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Camp Morton was a military training ground and a Union prisoner-of-war camp in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana, during the American Civil War. It was named for Indiana governor Oliver Morton. Prior to the war, the site served as the fairgrounds for the Indiana State Fair. During the war, Camp Morton was initially used as a military training ground. The first Union troops arrived at the camp in April 1861. After the fall of Fort Donelson and the Battle of Shiloh, the site was converted into a prisoner-of-war camp. The first Confederate prisoners arrived at Camp Morton on February 22, 1862; its last prisoners were paroled on June 12, 1865. At the conclusion of the war, the property resumed its role as the fairgrounds for the Indiana State Fair. In 1891 the property was sold and developed into a residential neighborhood known as Morton Place, a part of the Herron-Morton Place Historic District. Camp Morton was established on a tract of land that bordered present-day Central Avenue and Nineteenth, Twenty-second, and Talbott Streets. It was among the largest of the Union's eight prison camps established for Confederate noncommissioned officers and privates. Between 1862 and 1865, the camp's average prison population was 3,214; it averaged fifty deaths per month. Its maximum prison population reached 4,999 in July 1864. More than 1,700 prisoners died at the camp during its four years of operation. While the military facilities at Camp Morton no longer exist, the remains of 1,616 Confederate soldiers and sailors who died while prisoners at the camp are interred at Indianapolis' Crown Hill Cemetery. Several monuments and historical markers commemorate Camp Morton, including a bust of Richard Owen, a camp commandant, at the Indiana Statehouse, and memorials to the Confederate prisoners who died at the camp at Indianapolis's Garfield Park and Crown Hill. ==Union training camp== Camp Morton served as a military camp for Union soldiers from April 1861 to February 1862.〔Winslow and Moore, p. 14.〕 Two days after the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, Indiana's governor Morton offered to raise and equip ten thousand Indiana troops in response to President Abraham Lincoln's call for volunteers to suppress the Southern rebellion and preserve the Union. Morton and his adjutant general, Lew Wallace, chose the site of the Indiana State Fairgrounds for a mustering ground and military camp at Indianapolis.〔Winslow and Moore, p. 3–4.〕〔Bodenhamer and Barrows, p. 443.〕 The site had served as the state fairgrounds since 1859, and had previously been known as Henderson's Grove, named after Samuel Henderson, the first mayor of Indianapolis. The tract of partially wooded farmland north of the city loosely bordered present-day Central Avenue and Nineteenth, Twenty-second, and Talbott Streets.〔Winslow and Moore, p. 1–2.〕 After the fairgrounds was converted into a military camp, it was renamed Camp Morton in honor of Morton, who served as the governor of Indiana from January 16, 1861 to January 23, 1867.〔Gugin and St. Clair, p. 140.〕 The first recruits arrived at the facility on April 17, 1861, four days after the surrender at Fort Sumter.〔Winslow and Moore, p. 4.〕 The camp's barracks were converted cattle and horse stalls, a hospital was established in the power hall, the dining hall became the commissary, and office space was converted into military offices and guardhouses.〔 Existing buildings could not house all the incoming troops, so new sheds were built with bunks; however, the soldiers had to bathe in Fall Creek.〔 The hastily built facility had difficulties accommodating so many men with equipment, tents, and food, but order was established within a few weeks. Many residents of Indianapolis saw the camp as a center of attraction.〔Bodenhamer and Barrows, p. 381 and 441.〕〔Winslow and Moore, p. 7.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Camp Morton」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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