BIBB COUNTY, GA - MILITARY CIVIL WAR Camp Oglethorpe 

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CAMP OGLETHORPE

Old Fairgrounds (Macon, Bibb County)  was the site
of Camp Oglethorpe before and during the Civil War. 
It was named after James Oglethorpe, founder of
Georgia.

[Today this site is not clearly identified.  It was
located near the Ocmulgee River]

It was used by Confederate companies briefly as they
passed through the area, and also was a Prison for
Federal Officers.
===========

GUARDS:
http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/bibb/military/civilwar/rosters/cod10bat.txt
10th Battalion  formed March 1862 at Camp Stephens.
Ordered to Camp Oglethorpe, Macon, GA 14-May-1862-
8-Dec-1862   to guard several thousand federal
prisoners as well as the supplies stored there.

Prisoners:
KURTH

Kurth, Frederick  Captain Illinois 58th Inf Reg Co F
(Paroled in later part of 1862. Stayed in the Regt. till 1864, resigning his commission because of failing health)

Kurth, Julius 1st Lieut.   Illinois 58th Inf. Regt.
Co F (enlisted 31 Dec 1861)  Died in Camp Oglethorpe
Prison. Left a widow, Charlotte and 6 children, 1 daughter and 5 sons in Dupage county, Illinois

[Illinoise 58th fought in the western campaign at Fort Henry and
Fort Donnelson and the famous battle of "Shiloh" at
Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. They were captured on
6 April 1862 on the first day of the battle of
"Shiloh". ]

Researcher: erniedk@msn.com  Ernest D. Kurth


CEMETERY
(There must have been a cemetery for this Camp, but
I've found no information thus far.)
================

Columbus Daily Times 30-June-1864 story
Thanks to Barry Colbaugh for sharing this.

The following article from the Columbus Daily Times
of June 30th 1864 describes an attempted escape of
Federal prisoners.

Escape of prisoners - On Sunday night, says the
Macon Confederate, the Yankee officers confined in
Camp Oglethorpe succeeded in completing a
subterranean tunnel they have supposed to have been
working on for some time. But it had not been
finished many moments before it was discovered. It
was supposedly yesterday that one man succeeded in
getting away, although it was not positively known.
We heard it stated yesterday that the officers of
the guard knew all about the progress of the tunnel
but suffered it to go on in order to administer to
those who might attempt to make an escape through
it, a wholesome lesson.

========== UNION AND CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE,
ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE
FROM JANUARY 1, 1865, TO THE END.--#32 WAR
DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF MILITARY JUSTICE, November 3,
1865. Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War:

SIR: In the cases of sundry rebel officials
concerned in alleged cruel treatment of Federal
prisoners at the South, in violation of the laws of
war, I have the honor to return the papers referred
to me and to submit thereon as follows:

The principal of these cases has already been before
the Bureau, and it has heretofore been reported in
regard to several that the facts not only warranted,
but urgently called for, the trial of the parties by
a military commission. The testimony evolved in the
course of the recent trial of Wirz, and by means of
recent investigations in the Southern military
departments, fully confirms and strengthens this
conclusion, and I have now to formally recommend as
follows in all these cases:

First. That Lieutenant-Colonel Iverson, Forty-
seventh Georgia Volunteers, and his subordinate,
Lieutenant (or Captain) Barrett, be arrested and
brought to trial for their treatment of our soldiers
when prisoners of war at Florence, S.C. The
testimony fixes upon them not only a series of the
most cruel and inhuman acts of neglect, abuse,
assault, robbery, &c., but a considerable number of
well-established homicides. In these Barrett was the
principal agent, but Iverson, as his commanding
officer, was clearly no less criminal. 

Second. That Maj. John H. Gee should be tried for
homicides and acts of similar atrocity committed by
him while in charge of the rebel prison at
Salisbury, N.C. Of this man it is remarked by Brevet
Brigadier-General Heath, in his recent full report,
herewith enclosed, "His infamy cannot be reported."
Third. That J. W. Duncan be also tried for at least
one case of murder and numerous cases of robbery and
cruelty, committed by him while commissary-sergeant
at Andersonville. The testimony in regard to his
crimes, incidentally adduced upon the trial of Wirz,
is apparently of the most reliable character. 

Fourth. That Doctor Nesbit, of Salisbury, N. C., be
forthwith brought to trial by military commission at
that place, where he is understood to be now in
arrest, for the wanton murder of a Union prisoner on
the occasion of a slight outbreak at the prison,
which occurred last winter. 

Fifth. That in the case of R. B. Winder, while the
evidence at the trial of Wirz was deemed by the
court to implicate him in the conspiracy against the
lives of all Federal prisoners in rebel hands, no
such specific overt acts of violation of the laws of
war are as yet fixed upon him as to make it
expedient to prefer formal charges and bring him to
trial. 

Sixth· That Captain Alexander, of the Salisbury
prison; 

Lieutenants Wilson, Cheatham, and Mosely, of the
Florence prison; 

Maj. John E. Rylander, Tenth Georgia Battalion, of
the Macon prison (in 1862); 

Colonel. Godwin, stationed at Salisbury; Captain
Vowles, at Millen, Ga.; 

Lieutenant Emack and Dick Turner, of the Libby
Prison; Capt. G. W. Alexander, of Castle Thunder (in
1862);

Capt. John Adams, of a Mississippi regiment,
stationed at Memphis in 1861; 

and one Peacocke, an alleged deserter from the Ninth
New York Volunteers and a subordinate of Wirz, at
Tuscaloosa in 1862, are all presented by the
accompanying testimony as guilty of acts more or
less cruel and criminal in their treatment of
prisoners of war. None of these cases are yet in a
condition for trial, but should, it is thought, be
made the subject of such further investigation by
the different local commanders as may be
practicable.

Besides Winder, Duncan, and Nesbit, it is not known
that any of these criminals are in military custody.
It is understood that an effort is now being made by
the commander of the Department of North Carolina to
effect the arrest of Gee, and it is supposed that
Iverson and Barrett may be apprehended at Columbus
and Augusta, Ga., their respective places of
residence. It is conceived that the trial of Duncan,
if it be concluded to prosecute him, could be
entered upon at an early day. J. HOLT, Judge-
Advocate. General. Official Records--SERIES II--
VOLUME VIII

Sources:

http://georgiastatefair.org/CampOglethorpe.htm
Steve Scroggins site has more information.

Campfires of Georgia Troops by Bill Smelmund 

Iobst, Richard W. Ph.D. Civil War Macon - The
History of a Confederate City Macon. Mercer
University Press, 1999.

Speer, Lonnie R. Portals To Hell: Military Prisons
of the Civil War. Mechanicsburg. Stackpole Books,
1997.