My great grandfather's youngest brother died at Camp Chase prison in 1865 and is buried in the cemetery there - I have written about him before [
John's Grave ]. I first learned of John, his service with the 8th Virginia Cavalry, and eventual demise at Camp Chase from a list of the cemetery's burials. To learn more about him I looked him up in the Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers (CSRs) which indicated that he had been captured on the Winchester-Berryville Pike near Opequon creek on 13 September 1864.
Checking the Official Records of the War (the OR) I learned that the action in which he was captured is referred to as the 'Skirmish at Abrams Creek'; Union Brig Gen John McIntosh's 1st Brigade of the 3rd Cavalry made an armed reconnaissance of the turnpike and overran and captured the dismounted Confederate Cavalry pickets at the juncture of Abram's creek and the pike. The Federals continued their charge west along the turnpike and eventually captured a large proportion of the 8th South Carolina Infantry and its Colonel, and its battle flag. All the prisoners were marched back toward Berryville and eventually moved up to Harper's Ferry for further transport to POW camps.
In McIntosh's report [
OR, Series I, Vol XLIII, Part 1, Report #158 ] he enumerates the number of men captured by regiment :
I found the prisoner enrollment registers for Camp Chase online at Archive.org and FamilySearch.org [ e.g.
War Department, Reel 23 ] and looked for John and the other 34 Virginia cavalry that were captured that day. I was able to find the 35 enumerated by McIntosh however, I came up -1 for the 21st Cav and +1 for the 36th Battalion :
Name | Rank | Regiment | Co | Remarks | Grave |
Deatherage, J.G. | Pvt | 8th VA Cav | B | Died 23 Jan 1865 / Grave 855 | 855 |
Mehan, Patrick | Pvt | 12th VA Cav | F | Tranferred to Point Lookout, March 26, 1865 for Exchange | |
Allen, W.S. [Wm T. - Reg Hist] | Pvt | 21st VA Cav | G | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
Barrow, B.F. [CSR] | Pvt | 21st VA Cav | B | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
Booth, William B. | Pvt | 21st VA Cav | G | Died 21 Feb 1865 / Grave 1364 | 1364 |
Chewning, H. F. | Sgt | 21st VA Cav | H | Released 10 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
David, John P. | Pvt | 21st VA Cav | G | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
Dawn, W.H. | Pvt | 21st VA Cav | A | Transferred to New Orleans May 2, 1865 for Exchange | |
Hampton, Alex. | Pvt | 21st VA Cav | A | Galvanized 22 April 1865 | |
Lackey, John Elcaney | Pvt | 21st VA Cav | G | Died 20 December 1864 / Grave 638 | 638 |
Page, W.H. | Sgt | 21st VA Cav | H | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
Shoop, Isaac W. | Cpl | 21st VA Cav | E | Died 26 Nov 1864 / Grave 519 | 519 |
Tice, Abner N. | Pvt | 21st VA Cav | G | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
Valener, William | Pvt | 21st VA Cav | A | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
Ayers, Benjamin F | Pvt | 25th VA Cav | K | Died 21 March 1865 / Grave 1723 | 1723 |
Fletcher, Newton L. | Pvt | 25th VA Cav | G | Died 12 May 1865 / Grave 1961 | 1961 |
Burge, David A. | Sgt | 36th Bat VA Cav | D | Died 21 December 1864 / Grave 643 | 643 |
Carpenter, James A. | Pvt | 36th Bat VA Cav | C | Released 10 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
Dake, Columbus | Pvt | 36th Bat VA Cav | C | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
Dudding, Charles [CSR] | Pvt | 36th Bat VA Cav | C | Galvanized 18 Feb 1865 | |
Fitzgerald, Amos | Pvt | 36th Bat VA Cav | E | Died 3 Feb 1865 / Grave 1032 | 1032 |
Hundley, James T. | Pvt | 36th Bat VA Cav | E | Died 26 December 1864 / Grave 668 | 668 |
Legg, [Hasakiah] Frankliin | Pvt | 36th Bat VA Cav | B | Died 24 December 1864 / Grave 863 | 863 |
McAllister, Henry | Pvt | 36th Bat VA Cav | E | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
Morill, H. | Pvt | 36th Bat VA Cav | C | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
Olmfield[Armfield], Henry B | Pvt | 36th Bat VA Cav | D | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
D [Davis], J.T. | Pvt | 37th Bat VA Cav | G | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
Mill [Millwee], R.B. | Pvt | 37th Bat VA Cav | B | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
Patterson, George W. | Pvt | 37th Bat VA Cav | C | Transferred to New Orleans May 2, 1865 for Exchange | |
Richards, John | Pvt | 37th Bat VA Cav | G | Died 7 Jan 1865 / Grave 718 | 718 |
Sigman, A. L. | Pvt | 37th Bat VA Cav | G | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
Sigmon, Norman T. | Pvt | 37th Bat VA Cav | G | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
Sizemore, David | Pvt | 37th Bat VA Cav | K | Died 20 Nov 1864 / Grave 499 | 499 |
Trotter, J.S. | Pvt | 37th Bat VA Cav | B | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
Wilson, J.L. | Pvt | 37th Bat VA Cav | B | Released 11 June 1865, G.O. 109 | |
12 of these cavalrymen died in the prison and are buried in the cemetery - I've located the graves of all twelve with the exception of Isaac W. Shoop (sometimes spelled, "Shupe"), Co. E, 21st Va Cav. According to the Camp Chase enrollment, death, and burial registers, Shoop died of small pox on Nov. 26, 1864 and was buried in grave #519. However, when the burial list was compliled for the engravers when the headstones were placed in 1908, Shoop's grave received a headstone with the name, "M.W. Roop, Co. D, 21st Va Cav".
There was a Martin W. Roop in Co. D of the 21st Va Cav but he was not captured at Abrams Creek, was never at Camp Chase; he survived the war and raised a big family in Montgomery county, Va.. I spoke with Martin Roop's great grand daughter and she said that Martin is buried the the family cemetery near Riner, Virginia.
Camp Chase Cemetery is a national cemetery and is maintained and administered by the Dayton National Cemetery, Ohio. I advised Dayton of the mixup and they said they'd submit the information to their historian in Washington for research. I also made contact with a great great nephew of Isaac Shoop in Wythe county, Virginia and passed the information along to him - he also contacted Dayton National Cemetery. All this was back in 2011-2012 and nothing was ever done - neither I nor, Shoop's gr gr nephew have heard a word back from the National Cemetery Administration.
Here's a photo of grave #519, taken in August, 2017 :