Columbus, Ohio. On November 7th the editor of the "Crisis," Samuel Medary, would die. His newspaper office had been broken into and torn apart many times during the War for his views on the War. On November 8, the re-election of Lincoln took place and along with that a new Ohio Attorney General was elected. His name was none other than Colonel W.P. Richardson, the Camp Chase Post Commander.
To make matters worse, the Franklin County District Attorney, J.O. Reamy, to whom the evidence had been turned over, had a son who was a doctor also. No legal punishment or court appearance was in Dr. Flowers' future.
A typical cadaver stayed with the medical college for six weeks. Every inch of the body was dissected by eager medical students. Back in Georgia, Sherman had already started his infamous March to the Sea on November 15th. Many Georgia families only wished for their loved ones' safe return for Christmas. It was a blessing that they never knew what really happened to these victims of Camp Chase.
Perhaps the only positive aspect of this story is that just maybe some medical student may have learned enough from the Confederate soldiers to save some human lives during their career.
Perry County Ohio had been the home to Dr. J.R. Flowers prior to the War. It was also the home of General Phil Sheridan and Colonel James M. Comley of the 23rd Ohio Infantry. Colonel Comley had studied law in Perry County prior to the War. The 23rd Ohio was also the regiment of two future United States Presidents, Hayes and McKinley. Colonel Comley was in and out of Camp Chase during the War. Colonel Comley and his father-in-law would own the "Ohio State Journal" by the end of the War. The reports of body snatching has never been published in the OSJ. James Comley, for obvious reasons, may have been Dr. Flowers legal counsel of choice. If nothing else Comley had connections. But that is the way it always seemed to be, the body-snatchers knew the right people.
In 1876, Dr. Flowers was elected as the new City Councilman for Ward 3. One of his first motions was to have the old City Cemetery moved. Prior to the Camp Chase Cemetery on August 1st 1863, the Confederate soldiers were buried in the same City Cemetery on Livingston Avenue. Even the local paper remarked, "There may NOT be as many bodies in the cemetery as thought due to the Medical College."
Dr. Flowers had one child born in October of 1864. She would die from a contagious disease in June of 1873 called spinal meningitis. Dr. Flowers would die in May of 1895 of heart failure. According to one account he suffered greatly before passing on. After his death his wife remarried. Dr. Joab R. Flowers was well thought of by the citizens of Columbus as many things were named after him. [Flowers Fire Engine story ]
But on that November day in 1864 Flowers was arrested with others and his crime will NOT be forgotten, especially way down in Dixie where numerous descendants have been searching for answers for decades.
Was Camp Chase the only prison where this happened? I am currently working on that very research.
Sources for this article were taken from:
The newspaper the "Crisis" 1864
The newspaper "Columbus Dispatch" 1895
The newspaper "Ohio State Journal" 1864
The newspaper "Ohio Statesman" 1864
The United States Census 1860
Columbus City Directory 1862
Columbus City Directory 1876
Official Records of the War of the Rebellion
NARA [i.e., Camp Chase Records]
Ohio’s Laws
"The Story of Camp Chase" by William H. Knauss [ISBN: 0962603406]
"BODY SNATCHING IN OHIO DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY" by Linden F. Edwards, Professor of Anatomy, Ohio State University. Published in "THE OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY" Volume 59 in 1950. page 346.
Personal family history of the Lindley family
Personal family history of the Bland family (Thomas D. Houston) and CMSR
Greenlawn Cemetery interment Records
Note: Other Bland descendants have provided useful information on Hiram Bland but none of their information is presented in this article. The author would like to thank Steve Scroggins for his time and efforts in helping with this story.
A longtime researcher, Dennis Brooke splits his time between Randolph County Georgia and Franklin County Ohio when he's not on the road researching the War Between the States. His email is: dennis_brooke2001@yahoo.com.
Related Links
Brig. Gen. Roswell S. Ripley Camp 1535 Columbus, Ohio - scvohio.org
NPS Soldiers & Sailors Database
Andersonville Highlights Hypocrisy - Camp Douglas, Illinois
Portals to Hell: Civil War Prisons - Excerpts
1864 CAMP CHASE Grave Robbery - Marlitta Perkins
A brief Bio on Dr. J.R. Flowers [very 'flowery,' no mention of criminal activities]
Camp Chase Prison - censusdiggins.com
Columbus Dispatch article discussion
Photographs of Camp Chase Cemetery
Pre-1863 Map of Columbus hospitals/cemeteries
Phases of the Moon 1801-1900
"Rebels at Rock Island" (pp. 194-195) by Benton McAdams (2000, Northern Illinois University Press)
“All that was, or is now, desired is that error and injustice be excluded from the text books of the schools and from the literature brought into our homes; that the truth be told, without exaggeration and without omission, truth for its own sake and for the sake of honest history, and that the generations to come after us not be left to bear the burden of shame and dishonor unrighteously laid upon the name of their noble sires.” Rev. James P. Smith, Staff of General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, C.S.A .
EMAIL THIS PRINT THIS