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December 3rd, 2005, 09:50 PM
Camp Morton
Camp Morton, an Indianapolis civil war training camp and later a federal prison for captured confederate soldiers, was located in the area now bounded by Talbott Avenue to the west, Central Avenue to the east, Twenty-Second Street to the north, and Nineteenth Street to the south. Samuel Henderson, the first mayor of Indianapolis, originally owned this thirty-six acre tract, which contained scattered hardwood trees of mostly black walnut and oak and at least four good springs. This area became known as Henderson’s or Otis’ Grove. A creek flowed through this property upon which, after it was dredged in 1837, become known as State Ditch. State Ditch was later nicknamed the “Potomac” by the prisoners of Camp Morton. State Ditch is no longer visible as it was made into an underground drain some years after the war.
In 1859, the State of Indiana took possession of this tract of land for the purposes of creating a State Fairground. By 1861, there were several buildings on the grounds as well as stables for livestock. On the north side of the grounds were long open-ended shed like structures to stable horses. The west end of the grounds contained stalls for 250 cattle and sheds for sheep and hogs as well as an exhibition hall. There was a large dining hall on the east end and a two-story office building near the center of the Fairgrounds. After the siege of Fort Sumter on April 12-13, 1861, recruiting stations were opened in Indianapolis in response to President Lincoln’s call for volunteers. Governor Oliver P. Morton, along with his newly appointed adjutant general, Lew Wallace, surveyed the town for a suitable location for the reception of these new volunteers. The State Fairgrounds was the only suitable place found near Indianapolis for this purpose. On April 17, 1861, Camp Morton was hastily put into operation and welcomed in the first volunteers. In order to accommodate the large influx of volunteers, some new sheds or barracks were built of green lumber in which four tiers of bunks were constructed on two sides of the shed extending seven feet toward the middle. Situated between the two rows of bunks were long dining tables. With this set-up, each barrack would hold about 320 men. The camp was surrounded by a high board fence with armed guards. As more and more troops started coming into camp, the barracks were supplemented with tents. Soon troops were divided up and given quarters outside the camp. Troop drills were first attempted in the confines of the camp, but the buildings and trees made this task difficult. An area just south of the camp was acquired for this purpose with good results.
After the fall of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862, there was a need in the north for detaining significant numbers of captured confederate soldiers. Governor Morton, in response to a telegraph request by Union General Henry W. Halleck, agreed to accept up to 3,000 prisoners who were to be quartered at Camp Morton. The job of converting Camp Morton into a prison camp fell to Captain James A. Ekin, an assistant quartermaster general of the United States Army. Additional barracks were hastily erected that had been used for temporary stables. Some of this work was not completed until after the prisoners arrived. The first group of prisoners arrived on February 22, 1862 with much fanfare in the city. The total number of confederate prisoners that were sent to Camp Morton during these next few days totaled 3,700.
Governor Morton summoned several partially filled Indiana regiments to guard these men, including the Fourteenth Battery of Light Infantry commanded by Captain Meredith H. Kidd, the Fifty-third regiment under Colonel Walter Q. Gresham, and the Sixtieth regiment under Colonel Richard Owen. Upon arrival of these troops at Camp Morton, Colonel Owen was appointed commandant.
The Indianapolis Journal, on March 4, 1862 described the health of the newly arrived prisoners as follows:
“Of the sick prisoners at the military prison and hospitals of this city, the greater proportion are Mississippians. Though some of the Tennesseans and Kentuckians are quite ill, their maladies are not so deep seated as those of the First, Fourth, and Twenty-Sixth Mississippi prisoners. These regiments were at Fort Henry, and at the time of the attack made upon it by Commodore Foote they retreated so rapidly that they left behind most of their baggage, including many articles of clothing much needed for their comfort. On arriving at Fort Donelson they were (thinly clad as they were) put at work immediately upon the fortifications, and were compelled to labor upon the trenches constantly. During the siege of the Fort, they lay in the ditches and rifle pits, day and night. Such exposure would produce disease in the ranks of the most able-bodied soldiers, but when incurred by men of feeble constitutions, the seeds of disease are so firmly planted that no medical skill can remove them. Of the latter class are those now in hospitals. Many are under eighteen years of age, and the large majority are persons of feeble constitution. They receive the best medical treatment, and the nursing care of female attendants; but in many cases, the best of attention cannot save them from the grasp of death.”
