Colonel William H. Knauss has often been credited for being the hero of the Camp Chase Cemetery insofar as his work at honoring the Confederate Dead in Columbus, Ohio. William H. Knauss was also the author of "The Story of Camp Chase" printed in 1906 and it remains in part some great historical research material.
However, recently found material may shed a little different light upon Knauss and a little more credit for Chaplain David Tolford.
Colonel Knauss held the title of Colonel only in an honorary form. Private Knauss never held the rank above Private during the War. He served with the 2nd New Jersey Infantry in Company G and was wounded at Fredericksburg, Virginia in December of 1862. He then was transferred to the 2nd Battalion Veteran Reserve Corps.
Colonel Knauss was among other things a real estate agent and came to Columbus, Ohio in the early 1890's. He had been given credit for cleaning up the Chase Cemetery and through his efforts of putting up the stone wall around the cemetery. However, the stone wall was built in February of 1888 the same time as the large boulder was placed inside of the cemetery. Insofar as cleaning up the cemetery work had been done prior to Knauss coming to Columbus, Ohio by the Federal Government. The United States Government purchased the 2 and one half acres as a National Cemetery in 1879.
Likewise Knauss at times has been given credit with getting the stones for the Camp Chase Cemetery. The Confederate head stones had been ordered by the Government in a bill that had been passed in 1906 and placed at the Camp Chase Cemetery starting in May of 1908. In 1907 the United States Government ordered 20,000 Confederate head stones from the Blue Ridge Marble Company out of Nelson, Georgia as they had the lowest bid for the job at $2.90 per head stone. This was including the script on the stone and the transportation costs to the final destination. Knauss had little if any decision making of the Confederate head stones going to the Camp Chase Cemetery. In fact, William Knauss even put in a bid for setting the Confederate stones at the cemetery. The man who got the job was M.M. Smalley who won the bid at setting each stone for .15 cents. Many bids were submitted and the highest bid was by William H. Knauss at .98 cents a stone.
The next lowest bid was at .45 cents per stone. There were close to 2,000 stones set at Camp Chase in 1908. The other 18,000 Confederate head stones were placed in various places across the country.
Chaplain David Tolford had been a Chaplain for the 10th Iowa Infantry and was present during the battle of Shiloh, Tennessee. He was transferred to Camp Dennison and then to Camp Chase, Ohio. Chaplain Tolford for example directly after the War in 1865 went to the Camp Chase Cemetery and wrote down the information on the wooden head boards that marked the Confederate graves at Camp Chase. He also noted exactly where the graves were located. It was because of his work that the stone setter M.M. Smalley in 1908 was able to place the stones. Chaplain Tolford also called for the cleaning up of the Camp Chase Cemetery and let his feelings be known about the care for all dead not just the Union. It was also Chaplain Tolford under his guidelines that two locations of Confederate Dead in the State of Ohio be designated one at Camp Chase and the other at Johnson's Island.
In my opinion a little more credit should be given to Chaplain Tolford and a little less credit due to Private Knauss. Both men made an outstanding contributions to the Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery.