NEGenWeb Project
Spanish American War
Compiled by Fred Greguras
Camp Hale, San Francisco, CA (See Camp
Merritt)
Camp Hamilton, Lexington, KY (See Camps Miles, Mill Farm and Sanger)
| • | Named in honor of Lt. Col. James M. Hamilton of the 9th Cav. who was KIA on July 1, 1898 at San Juan Hill. He is buried at Geneva, New York in a private cemetery. |
| • | Camp Hamilton was the camp of the second division of the First Corps from late August to late October, 1898. The camp was abandoned about November 15, 1898. Corps headquarters was at Lexington. |
| • | The camp was at the James Clark farm on Bryan Station Road about 5 miles from the city according to the August 16, 1898 Lexington Leader. Bryan Station Road (Highway 57) runs east of Lexington on present day maps. The Clark farm was south of Bryan Station Road and west of Montrose. |
| • | The camp location is described in Webber, Twelve Months with the Eighth Massachusetts Infantry in the Service of the
U.S., Newcomb & Gauss Printers, 1908, 97, 100: “The Kentucky home of the Eighth was about five miles from Lexington on a knoll between the Bryan Pike and the Kentucky & Eastern Railroad. Access to the city . . . . was over the Pike or by rail from the station of Montrose, a few hundred yards away.” [Montrose is still located on maps along Bryan Road east of Lexington.]. . . . Lexington has been the home of Henry Clay, and a compliment to the city, the camp was named Camp Henry Clay, in honor of the Kentucky statesman. This name was subsequently changed, as the War Department had adopted the practice of naming the camps in honor of soldiers who had fallen in the Spanish War, to Camp J. M. Hamilton, in honor of an officer in the Ninth United States Infantry, who fell at Santiago.” |
| • | The October 26, 1898 Knoxville Sentinel reports that the camp of the 1st battalion of the 3rd U.S. Vol. Engineers at Lexington was named Camp Wilson. The battalion was in Lexington from September 21 to November 11, 1898. The Wilson was likely Brigadier General James M. Wilson, chief of engineers. The other possible Wilson is Major General James H. Wilson, commander of the First Corps beginning October 20, 1898. |
| • | The 1st and 2nd Miss. Vol. Inf. were mustered out at Columbia on December 20, 1898. Camp Hamilton was their muster out camp according to source (12). The troops began to arrive in mid-October, 1898. |
| • | The camp was at the fairgrounds at South Side Park, according to the Columbia Herald newspaper. According to Bob Duncan, Maury County historian, the fairgrounds at South Side Park were southeast of the corner of Old South Main and East 17th Streets, where the old Tennessee Knitting Mills water tower is located. |
| • | Named after the commanding officer of the 2nd N.Y. Vol. Inf. |
| • | At Averill Park, NY, about 12 miles from Troy, (“located on a high hill overlooking Sand Lake” at page 74 of Empire State.). See pages 74-78 of Empire State. |
| • | The 2nd N.Y. regimental history has two photos of Camp Hardin. Lester, History of the Second Regiment; New York Infantry, U.S.V., published by Saratoga Print, 1899, opposite page 39. |
| • | This was the muster out camp for the 2nd N.Y. Vol. Inf. and was occupied during August 28, 1898 to September 15, 1898. |
Camp Harries, near Falls Church, VA (See Camp Alger and Camp at the Soldier’s Home)
| • | According to the May 14, 1898 Baltimore Sun, this was where the District of Columbia volunteers were to be mobilized following their muster in. The camp was named after the regiment’s colonel. The camp was about 2 miles west of Falls Church on a farm owned by Charles and Emma Campbell known as Woodburn Manor. The first troops arrived on May 13, 1898 and by May 19, 1898 the entire regiment was there. This camp became Camp Alger on May 23, 1898. Camp Harries was located near the houses (“mansions”) then on the property which were south of Lee Highway and southwest of where Route 705 intersects with the Lee Highway. |
Camp Harvey, Milwaukee, WI (See Camp Douglas)
| • | From the Wisconsin Veterans Museum cyber exhibition (Web site) on the Spanish American War: “The volunteers mustered into service at Camp Harvey, located on the site of the present day Wisconsin State Fair Park near Milwaukee. This training camp was named in honor of [the late] Louis P. Harvey, who was a Wisconsin Governor during the Civil War. While at Camp Harvey, new recruits received their first taste of military life. The four regiments were housed in unusual quarters while encamped at the site of the annual Wisconsin State Fair. The First Regiment was quartered in the Manufacturers’, Agricultural and Horticultural buildings in the center of the grounds. The Second and Third Regiments were given the northern and western stables, while the Fourth Regiment roughed it in tents that were pitched on the eastern side of the encampment. Morning baths were taken at the stream that cut through the site.” |
| • | A photo of Camp Harvey identifies the site as North Greenfield, WI. The state fairgrounds are directly north of Greenfield. |
| • | Named for Lt. Col. Joseph T. Haskell of the 17th U.S. Inf. (Brigadier General, U.S. Volunteers) who died on September 16, 1898 after his return from Cuba. He commanded the 17th at the battle of El Caney where he was wounded twice. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. |
| • | The sole brigade of the third division of the Second Corps was camped at Athens, Georgia for the winter. The camp was occupied from mid-November 1898 until February 11, 1899 when the 3rd New Jersey departed. |
| • | The camp was located west of Athens near the present intersection of Broad and Hawthorne Streets according to Thomas, A Portrait of Historic Athens & Clarke County, University of Georgia Press, 1992. |
Camp Haskell, Macon, GA (See Camps Fornance and Prior)
| • | The November 24, 1898 Knoxville Sentinel reported that this camp at the “Huff place” was named after Lt. Col. Haskell. |
| • | In late October, 1898, the first division of the First Corps was headquartered at Macon. Two of its brigades were also camped there. |
| • | The November 6, 1898 Macon Telegraph reported that two brigades would winter in Macon. The “four Negro regiments will be camped on the Huff property and the two white regiments on the Ocmulgee Land Company’s property.” The 3rd N.C. and 6th Virginia, both Black regiments, came from Camp Poland and were at this camp from late November 1898 until about February 1, 1899. The Ocmulgee Park area was not large enough for all of the regiments. There was also a desire to keep the Black and white regiments separated. |
| • | The Huff property is in Vineville north of Macon on the site of the old Confederate Laboratory which encompassed over 300 acres, according to Macon’s Washington Memorial Library. William A. Huff (former mayor of Macon) spent many years trying to get paid for the use of his land for the camp. |
| • | The November 22, 1898 Knoxville Sentinel reported the 6th Virginia was at Crumps Park which was on the site of the laboratory grounds. Crumps Park Avenue still exists as a street in northwest Macon, northeast of U.S. Highway 41. |
| • | Named after wartime Governor Daniel H. Hastings of Pennsylvania. |
| • | Mt. Gretna was a long time site for Pennsylvania National Guard encampments beginning in 1885. The national guard camp moved to Indiantown Gap in the 1930s. |
| • | Camp Hastings is mentioned in Bitner, Mt. Gretna; A Coleman Legacy, published by Lebanon County Historical Society, 1990, at page 131: “News in 1898 was dominated by the Spanish-American War. Following the national call to arms, Camp Daniel H. Hastings opened at Mt. Gretna on April 29, 1898, to prepare for mustering in of the Pennsylvania National Guard. Enrollment of volunteers for federal service occurred May 3 5, and it was reported that over 90%, or 7,739, had volunteered. The photographs depict this swearing in process, at the southeast corner of the parade grounds.” Page 130 has two photos of the Pennsylvania National Guard being mustered into service in May, 1898. |
| • | See Chapter 2 of source (6) for a complete history of Camp Hastings. |
| • | During a visit on July 14, 1999, a portion of the old parade ground could still be seen as well as the monuments to the Pennsylvania volunteers who mustered in at Mt. Gretna both in 1898 and 1916. The 1909 monument to the Governors Troop of its stay at Camp Hastings during the Spanish American War is on Conewago Hill overlooking the lake on the northeast end of the Conewago Hills Road loop near where the hotel was located. The monument to the 10th Pennsylvania honoring its service in the Spanish American War and on the Mexican Border is located northeast of the lake near where Lakeview Road runs into Timber Road. |