The sick prisoners soon overwhelmed the hospital quarters in the old power hall at Camp Morton. Some of the emergency cases were taken to the City Hospital, although sick and wounded Union soldiers already occupied most of the beds there. Hospitals were also opened in two buildings on Meridian Street. One of these, which became Military Hospital No. 2, was opened in the Gymnasium building on the northeast corner of Meridian and Maryland Streets. By early March, Hospital No. 3 was opened in the old four-story post office on Meridian Street near the corner of Washington. Better quarters were found for a hospital in a frame building on the corner of Curve and Plum Streets, east of the Bellefontaine car shops and north of Massachusetts Avenue. On April 3, patients and equipment from Hospital No. 2 were moved to this new location. In May, a new addition was erected on the north side of the present City Hospital and by May 24, the patients from the downtown hospital in the old post office and from the Bellefontaine hospital were moved there. Despite the best efforts of the hospital staff, many patients died probably in part due to their already poor condition when they arrived at Camp Morton. Hospital stewards were instructed to transmit to Colonel Owen and Adjutant General Noble a report of all the deaths with name of the deceased, date of hospital admittance, company, regiment, and list of any personal effects. Local newspapers also regularly listed the death of prisoners, but many names were listed as unknown.
Five lots were purchased near the City Cemetery for the interment of the Confederate prisoners who died at Camp Morton. This cemetery, which came to be known by one of its additions - Greenlawn, was located along Kentucky Avenue between West Street and the White River (now the location of Diamond Chain Company). An Indianapolis undertaker firm, Weaver and Williams, contracted to furnish plain wooden coffins at $3.50 a piece, and to deliver the bodies to the cemetery. At the cemetery, prisoners dug the twenty feet long trenches in which the coffins were laid side by side. A strong board carrying a painted identification number was placed at the head of each gave. No official ceremony was conducted for the dead, unless a prayer was offered by one of the prisoners.
By April 1, 1862 there were five thousand men in camp, including the guards. Prisoners continued to arrive during the spring and summer of 1862, including 1,000 men coming in after the battle of Shiloh. In the beginning, officers and enlisted men were housed together, but were later separated for security reasons.
Colonel Owen proved an able administrator and was liked by both guards and prisoners. Col. Owen established eleven rules for humane and sensible treatment of prisoners. This was before any federal regulations existed for the treatment of prisoners. As the war continued, the need for experienced troops was great. As a result, on May 26, 1862, Col. Owen’s Sixtieth regiment was ordered to active duty.
Governor Morton appointed David Garland Rose as the commandant to follow Col. Owen and was mustered in as colonel of the Fifty-fourth regiment on June 19, 1862. Also, during this time, replacement guards volunteered from all areas of the state. By the end of the first week of June, over four hundred had been sworn in for three months service, and there were more waiting for their companies to be completed. The continuous shifting of guard companies caused some problems at Camp Morton due to lack of experience. Some of these new guards were even reported to have wounded themselves with firearms. Colonel Rose was a strict administrator, and some prisoners disliked him intensely. On July 14, twenty-five prisoners were reported to have escaped during a stormy and rainy night. All but one were found and retuned to camp by July 18. During this time, there were a few incidents involving prisoners who strayed to close to the camp walls, one was shot after the prisoner was given the required three warnings.
On August 23, after both Union and Confederate parties agreed to a prisoner exchange, 1,280 prisoners left Indianapolis among a crowd of spectators. Other prisoners left in groups over the next six days, until the only prisoners that remained were prisoners whose names did not appear on any rolls, or sick prisoners and their nurses. The sick were later discharged during the first week of September. By this time, Camp Morton was emptied of all confederate prisoners and an immediate “renovation and purification” was begun by companies from the Fifth Calvary.
Starting in late September 1862, three thousand paroled union prisoners arrived at Camp Morton. By November 17, after having been formally exchanged, they were freed for service. By early December, Camp Morton was nearly empty.
In Early 1863, the empty buildings of Camp Morton were in disrepair. Due to the halting of prisoner exchanges at Vicksburg, additional prison spaces were needed for the large number of confederate prisoners still waiting exchange there. Even though Camp Morton was in desperate need of repair, prisoners were once again accepted, beginning on January 29, in lots of two to three hundred at a time. During this time, Colonel James Biddle, of the Seventy-first Indiana Regiment, commanded the camp. In April, all the new prisoners were ordered to City Point, Virginia for exchange.
The next group of prisoners arrived from Gallatin, Tennessee in late May, 1863. General Grant’s successful operation near Vicksburg sent 4, 400 confederates north to be divided between Camp Morton and Fort Delaware. Three trainloads of prisoners arrived on June 2, and the remainder arrived the following day. Among these new prisoners were 250 East Tennesseans who took that oath of allegiance and enlisted with the Union army. Fifty of these men enlisted in the Seventy-first Indiana, 50 in the batteries, and155 in the Fifth Tennessee Cavalry. After the capture of Confederate General John H. Morgan on July 23, 1863 in Ohio, 1,200 of Morgan’s men were sent to Camp Morton. The arrival of Morgan’s men created a carnival atmosphere in the camp for a time. By August there were about 3,000 prisoners at Camp Morton. On August 17 and 18, over 1,100 prisoners, including most of Morgan’s raiders, were transferred to Camp Douglas. About 1,500 prisoners remained in the run downed camp. Over crowded conditions at the camp lead to increases in sickness and disease. Hospital space was also inadequate to accommodate the growing number of sick. The new addition to the City Hospital, that was built in 1862 specifically for the sick of Camp Morton, was now being used for wounded and sick Union Soldiers.
The overcrowding continued at Camp Morton during the summer and early fall of 1863. Several escape attempts by prisoners were made during this time. One group of prisoners, after working twelve days on a tunnel under the north fence of the enclosure, was betrayed on the eve of the escape. Other groups tried to escape and thirty-five men got away safely during this time.
Colonel Ambrose A. Stevens was appointed the new commandant on October 22, 1863. With the halting of exchanges of all prisoners north and south, the prisoners at Camp Morton would remain there. Then Adjutant Thomas Sturgis, while a member of a Union regiment on guard detail at Camp Morton, describes the conditions in the camp during the summer and autumn of 1864:
“At the time of which I write the cooking at Camp Morton was done by my details. We baked daily from 5,000 to 7,000 loaves, about six inches cube, of good white bread, which gave to each prisoner a loaf, appetizing and healthful. Our own men were then drawing only hard tack as an equivalent. On their arrival the prisoners were given necessary clothing and blankets. Each man received one of the latter, and as two usually bunked together, they joined forces. As the cold weather of autumn approached we made a further issue of a blanket apiece, and some of the men fashioned the old ones into capes or cloaks, and the sight of a sturdy Confederate strolling about with the Uncle Sam’s U.S. branded between his shoulders was not uncommon.”
In July, 1864 Camp Morton housed 4, 900 prisoners, over half of this total had arrived since May. The renovations and improvements at the camp had not been made on a scale to accommodate many of these new prisoners. A high number of malaria cases were reported during this time. Reforms at Camp Morton were ordered by Union Army medical personnel, which included recommendations of enlarging the camp, building of new hospital wards, and a supply of vegetables or “antiscorbutics” for the prisoners to prevent scurvy. Some of these reforms, however, were never instituted.
On the night of November 14, a mob of fifty or sixty prisoners rushed toward the fence while hurling stones and bottles filled with water at the surprised guards. Before reinforcements could reach the guards, the prisoners escaped over the fence and into the woods. An all night search party found some of the escapees, but thirty-one were never found.
The winter 1864-1865 was very cold. On New Years day, 1865, the temperature dropped to 20 degrees below zero along with a severe snowstorm. Extra straw, blankets, and wood for the cast iron stoves were secured for the barracks, but the winter hardships continued. The winter proved to be very cold with the last snow recorded on April 16. As the weather warmed, conditions improved slightly. Prisoners continued to make several escape attempts and some were successful, including an escape by a group of men through yet another tunnel.
Prisoner exchanges began again in February and March of 1865, although some prisoners refused to be exchanged if it meant going back to the Confederate lines. By April 1, 1865, 1,408 prisoners remained at Camp Morton. With General Lee’s surrender on April 9, all of the remaining prisoners were released after they were administered the oath.
After the War, Camp Morton was opened back into the State Fairgrounds, were it remained as such until 1890 when a new State Fairgrounds was opened further north. The old State Fairground property was sold off and divided into residential lots. This area of Indianapolis is now known as Herron-Morton Place.
