Portal:Indianapolis/Selected article/12
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Camp Morton was a prisoner of war camp located in Indianapolis, Indiana during the American Civil War. It was named for Indiana governor Oliver Morton, who was the governor of Indiana during the War.
After the removal of United States forces occupying Fort Sumter, Morton volunteered to President Abraham Lincoln 10,000 Indiana troops to invade the South. Morton looked for a place to train these new recruits. He chose the ground of the then-new Indiana State Fairgrounds, on the advice of Lew Wallace, who named the facility Camp Morton, after the governor. It had previously been Henderson's Grove, after Samuel Henderson, the first mayor of Indianapolis. It was a 36-acre tract north of the city. Its borders were loosely the present-day roads of 19th Street, Central Avenue, 22nd Street, and Talbott Street.
On February 22, over 3,700 Confederate prisoners arrived at the camp. Having just come from battle, having suffered from lack of adequate food and clothing, and being unused to Northern winters, the death rate among the unfortunate Confederate prisoners was high. March 1862 saw the deaths of 144 prisoners. Thankfully, local residents of Indianapolis felt sorry for the Confederate prisoners, and providing the necessary food, clothing, and nursing to keep most of the prisoners alive.
