Georgia STATE FAIR (Macon) - Camp Oglethorpe & Old Fairgrounds

Camp Oglethorpe - Georgia military facility

Old Fairgrounds was the site of Camp Oglethorpe before & during the War Between the States

A 9/23/99 column described many historic aspects of Macon's Central City Park. This page is to provide some historic background on the original fairgrounds location for the benefit of interested readers. See the related links below.

Historic Photos || Fair History || 10th Battalion Georgia Infantry History || Middle Georgia Archives ||Credits/Bibliography

NOTE: The WBTS evokes strong emotions for many people. This page and the links herein are not intended to advocate the interests of any particular group but rather to inform readers about historic events in Macon. The war resulted in tragic human loss and suffering. It must be pointed out that conditions were equally as horrible at all POW camps in the north and south. Read what one former Andersonville soldier had to write: http://www.rootsweb.com/~gamacon/rebelpen.htm.

Camp Oglethorpe was a storage depot and militia camp in the old fairgrounds before the Confederate government enlisted its use as a prison camp for federal POWs who were held during the War Between the States. Located near the Ocmulgee River, the "old fairgrounds" was about 3000 feet west of the current Central City Park. The building in the center of the compound was formerly used as the floral hall for state fairs. See 1854 Map (courtesy Barry Colbaugh).

City officials were not pleased with the task of holding prisoners. Mayor Thompson wanted to use the Market House but was overruled by City Council on 2-May-1862 when it instructed him to place the inbound prisoners in Camp Oglethorpe. On May 3, 1862, a Macon Daily Telegraph writer expressed the sentiment this way,

"At a time when it is difficult to feed our own population, we are to be blessed with the presence and custody of 900 prisoners of war. We have no place to hold them---no food to give them---nobody whose time can be well spared to guard them---nor, except in the mere matter of hostages for the safety of our own prisoners in Lincoln's dominions, can we conceive of any object in holding them as prisoners." (Source: Civil War Macon p.126)

The Confederate military eventually provided various rotated units to serve as the guard for Camp Oglethorpe. See below.

On the fate of Camp Oglethorpe, Richard W. Iobst, Ph.D., writes in Civil War Macon (pp. 143-44):

"The very site of Camp Oglethorpe has been lost. The Georgia State Fair was never again held there. That event moved to several locations before it was permanently established at Central City Park in 1870. The site of the stockade was taken over by the Macon and Brunswick Railroad and most of the prison and fairgrounds structures were removed until the area was only a barren area of track next to Seventh Street. Today, the Southern Railway Company's Brosnan Yards occupy the site where thousands of men suffered and hundreds of them died."

The following text was copied directly from John Griffin's regimental histories on the SCV web site. See the 10th Battalion link above for more.

The following is a description of Camp Oglethorpe from "Portals to Hell."

[Speer, Lonnie R. Portals To Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War. Mechanicsburg. Stackpole Books, 1997.]

The facility at Macon, Georgia, officially named Camp Oglethorpe in honor of the founder of the state, James Oglethorpe, was located about a quarter mile southeast of town in the old fairgrounds. The camp consisted of fifteen to twenty acres containing a large building used as a hospital and a number of sheds and stalls, all surrounded by a highboard fence.

The enclosure, situated between a triple set of railroad tracks and Ocmulgee River, stood twelve feet high and was constructed heavy upright boards. A sentry walkway around the top was occupied heavily armed guards at twenty-pace intervals.

"The gate," reported one prisoner, "(was) spanned from post to post by a broad, towering arch, showing on its curve, in huge black letters 'Camp Oglethorpe'. We were conducted first to the office of the prison, which stood but a few feet from the gate, and there halted and detained until preparation could be made within for another examination."

The prisoners were thoroughly searched, which even included unraveling their clothing linings to locate hidden money, and were led up to gate one at a time.

"The guard pounded the boards with the butt of his gun," remembered prisoner John Hadley, "the bolt glided back, the hinges creaked, the big gate swung open and then there appeared before us a sea of ghostly, grizzly, dirty, haggard faces, staring and swaying this way and that.''

All around the inside of the enclosure, an ordinary picket fence three and a half feet high, sixteen feet out from the wall, served as the prison deadline. At the northwest corner of the stockade was a large grove of pine trees. A small stream ran through the west end. The large one-story frame building, once the floral hall for the fair, stood at the center of the enclosure and was often occupied by two hundred POWs. The remainder slept in the sheds or stalls or created their own shelter in the yard. The Macon pen held anywhere from 600 prisoners in 1862 to 1,900 in 1864. Captain W. Kemp Tabb served as the prison commandant for some time until he was relieved by Captain George C. Gibbs in June 1864. Gibbs served in this capacity until transferred to Andersonville in October.

Rations at Macon, consisting of one pint of unsifted cornmeal per day, four ounces of bacon twice a week, and enough peas for two soup dinners per week, were issued in five- or seven-day allotments and left to the POWs to manage the rations through that period. "The only fights I saw in prison," noted one Macon prisoner, "grew out of the dividing of rations, and they were not infrequent."

