Camp
Dennison is an unincorporated community just outside Indian Hill
in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. Although it is unincorporated,
it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 45111. During the American
Civil War, Camp Dennison served as a military recruiting and training
post for the United States Army Camp Dennison. It is named for William
Dennison, the 24th Governor of Ohio and U.S. Postmaster General
under President Abraham Lincoln.
Camp Dennison was a military recruiting and training post for the
United States Army during the American Civil War. It was located
near Cincinnati, Ohio, not far from the Ohio River. The camp was
named for Cincinnati native William Dennison, Ohio's governor at
the start of the war.
With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, George B. McClellan,
commander of Ohio's state militia, was charged by Governor Dennison
with selecting a site for a recruitment and training center for
southern Ohio, a possible target for the Confederate States Army
due to its Ohio River location and proximity to slave states such
as Kentucky and Virginia, from which invasions could be launched.
He chose a level tract of land near Indian Hill, Ohio, 17 miles
from Cincinnati. It was close to the Little Miami Railroad, which
could haul trainloads of volunteer soldiers to the new camp from
throughout western and southern Ohio. The location had fresh water
in the nearby Little Miami River and a paved turnpike that enabled
troops to be quickly moved to Cincinnati in case of an emergency.
More than 50,000 Union soldiers were mustered in or out of service
at Camp Dennison. As many as 12,000 occupied the camp at any one
time. During Morgan's Raid in 1863, troops from Camp Dennison
responded to the invasion by Confederate cavalry under Brig. Gen.
John Hunt Morgan, as they had in 1862 when Cincinnati was briefly
threatened by the cavalry of Albert G. Jenkins.
As the war progressed, shortly after the Battle of Shiloh a military
hospital was established on the grounds of Camp Dennison, with
over 200 beds situated in a series of wooden barracks. The nearby
Waldschmidt Cemetery served as the temporary gravesite for 340
Union soldiers and 31 Confederate soldiers who were prisoners
of war. The bodies were reinterred at Spring Grove Cemetery or
at Camp Chase in Columbus in the late 1860s.
The end of the Civil War in 1865 eliminated the need for Camp
Dennison, which was deactivated in September. A small community,
Camp Dennison, Ohio, sprang up around the camp and hospital. Many
of the later barns and homes used lumber and materials from the
abandoned army camp.