Private Augustus Beckman-- Part 2: A Case of Mistaken Identity

His brother William Augustus was sent to Louisville where his wound healed and he was released to the provost marshal and taken to Camp Chase in Ohio.

Augustus was sent to Camp Dennison and hospitalized, but died May 9, 1862.  He was buried at Waldschmidt Cemetery in Grave #72 and listed as Augustus Bergmann.

The State of Ohio decided that all Confederate dead in the state should be placed at two locations:  Johnson's Island and Camp Chase.  In May 1869, 31 Confederates who had died at Camp Dennison were dug up and reburied at Camp Chase.

Augustus Bergmann (Beckman) is buried there at Plot Grave #214o.

--Old Secesh

2nd Texas Infantry, the Beckmann Brothers-- Part 3: Augustus Not So Lucky

Augustus Beckmann was wounded the same day that his brother William was, April 7, 1861, at the second day of fighting at the Battle of Shiloh.  He was wounded in the knee and then taken prisoner.

He was taken to Camp Dennison in Cincinnati where he died on May 9, 1862.  All he had with him at the time was his German Testament.  Years after the war, his body was disinterred and moved to Camp Chase in Columbus where he was reburied and had the incorrect name and company on his gravestone.

I have no doubt that part of the problem with his misidentification was because of his inability to speak English very well or his accent.

Of interest, his brother William Beckmann had been a prisoner at Camp Chase during the war.

--Old Secesh

Headstone of Confederate Soldier To Be Fixed After 154 Years-- Part 2

Greg Beckman, Augustus Beckmann's brother's great-great-grandson, teaches government at a high school in Placentia, California, pulled together the necessary documentation and asked the National Cemetery Administration to fix the headstone.  He recently learned his request was approved.

An administration spokeswoman said the approved stones are typically in place within sixty days.

Beckman's great-great-grandfather, William Beckmann, was Augustus' brother.  The two men came to America from present-day Germany between 1858 and 1860 and enlisted in the 2nd Infantry Division in Galveston.

"William never learned the fate of his brother, as (Augustus) was buried under the wrong surname of Bergman all those years," Beckman said.  "The last time they saw one another was on the battlefield of Shiloh."

Augustus Beckmann was buried under the name Bergman at Camp Dennison near Cincinnati, and the incorrect name followed him when his remains and those of 30 other soldiers were removed in 1869 and reinterred at Camp Chase.

Beckman said he was happy to visit his relative's gravesite but wasn't content with the incorrect inscription.  "I knew something had to be done about it," he said.

Job Well Done.  --Old Secesh

Ohio's Edward F. Noyes-- Part 2

Edward F. Noyes eventually rose through the ranks to colonel of the 39th Ohio (when Cadman wrote about his poor service at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.

He was wounded in battle on July 4, 1864, near Ruff's Mills, Georgia, and had his left leg amputated.  Three months later, Major General Joseph Hooker assigned him to command Camp Dennison in Cincinnati.

After the war, he resigned his commission and became city solicitor of Cincinnati and was elected governor of Ohio in 1871 and served until 1974.

--Old Secesh

The Schoolhouse Restaurant, Camp Dennison,Ohio-- Part 2

Due to a goof, you can find the rest of the story as some radio announcer used to say, on an entry from today at my RoadLog Blog at
http://sawtheelephant.blogspot.com.

I hate when that happens.

I Must Learn to Pay More Attention. --Old B-Runner

The Schoolhouse Restaurant, Camp Dennison, Ohio-- Part 1

Saturday, I wrote about this restaurant outside of Cincinnati which was built in 1863 and reportedly Abraham Lincoln visited. It is in a town called Camp Dennison which was a Union training facility during the war and later a hospital.

I do not know if the structure is located within what used to be the boundaries of Camp Dennison or outside it. If it was inside the camp, I doubt that it would have been built with the initial purpose of being a school.

Perhaps a hospital administrative building would have been a use, but then again, if the army wasn't planning on keeping the camp, I doubt they would have built it out of brick.

According to the Schoolhouse website, the building was constructed in 1863, the first school in the Midwest with a second story. Today is features family-style dining with lazy Susans, fried chicken, roast beef and meatloaf.

There have been three school buildings in the Camp Dennison area. The first one was a log structure which no longer exists.

The second one was a brick building that still stands as a private residence, but has had siding put on it and is hard to recognize as a former school. Area children used it until the Civil War.

Landowners in the area (then called Little Germany and Big Bottom) leased their land to the government for use as a training facility and most families moved away, which makes me wonder why they would have built a school in 1863.

More to Come. --Old B-Runner

Camp Dennison, Ohio-- Part 2

During the course of the war, some 50,000 troops trained there and at its peak, 12,000 were at the camp.

During Jenkins' 1862 and Morgan's 1863 raids, men from the camp deployed to meet the threat.

Shortly after the Battle of Shiloh, a 200+ hospital was set up on the grounds and wooden barracks were converted to hospital wards.

Men died at the hospital, and temporarily 340 Union and 31 Confederate prisoners were buried at Waldschmidt Cemetery before being reinterred in the late 1860s at Spring Grove Cemetery and Camp Chase in Columbus.

The camp was deactivated in September 1865 and over time, the small town of Camp Dennison grew up around it. Many later barns and homes were built from lumber and materials from the camp.

In 1973, two remaining buildings from the fort/camp were entered into the National Register for Historic Places as the Waldschmidt-Camp Dennison Historic District.

Stuff I Didn't Know. --Old B-Runner

Camp Dennison, Ohio-- Part 1

In my Roadlog Blog from today, I wrote about the Schoolhouse Restaurant in Camp Dennison (Cincinnati) which was built in 1863 and supposedly Abraham Lincoln visited it. This would be a definite Civil War tie-in. Plus, I seemed to remember a Camp Dennison being a training camp for Union troops in Ohio during the war. Since quite a few Union training camps were turned into Confederate prison camps, perhaps this one was too.

Friend Denny Gibson made a comment saying he had been to the restaurant and that it had been a training camp and also a hospital. He didn't know about it being a prison and that it had a small museum.

I had to do some research on it.

Thanks good old Wikipedia.

The camp was a military training and medical post near Cincinnati. It was named after that city's native and governor of Ohio at the beginning of the war, William Dennison.

The site was chosen by Captain (later general) William S. Rosecrans with much of the land being leased from local farmers who really made out like bandits, getting $12 to $20 an acre a month, a huge amount of money back then. It was laid out on April 24, 1861, just 12 days after the firing on Fort Sumter.

Mighty Rich Farmers. --Old B-R'er