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Camp Morton, an Indianapolis civil war training camp and later a federal prison for captured confederate soldiers, was located in the area now bounded by Talbott Avenue to the west, Central Avenue to the east, Twenty-Second Street to the north, and Nineteenth Street to the south. Samuel Henderson, the first mayor of Indianapolis, originally owned this thirty-six acre tract, which contained scattered hardwood trees of mostly black walnut and oak and at least four good springs. This area became known as Henderson’s or Otis’ Grove. A creek flowed through this property upon which, after it was dredged in 1837, become known as State Ditch. State Ditch was later nicknamed the “Potomac” by the prisoners of Camp Morton. State Ditch is no longer visible as it was made into an underground drain some years after the war.
In 1859, the State of Indiana took possession of this tract of land for the purposes of creating a State Fairground. By 1861, there were several buildings on the grounds as well as stables for livestock. On the north side of the grounds were long open-ended shed like structures to stable horses. The west end of the grounds contained stalls for 250 cattle and sheds for sheep and hogs as well as an exhibition hall. There was a large dining hall on the east end and a two-story office building near the center of the Fairgrounds. After the siege of Fort Sumter on April 12-13, 1861, recruiting stations were opened in Indianapolis in response to President Lincoln’s call for volunteers. Governor Oliver P. Morton, along with his newly appointed adjutant general, Lew Wallace, surveyed the town for a suitable location for the reception of these new volunteers. The State Fairgrounds was the only suitable place found near Indianapolis for this purpose. On April 17, 1861, Camp Morton was hastily put into operation and welcomed in the first volunteers. In order to accommodate the large influx of volunteers, some new sheds or barracks were built of green lumber in which four tiers of bunks were constructed on two sides of the shed extending seven feet toward the middle. Situated between the two rows of bunks were long dining tables. With this set-up, each barrack would hold about 320 men. The camp was surrounded by a high board fence with armed guards. As more and more troops started coming into camp, the barracks were supplemented with tents. Soon troops were divided up and given quarters outside the camp. Troop drills were first attempted in the confines of the camp, but the buildings and trees made this task difficult. An area just south of the camp was acquired for this purpose with good results.
After the fall of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862, there was a need in the north for detaining significant numbers of captured confederate soldiers. Governor Morton, in response to a telegraph request by Union General Henry W. Halleck, agreed to accept up to 3,000 prisoners who were to be quartered at Camp Morton. The job of converting Camp Morton into a prison camp fell to Captain James A. Ekin, an assistant quartermaster general of the United States Army. Additional barracks were hastily erected that had been used for temporary stables. Some of this work was not completed until after the prisoners arrived. The first group of prisoners arrived on February 22, 1862 with much fanfare in the city. The total number of confederate prisoners that were sent to Camp Morton during these next few days totaled 3,700.
Governor Morton summoned several partially filled Indiana regiments to guard these men, including the Fourteenth Battery of Light Infantry commanded by Captain Meredith H. Kidd, the Fifty-third regiment under Colonel Walter Q. Gresham, and the Sixtieth regiment under Colonel Richard Owen. Upon arrival of these troops at Camp Morton, Colonel Owen was appointed commandant.
The Indianapolis Journal, on March 4, 1862 described the health of the newly arrived prisoners as follows:
“Of the sick prisoners at the military prison and hospitals of this city, the greater proportion are Mississippians. Though some of the Tennesseans and Kentuckians are quite ill, their maladies are not so deep seated as those of the First, Fourth, and Twenty-Sixth Mississippi prisoners. These regiments were at Fort Henry, and at the time of the attack made upon it by Commodore Foote they retreated so rapidly that they left behind most of their baggage, including many articles of clothing much needed for their comfort. On arriving at Fort Donelson they were (thinly clad as they were) put at work immediately upon the fortifications, and were compelled to labor upon the trenches constantly. During the siege of the Fort, they lay in the ditches and rifle pits, day and night. Such exposure would produce disease in the ranks of the most able-bodied soldiers, but when incurred by men of feeble constitutions, the seeds of disease are so firmly planted that no medical skill can remove them. Of the latter class are those now in hospitals. Many are under eighteen years of age, and the large majority are persons of feeble constitution. They receive the best medical treatment, and the nursing care of female attendants; but in many cases, the best of attention cannot save them from the grasp of death.”
