Statue vandalized at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery

[Matthew S. Schweitzer]

There has been a spate of vandalism aimed at historical monuments across the country recently especially targeting Confederate Civil War memorials and statues. This particular case, the vandalism of a Confederate statue at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery in Columbus, OH is especially egregious for the fact that it was desecration of a graveyard intended to honor Confederate Civil War POWs who died in prison during the war. The vandals have not been caught. No matter what your politics it is wrong to desecrate a cemetery meant to honor the dead. It is just plain stupid and I hope they catch these guys and throw the book at them.





"COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Police are investigating after a Confederate statue in Camp Chase Cemetery in west Columbus was vandalized.

According to the Columbus Division of Police, someone vandalized the statue Camp Chase cemetery in the 2900 block of Sullivant Avenue.

This photo shows the vandalized statue's original location at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)
A photo of the vandalized statue shows the soldier missing his head after being toppled from the top of a monument.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website, Camp Chase shifted from a training camp for Union Army recruits to a prisoner-of-war camp early in the civil war.

Prior to the establishment of the cemetery at Camp Chase, the Confederate dead were interred in the city cemetery of Columbus. Their remains were re-interred in the prison cemetery after its opening. In addition, the remains of 31 Confederate soldiers who died at Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati, were removed to Camp Chase Cemetery shortly after the cessation of the Civil War.

Officially, there is an estimate of 2,168 remains in 2,122 gravesites in Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery. However, this does not match the inscription on the Boulder monument.

There are two monuments in Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery. The first depicts a bronze figure of a Confederate Civil War soldier standing atop a granite arch, his rifle held vertically in front of him, with both hands resting on the top of the barrel."



Statue vandalized at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery in west Columbus

[Matthew S. Schweitzer]

Repaired statue of Confederate soldier reinstalled at Camp Chase cemetery

"After it was vandalized almost two years ago, the bronze statue of a Confederate soldier has been repaired and placed back at the Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery in Columbus’ Hilltop neighborhood.

On Aug. 22, 2017, vandals knocked over and decapitated the statue, probably as it struck a column when it fell, Columbus police said. The vandals left the hat but took the head, which was never found, said Douglas Ledbetter, director of Dayton/Marion National Cemeteries, which is part of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Association.

Ledbetter said the statue was repaired by attaching a new head and placing the original hat on it. Workers erected the statue Tuesday, he said.

Camp Chase was the largest Union Army prisoner-of-war camp for thousands of captured Confederate troops during the Civil War. More than 2,000 soldiers are buried at the cemetery, most of them Confederate soldiers who died while in prison.

The Camp Chase statue was damaged less than two weeks after a woman was killed and dozens were injured by a Toledo-area man during a white-supremacist demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia.


“It’s our responsibility to preserve its historic integrity,” Nosal said. And that meant restoring the statue.

The government hired McKay Lodge Art Conservation Laboratory in Oberlin to restore the statue for $40,804, Nosal said.

Nana Watson, president of the Columbus chapter of the NAACP, said she was unaware and “shocked” to learn the statue was repaired and reinstalled. She said she wonders why the government spent the money.


“Is that a good use of our federal funds here?” Watson said. “I could think of a lot of things we can request funding for in our community.”

Betty Jaynes of the Westgate Neighbors Association said she didn’t know the statue was coming back but was personally pleased to see history restored. “I know it’s a very touchy subject,” Jaynes said.

Richard Hoffman, a board member of the Hilltop Historical Society, said he was glad the statue was back too. The memorial, he said, was designed to reconcile the North and the South.

The society will host the annual Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery Memorial Service on Sunday, June 9, said Hoffman, who said the service remembers from both the North and South.

Stephen Humphrey was walking past the cemetery along Sullivant Avenue on Wednesday afternoon. Humphrey, a 53-year-old African American who lives in the Hilltop area, said removing the statue removes a part of history that reminds us where we come from.

“Racism is not a statue. It is not a flag,” Humphrey said.

“It won’t erase racism. It will erase the conversation.”

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