| • | Named for the then adjutant general of the Connecticut National Guard, General George Haven. |
| • | Niantic was and is the site of the Connecticut National Guard camp. The camp is located in the northeast part of Niantic. |
| • | The camp was the muster in site for 1st Conn. Vol. Inf. in May, 1898 and 3rd Conn. Vol. Inf. in July, 1898. Six companies of the 1st Conn. were initially assigned as coast reserve at Plum Island, NY; Fort Preble, Maine; Gull Island, NY and Fort Constitution, NH according to Official History of First Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, Spanish American War, City Printing Company, 1900. The regimental headquarters and other companies were assigned to Fort Knox at Prospect, Maine. The camp at Fort Preble was named Camp Burdett but none of the other camps were named. The regiment reassembled at Camp Haven by July 16, 1898 and left for Camp Alger on July 18, 1898. |
| • | Named for the colonel of the 10th Penn Vol. Inf., Alexander Hawkins. Col. Hawkins died of illness at sea on July 18, 1899 on the return voyage from the Philippines. He is buried at Washington Cemetery in Washington, PA. |
| • | This was a recruiting camp for the 10th from about June 24 to July 4, 1898 located at the fairgrounds in Washington, PA. These fairgrounds were likely the then county fairgrounds at Tylerdale in north Washington west of Main Street. |
Camp Hawley, Galveston, TX (See Camp Riche)
| • | The camp was the muster in site for the 1st U.S. Vol. Inf. beginning about May 25, 1898. This regiment moved to New Orleans on July 22, 1898. The camp was reactivated under the same name when the regiment returned from New Orleans about August 18, 1898. |
| • | According to Shelley Henley Kelly, Assistant Archivist of Galveston’s Rosenberg Library: “Camp Hawley was established in June, 1898 and was named for U.S. Representative Robert Bradley Hawley. It was located in a section of Galveston known as the Denver Resurvey, an area west of the city limits. The camp was specifically located east of 53rd Street between Avenue T & U. This area later became Fort Crockett and served Galveston through the end of World War II. In the early 1950s much of this property was sold as surplus and was developed. The exact area today is a very nice subdivision of houses. . . . I was unable to pinpoint the exact time that Camp Hawley ceased to exist. I do know that Fort Crockett was in place at the time of the 1900 Storm. I also found a map that was printed in June 1900 showing plans for the improvement of Galveston harbor. These plans never took place and the Engineer who designed them (H. M. Robert of Robert’s Rules of Order fame) later designed the protective seawall and grade raising of Galveston. Camp Hawley appears on this map.” |
| • | According to the Galveston Daily News, June 3, 1898: “The officers had looked over the ground in a general way on Sunday, but a more minute inspection was made yesterday morning. The camp was laid off immediately adjoining the streetcar track which goes south on 53rd Street, and between Avenues T and U, on what is known as the “gun club grounds.” The old gun club building facing on 53rd Street will be used by the regiment as a commissary. East of these lines were marked off for the tents of the colonel and his staff, which according to regulations are placed 100 feet apart, and beyond these, the companies’ officers tents extend from north to south at the heads of the street between the rows of companies’ tents, which run east and west. At the extreme eastern end of the tents are the kitchens and dining places. The grounds slope gently to the south and east and are well drained. They are covered with a good sod, and there is ample room for company and battalion drills. For regimental and skirmish drills, the men will have to be marched about half a mile north, where there is an abundance of room.” |
Camp Haywood (Heywood), Kittery, ME
| • | Named after Colonel Charles Haywood, then Commandant of the Marine Corps. The camp is often referred to as Camp Heywood. A photograph of the camp has a sign with the spelling “Heywood” even though official records indicate the correct spelling of the Commandant’s name is “Haywood.” |
