Valley of the Shadow
The War Years
Spring 1861–Spring 1865

Letters & Diaries

letters

Camp Chase Collection (1862)

Camp Chase, on the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio, served as a prison for much of the Civil War. Reports indicate tolerable conditions until severe overcrowding and supply shortages in 1863. Estimates place the total number of Confederate prisoners who passed through Camp Chase around 25,000.

In these three letters (1862), Samuel Moses and Charles B. Carter, both imprisoned in Camp Chase, describe their loneliness and recount their daily activities to their family members at home in Augusta County, Virginia.