The sick prisoners soon overwhelmed the hospital quarters in the old power hall at Camp Morton. Some of the emergency cases were taken to the City Hospital, although sick and wounded Union soldiers already occupied most of the beds there. Hospitals were also opened in two buildings on Meridian Street. One of these, which became Military Hospital No. 2, was opened in the Gymnasium building on the northeast corner of Meridian and Maryland Streets. By early March, Hospital No. 3 was opened in the old four-story post office on Meridian Street near the corner of Washington. Better quarters were found for a hospital in a frame building on the corner of Curve and Plum Streets, east of the Bellefontaine car shops and north of Massachusetts Avenue. On April 3, patients and equipment from Hospital No. 2 were moved to this new location. In May, a new addition was erected on the north side of the present City Hospital and by May 24, the patients from the downtown hospital in the old post office and from the Bellefontaine hospital were moved there. Despite the best efforts of the hospital staff, many patients died probably in part due to their already poor condition when they arrived at Camp Morton. Hospital stewards were instructed to transmit to Colonel Owen and Adjutant General Noble a report of all the deaths with name of the deceased, date of hospital admittance, company, regiment, and list of any personal effects. Local newspapers also regularly listed the death of prisoners, but many names were listed as unknown.
Five lots were purchased near the City Cemetery for the interment of the Confederate prisoners who died at Camp Morton. This cemetery, which came to be known by one of its additions - Greenlawn, was located along Kentucky Avenue between West Street and the White River (now the location of Diamond Chain Company). An Indianapolis undertaker firm, Weaver and Williams, contracted to furnish plain wooden coffins at $3.50 a piece, and to deliver the bodies to the cemetery. At the cemetery, prisoners dug the twenty feet long trenches in which the coffins were laid side by side. A strong board carrying a painted identification number was placed at the head of each gave. No official ceremony was conducted for the dead, unless a prayer was offered by one of the prisoners.
By April 1, 1862 there were five thousand men in camp, including the guards. Prisoners continued to arrive during the spring and summer of 1862, including 1,000 men coming in after the battle of Shiloh. In the beginning, officers and enlisted men were housed together, but were later separated for security reasons.
Colonel Owen proved an able administrator and was liked by both guards and prisoners. Col. Owen established eleven rules for humane and sensible treatment of prisoners. This was before any federal regulations existed for the treatment of prisoners. As the war continued, the need for experienced troops was great. As a result, on May 26, 1862, Col. Owen’s Sixtieth regiment was ordered to active duty.
Governor Morton appointed David Garland Rose as the commandant to follow Col. Owen and was mustered in as colonel of the Fifty-fourth regiment on June 19, 1862. Also, during this time, replacement guards volunteered from all areas of the state. By the end of the first week of June, over four hundred had been sworn in for three months service, and there were more waiting for their companies to be completed. The continuous shifting of guard companies caused some problems at Camp Morton due to lack of experience. Some of these new guards were even reported to have wounded themselves with firearms. Colonel Rose was a strict administrator, and some prisoners disliked him intensely. On July 14, twenty-five prisoners were reported to have escaped during a stormy and rainy night. All but one were found and retuned to camp by July 18. During this time, there were a few incidents involving prisoners who strayed to close to the camp walls, one was shot after the prisoner was given the required three warnings.
On August 23, after both Union and Confederate parties agreed to a prisoner exchange, 1,280 prisoners left Indianapolis among a crowd of spectators. Other prisoners left in groups over the next six days, until the only prisoners that remained were prisoners whose names did not appear on any rolls, or sick prisoners and their nurses. The sick were later discharged during the first week of September. By this time, Camp Morton was emptied of all confederate prisoners and an immediate “renovation and purification” was begun by companies from the Fifth Calvary.
Starting in late September 1862, three thousand paroled union prisoners arrived at Camp Morton. By November 17, after having been formally exchanged, they were freed for service. By early December, Camp Morton was nearly empty.
In Early 1863, the empty buildings of Camp Morton were in disrepair. Due to the halting of prisoner exchanges at Vicksburg, additional prison spaces were needed for the large number of confederate prisoners still waiting exchange there. Even though Camp Morton was in desperate need of repair, prisoners were once again accepted, beginning on January 29, in lots of two to three hundred at a time. During this time, Colonel James Biddle, of the Seventy-first Indiana Regiment, commanded the camp. In April, all the new prisoners were ordered to City Point, Virginia for exchange.