Roll call at Macon was conducted in a sort of herding process. "The Officer of the Day would come in each morning with twenty guards and deploy them across the north end the pen, explained one of the prisoners, "then all began whooping and hollering and swearing to drive us to the south end. This being accomplished, an interval between the guards was designated as the place for the count, which was effected by our returning, one by one, through that interval, into the body of the enclosure."

The final disposition of Camp Oglethorpe is described thusly: Camp Oglethorpe, in Macon, went on to serve as a parole site at the end of the war but was torn down sometime later."

Records show a Colonel Brown of the 59^th Regiment Georgia Volunteers and Major Rylander's 10^th Georgia Battalion guarding prisoners at Macon. In correspondence dated 25 August 1862 the 10^th Georgia Battalion and the 59^th Georgia regiment are listed as guarding stores and prisoners in Macon and also in a report "Position of Troops in the Department of South Carolina and Georgia", dated 25 September 1862, as commanded by General G.T. Beauregard.

In Folsom's book Heroes and Martyrs of Georgia he states:

"At this most laborious and disgusting service, the battalion suffered exceedingly with sickness and was not relieved until the last Federal prisoner was sent to Richmond to be exchanged."

James Pike, of the Fourth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry filed a report on 22 March 1863 describes what he saw as cruel treatment of Union prisoners while held at Macon awaiting exchange. He even singles out Major Rylander as having "forbidden preaching" among the Union prisoners. It might be noted that at the time this report was filed, the Union was experiencing many set backs, both militarily and politically. This report may have been used to further Northern sentiments against the Southern states when many in the North were calling for an end to the war.

UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE FROM DECEMBER 1, 1862, TO JUNE 10, 1863.--#17, ELEVEN MONTHS AMONG THE REBELS. MURFREESBOROUGH, TENN., March 22, 1863.

.....From Montgomery I was taken to Macon, Ga., in company with 1,200 others. Here we were allowed seven pounds of corn meal and two and a half pounds of bacon of bad quality for seven days. We were allowed two surgeons and but very little medicine. Our men fared badly, being punished severely for the most trifling offenses. One man named Cory was kept tied up three days by the wrists to a tree just so that his toes touched the ground. This was because he helped kill a yearling calf that got into the camp. A Floridian and two Kentuckians, political prisoners, were confined in the jail at Macon on quarter rations for twenty-two days. The only offense they had committed was to escape from the prison lot. Our men were pegged down on the ground for any misdemeanor. This was done by stretching out the limbs and driving a forked stick down over them. The operation was completed by driving one down over the neck. It would be impossible to tell all of the hardships to which we were subjected. I have endeavored to portray a few of them. They may be summed up thus: We were confined in bad quarters; our dead were left unburied for days together; some were left unburied entirely, at least to our knowledge; we were denied medical attendance; our chaplains were forbidden preaching to us or praying for us (by order of Major Rylander); our men and officers were shot without cause; an insane man was shot at Macon, Ga., for no offense; we were compelled to bury men in river banks where their bodies were liable to be washed out; we were beaten with clubs (this was done on board of the steamer en route for Montgomery, Ala.); we were fed on foul and unwholesome diet, frequently left without any rations two or three days at a time, and our exchange was delayed as long as possible; we were kept confined in camp surrounded by swamps, as the rebels said, that we all might die. I find it impossible to enumerate all the hardships put upon us, but have enumerated such as were the most intolerable. JAMES PIKE, Company A, Fourth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry

In Special Orders 256, dated 1 November 1862, the 10^th Battalion of Georgia Volunteers at Macon are ordered relieved from further duty and are to proceed to Winchester, VA to report for duty at the headquarters of General Robert E. Lee. In this order the 1^st Regiment of Georgia Regulars will be relieved of duty with General Lee and will proceed to Macon, Georgia.

After the war charges were brought (posthumously) by the Federal Bureau of Military Justice against Major Rylander regarding his command of the 10th Georgia Battalion guarding prisoners at Macon, Georgia in 1862. The following is from the Official Records.

UNION AND CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE FROM JANUARY 1, 1865, TO THE END.--#32 WAR DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF MILITARY JUSTICE, November 3, 1865. Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War:

SIR: In the cases of sundry rebel officials concerned in alleged cruel treatment of Federal prisoners at the South, in violation of the laws of war, I have the honor to return the papers referred to me and to submit thereon as follows:

