Hello Pat, the book is coming along with much new information and pictures that have never been shown before of the Camp Chase Prison. It is a tremenous undertaking and the research is slow at times. If your in the Columbus, Ohio area then the downtown Columbus Public Library has the NARA micro-film of Camp Chase on their shelves. I don't know if an inter library loan might be approved or NOT? However the NARA in Washington, DC also has the micro-film on Camp Chase they will make copies for you. Prices have gone up over the last few years and I don't keep up with them although probably somewhere in the range of $75.00 per micro-film role. There are approx. 7 to 8 roles of micro-film just on Camp Chase. Some of the information that is contained on your ancestors Compiled Military Service Records (CMSR) came from this source.

The water at Camp Chase was horrid enough even to cause problems with the guards etc. I have read numerous accounts of Union Officers who were stationed at Camp Chase for long periods of time asking the United States government for help well after the War due to the conditions at Camp Chase ie disabilites and extra money for their pensions. To my knowledge NO extra money was given. Lt. Sankey a Union Officer and guard at Camp Chase said. "The water at Camp Chase is causing my slow death." He died in 1899 still asking the government for help. The guards and prisoners alike generally did NOT live too long after Camp Chase if they were there for any length of time. Although there were exceptions but almost all of them were or had duty at Camp Chase in the early years.

The prisoners at Johnson's Island tended to live much longer generally after the War then the poor souls at Camp Chase. Looking over the questionaires of the 1920 Tennessee you will see many veterans of Johnson's Island but less then a handful who were at Camp Chase. Yet Chase held many many more prisoners than Johnson's Island. Perhaps this may have been due to an education? Since officers generally had some type of education they made better decisions pertaining to their health ie., what they ate and how they lived after the War.

Hopefully every prisoner at Camp Chase will be listed in the book. Having said that Chase made mistakes and some soldiers gave false names and some took on an alias to fight for the Union or or did NOT want their true identity to be known perhaps because of a parole violation etc. Thanks for your interest and keeping the sad chapter in our history from being forgot.