The next group of prisoners arrived from Gallatin, Tennessee in late May, 1863. General Grant’s successful operation near Vicksburg sent 4, 400 confederates north to be divided between Camp Morton and Fort Delaware. Three trainloads of prisoners arrived on June 2, and the remainder arrived the following day. Among these new prisoners were 250 East Tennesseans who took that oath of allegiance and enlisted with the Union army. Fifty of these men enlisted in the Seventy-first Indiana, 50 in the batteries, and155 in the Fifth Tennessee Cavalry. After the capture of Confederate General John H. Morgan on July 23, 1863 in Ohio, 1,200 of Morgan’s men were sent to Camp Morton. The arrival of Morgan’s men created a carnival atmosphere in the camp for a time. By August there were about 3,000 prisoners at Camp Morton. On August 17 and 18, over 1,100 prisoners, including most of Morgan’s raiders, were transferred to Camp Douglas. About 1,500 prisoners remained in the run downed camp. Over crowded conditions at the camp lead to increases in sickness and disease. Hospital space was also inadequate to accommodate the growing number of sick. The new addition to the City Hospital, that was built in 1862 specifically for the sick of Camp Morton, was now being used for wounded and sick Union Soldiers.
The overcrowding continued at Camp Morton during the summer and early fall of 1863. Several escape attempts by prisoners were made during this time. One group of prisoners, after working twelve days on a tunnel under the north fence of the enclosure, was betrayed on the eve of the escape. Other groups tried to escape and thirty-five men got away safely during this time.
Colonel Ambrose A. Stevens was appointed the new commandant on October 22, 1863. With the halting of exchanges of all prisoners north and south, the prisoners at Camp Morton would remain there. Then Adjutant Thomas Sturgis, while a member of a Union regiment on guard detail at Camp Morton, describes the conditions in the camp during the summer and autumn of 1864:
“At the time of which I write the cooking at Camp Morton was done by my details. We baked daily from 5,000 to 7,000 loaves, about six inches cube, of good white bread, which gave to each prisoner a loaf, appetizing and healthful. Our own men were then drawing only hard tack as an equivalent. On their arrival the prisoners were given necessary clothing and blankets. Each man received one of the latter, and as two usually bunked together, they joined forces. As the cold weather of autumn approached we made a further issue of a blanket apiece, and some of the men fashioned the old ones into capes or cloaks, and the sight of a sturdy Confederate strolling about with the Uncle Sam’s U.S. branded between his shoulders was not uncommon.”
In July, 1864 Camp Morton housed 4, 900 prisoners, over half of this total had arrived since May. The renovations and improvements at the camp had not been made on a scale to accommodate many of these new prisoners. A high number of malaria cases were reported during this time. Reforms at Camp Morton were ordered by Union Army medical personnel, which included recommendations of enlarging the camp, building of new hospital wards, and a supply of vegetables or “antiscorbutics” for the prisoners to prevent scurvy. Some of these reforms, however, were never instituted.
On the night of November 14, a mob of fifty or sixty prisoners rushed toward the fence while hurling stones and bottles filled with water at the surprised guards. Before reinforcements could reach the guards, the prisoners escaped over the fence and into the woods. An all night search party found some of the escapees, but thirty-one were never found.
The winter 1864-1865 was very cold. On New Years day, 1865, the temperature dropped to 20 degrees below zero along with a severe snowstorm. Extra straw, blankets, and wood for the cast iron stoves were secured for the barracks, but the winter hardships continued. The winter proved to be very cold with the last snow recorded on April 16. As the weather warmed, conditions improved slightly. Prisoners continued to make several escape attempts and some were successful, including an escape by a group of men through yet another tunnel.
Prisoner exchanges began again in February and March of 1865, although some prisoners refused to be exchanged if it meant going back to the Confederate lines. By April 1, 1865, 1,408 prisoners remained at Camp Morton. With General Lee’s surrender on April 9, all of the remaining prisoners were released after they were administered the oath.
After the War, Camp Morton was opened back into the State Fairgrounds, were it remained as such until 1890 when a new State Fairgrounds was opened further north. The old State Fairground property was sold off and divided into residential lots. This area of Indianapolis is now known as Herron-Morton Place.
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