The principal of these cases has already been before the Bureau, and it has heretofore been reported in regard to several that the facts not only warranted, but urgently called for, the trial of the parties by a military commission. The testimony evolved in the course of the recent trial of Wirz, and by means of recent investigations in the Southern military departments, fully confirms and strengthens this conclusion, and I have now to formally recommend as follows in all these cases: First. That Lieutenant-Colonel Iverson, Forty-seventh Georgia Volunteers, and his subordinate, Lieutenant (or Captain) Barrett, be arrested and brought to trial for their treatment of our soldiers when prisoners of war at Florence, S.C. The testimony fixes upon them not only a series of the most cruel and inhuman acts of neglect, abuse, assault, robbery, &c., but a considerable number of well-established homicides. In these Barrett was the principal agent, but Iverson, as his commanding officer, was clearly no less criminal. Second. That Maj. John H. Gee should be tried for homicides and acts of similar atrocity committed by him while in charge of the rebel prison at Salisbury, N.C. Of this man it is remarked by Brevet Brigadier-General Heath, in his recent full report, herewith enclosed, "His infamy cannot be reported." Third. That J. W. Duncan be also tried for at least one case of murder and numerous cases of robbery and cruelty, committed by him while commissary-sergeant at Andersonville. The testimony in regard to his crimes, incidentally adduced upon the trial of Wirz, is apparently of the most reliable character. Fourth. That Doctor Nesbit, of Salisbury, N. C., be forthwith brought to trial by military commission at that place, where he is understood to be now in arrest, for the wanton murder of a Union prisoner on the occasion of a slight outbreak at the prison, which occurred last winter. Fifth. That in the case of R. B. Winder, while the evidence at the trial of Wirz was deemed by the court to implicate him in the conspiracy against the lives of all Federal prisoners in rebel hands, no such specific overt acts of violation of the laws of war are as yet fixed upon him as to make it expedient to prefer formal charges and bring him to trial. Sixth· That Captain Alexander, of the Salisbury prison; Lieutenants Wilson, Cheatham, and Mosely, of the Florence prison; Maj. John E. Rylander, Tenth Georgia Battalion, of the Macon prison (in 1862); Colonel. Godwin, stationed at Salisbury; Captain Vowles, at Millen, Ga.; Lieutenant Emack and Dick Turner, of the Libby Prison; Capt. G. W. Alexander, of Castle Thunder (in 1862); Capt. John Adams, of a Mississippi regiment, stationed at Memphis in 1861; and one Peacocke, an alleged deserter from the Ninth New York Volunteers and a subordinate of Wirz, at Tuscaloosa in 1862, are all presented by the accompanying testimony as guilty of acts more or less cruel and criminal in their treatment of prisoners of war. None of these cases are yet in a condition for trial, but should, it is thought, be made the subject of such further investigation by the different local commanders as may be practicable.

Besides Winder, Duncan, and Nesbit, it is not known that any of these criminals are in military custody. It is understood that an effort is now being made by the commander of the Department of North Carolina to effect the arrest of Gee, and it is supposed that Iverson and Barrett may be apprehended at Columbus and Augusta, Ga., their respective places of residence. It is conceived that the trial of Duncan, if it be concluded to prosecute him, could be entered upon at an early day. J. HOLT, Judge-Advocate. General. O.R.--SERIES II--VOLUME VIII

The following text is an excerpt from Campfires of Georgia Troops by Bill Smelmund provided courtesy of Barry Colbaugh. See 1854 Map.

Camp Oglethorpe

Bibb County, Georgia

The camp faced 7th Street on the northwest, Pine Street on the northeast, Hawthorne Street on the southwest and a swamp on the southeast. The camp covered 12 acres and the site of the old fairgrounds in Macon. See Chapter II, and the story written about Camp Oglethorpe. A number of companies and units used this camp for short periods of time while stopping overnight in Macon. The camp was also used as a prison camp for Federal Officers for a period of time. The following article from theColumbus Daily Times of June 30th 1864 describes an attempted escape of Federal prisoners.

Escape of prisoners - On Sunday night, says the Macon Confederate, the Yankee officers confined in Camp Oglethorpe succeeded in completing a subterranean tunnel they have supposed to have been working on for some time. But it had not been finished many moments before it was discovered. It was supposedly yesterday that one man succeeded in getting away, although it was not positively known. We heard it stated yesterday that the officers of the guard knew all about the progress of the tunnel but suffered it to go on in order to administer to those who might attempt to make an escape through it, a wholesome lesson.

Merrill's Macon History | Captain Charles Gustafson - 15th Wisconsin Co. F

Bibliography and Credits

Iobst, Richard W. Ph.D. Civil War Macon - The History of a Confederate City Macon. Mercer University Press, 1999.

Thanks go to John Griffin who compiled the history of the 10th Batallion Georgia Infantry and who graciously allowed the use of his material in the quotes above. Griffin's web site includes the histories of many other CSA military units----see the 10th Battalion link above.

Thanks to Barry Colbaugh for the 1854 Map image and the Columbus Daily Times 30-June-1864 story.

Speer, Lonnie R. Portals To Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War. Mechanicsburg. Stackpole Books, 1997.

McInvale, "That Thing of Infamy," 290.

Smelmund, Bill Campfires of Georgia Troops

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