| • | Camp Haywood was on Seavey’s Island at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, now the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. While the mailing address is Portsmouth, NH, the actual location is Kittery, Maine. This was the camp of the 1st Battalion, U.S. Marines, upon its return from Cuba in late August, 1898. The camp was abandoned when the brigade was disbanded on September 21, 1898. The site of the camp is just north of the former naval prison. |
| • | Camp Long was the camp of the Spanish prisoners which was located on the site of the former naval prison. It was named after Secretary of the Navy John Long. The prisoners arrived on July 11, 1898 and departed in mid-September 1898. |
Camp Pat Henry, Jackson, MS (See Camp A.J. McLaurin)
| • | Named after Patrick Henry, the wartime Congressman from the district where Jackson is located. |
| • | The camp was located one mile north of the “corporate limits” of the city according to Biennial Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Mississippi 1898-1899, 1900. According to Brinson, Jackson: A Special Kind of Place, published by the City of Jackson, 1977, at pages 141-142, the camp was north of the city near what is now State Street and Woodrow Wilson Drive, the current location of Bailey Junior High School. |
| • | The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Miss. Vol. Inf. all mustered in here. The 1st and 2nd in late May and early June and the 3rd was at Jackson from July 22 until September 13, 1898. |
| • | Souvenir, Second Mississippi Regiment Volunteer Infantry, published by J.C. Coovert, Vicksburg, Mississippi 1898, contains many photos of Camp Pat Henry |
Camp Hilary A. Herbert, Montgomery, AL
| • | Named for a former Secretary of the Navy. Herbert was an officer in the 8th Alabama Infantry during the Civil War. |
| • | Camp Herbert was the muster out camp for the 2nd Ala. Vol. Inf. from September 17 to October 31, 1898. The regiment was on furlough during most of the period. |
| • | The camp was at Riverside Park in the north part of the city. The camp was likely in the southeast part of the park. This was a very popular park around the turn of the century but no longer exists. It was on the east bank of the Alabama River west of the L&N Railroad tracks with the north boundary being approximately where 4th Street would be located if it extended west across the tracks and the south boundary being approximately where Fowler would be located if it extended west across the tracks. |
Camp Hobson, Lexington, KY (See Camps Bradley and Collier)
| • | Probably named after Richmond P. Hobson (1870-1937) in command of the collier Merrimac in June, 1898. He attempted to sink the Merrimac to block the Santiago channel in June 1898. See a brief biography at page 210 of source (7). |
| • | Renamed Camp H. C. Corbin. |
| • | The camp was located at Loudon Park |
Camp Hobson, Lithia Springs, GA (See Camp Cleary and Camp at Fort McPherson)
| • | Named after Richmond Hobson according to the August 1, 1898 Atlanta Constitution. |
| • | Also known as the “Camp at Lithia Springs” according to source (8). |
| • | The August 8 and 11, 1898 Omaha Evening Bee newspaper reported that the high incidence of typhoid fever at the recruit camp at Fort McPherson had caused 1800 recruits to be moved to Camp Hobson at Lithia Springs for health reasons. This recruit camp was for the regular army not the volunteer regiments. |
| • | The camp was on and near the old Chautauqua grounds in Lithia Springs from about August 2 to about September 10, 1898. The 1898 Atlanta Constitution also refers to it as being at Austell. Austell is a little less than two miles northeast of Lithia Springs. |
| • | The Chautauqua grounds were about 1¼ miles west of the springs after which the town was named. This is approximately the intersection of Bankhead Highway and Baker Drive. The Chautauqua grounds were west of Marsh Avenue. The springs are still there and owned by the Lithia Springs Mineral Water Co., Inc. at 2910 Veterans Memorial Highway. Houses and businesses cover the site of Camp Hobson. |
|
|
|
|
|
©2005 Fred Greguras
