NEGenWeb Project
Spanish American War
Compiled by Fred Greguras
Camp Coppinger, Mobile, AL (See Camps Clark and Johnston, AL)
| • | The camp was informally named after Major General John J. Coppinger, initial commanding officer of the Fourth Corps. Some newspaper articles refer to the camp as “Camp Mobile” in the early days after it was established. |
| • | The Fourth Corps initially assembled at Mobile before going to Tampa. There were seven regiments of regular infantry camped in Mobile in early May, 1898, according to the May 7, 1898 Army and Navy Journal. Camp Coppinger was abandoned when the last regiment left about June 27, 1898. |
| • | The Spring Hill camp where the regulars mobilized was in the area between the Crichton and Spring Hill suburbs of Mobile, closer to Crichton. According to the Mobile Daily Register, April 20, 1898, page 5, “[t]he camp ground is bound on the north and east by Three-Mile creek, on the south by Stein’s creek and on the west by the Moffatt Road [U.S. Highway 98].” |
| • | A May 3, 1898 article in the San Francisco Chronicle refers to the 20th Inf. being at the “Spring Hill Camp” in Mobile. |
| • | The Alabama volunteers at Camps Clark and Johnson in Mobile moved to this camp beginning in late May, 1898. |
Camp H. C. Corbin, Lexington, KY (See Camps Bradley and Collier)
| • | First named Camp Hobson, probably after Richmond Hobson. Renamed for General Henry C. Corbin, who was Adjutant General, U.S. Army, at the time the war started in April, 1898. Corbin is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. |
| • | The camp was located at Loudon Park in the east part of the city, between 7th Street and Loudon Avenue and south of Limestone Street. |
| • | This camp was the muster in site for the 4th Ky. Vol. Inf. This regiment was at Lexington from about July 4 to September 17, 1898. |
Camp H. C. Corbin, New Orleans, LA (See Camp Foster)
| • | According to source (11), this was a camp at the New Orleans fairgrounds where Col. Crane’s 9th U.S. Vol. Inf. trained in 1898. The 9th was a regiment of Black volunteers, a so-called “immunes” regiment. The troops camped in the oval inside the race track. The regiment was at New Orleans from June 18, 1898 until August 17, 1898 when it departed for Cuba. |
| • | Several regiments of regulars were camped at New Orleans fairgrounds by early May, 1898. The regulars’ camp was not named. These troops also camped in the oval inside the race track. According to the April 30, 1898 Army and Navy Journal, the camp was to be moved to Port Chalmette on the river front where embarkation could easily occur. It appears that plans changed relative to New Orleans as an embarkation point and that this move never occurred. Newspaper articles indicate the regulars stayed at the fairgrounds with the last unit departing about May 26, 1898. |
| • | An 1898 map of New Orleans indicates the fairgrounds were in the center of the city just to the east of City Park. A current map places the fairgrounds in the same location. |
| • | The June 18, 1898 New Orleans Daily Picayune identifies the site of Camp Corbin as the former Camp Foster. |
Camp H. C. Corbin, Richmond, VA
| • | This was the mobilization camp of the 6th Virginia Vol. Inf., a Black regiment formed in response to the second call for volunteers, from about July 9, 1898 to August 11, 1898. |
| • | Located “ten miles east of the city,” according to Lutz, A Richmond Album, published by Garrett & Massie, 1937, page 160. “On the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway about ten miles south-east of Richmond,” according to the Report of the Adjutant General of Virginia, 1898-1899, 1899, page 50. Articles in the Richmond Evening Leader identify the site as Singleton’s farm about 10 miles “below” Richmond on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. The railroad ran southeast below Richmond, more south than east. Articles in the Richmond Dispatch indicate the Singleton farm was known as Poplar Grove. |
| • | Camp Corbin was a particular challenge to identify the location. There was relatively little newspaper coverage as this was a second call regiment and the war ended so quickly. As indicated above, newspaper clues were that it was about 10 miles below Richmond on the C&O railroad and was on the Singleton farm known as “Poplar Grove.” The newspapers don’t say where the 10 miles is measured from in Richmond. My mistake for too long was looking directly south of Richmond along the rail lines thinking one of them was the C&O line. The C&O railroad actually goes southeast from Richmond which I finally figured out when reviewing old topographical maps. At the point about 10 miles from Richmond (about 10.1 miles from the civic center per the 1943 topo and about 11.2 miles from the capitol building per the 1952 topo) is a point on the C&O named “Poplar Springs.” While further research is needed to identify the exact location of Singleton’s farm, Camp Corbin was very near this point, probably on high ground to the southeast. This location is just southeast of the Richmond airport. |
Camp Cuba Libre, Jacksonville, FL (See Camp Wells)
| • | This camp was the assembly point for the Seventh Corps. It was established May 26, 1898 and abandoned in late October after the Seventh Corps moved to Camp Onward in Savannah, Georgia for embarkation for Cuba. The Seventh Corps had been designated the army of occupation for Cuba in mid-August, 1898. The November 7, 1898 Florida Times-Union and Citizen reported there was only one battalion of soldiers left in Jacksonville for guard duty. |
| • | Although there were units camped in many parts of Jacksonville, there was an initial concentration in the Springfield area in the rectangle formed by Ionia on the east, Main to the west, 1st Street on the south and 8th Street on the north. The camp was initially named Camp Springfield after this area of Jacksonville in which it was located. The name was changed to Camp Cuba Libre in early June, 1898. |
| • | The June 4, 1898 Richmond Evening Leader refers to the camp of the 2nd Va. Vol. Inf. that just arrived in Jacksonville as Camp Reynolds. The June 6 edition, however, indicates that the camp’s name has been changed from Camp Springfield to Camp Cuba Libre. The Richmond Dispatch of the same date and the days immediately following do not refer to Camp Reynolds or any other name for the Jacksonville camp. |
| • | New regiments arriving in Jacksonville in late June camped in Panama Park and regiments arriving in August camped in Fairfield. The Springfield camp was abandoned by late October. |
| • | According to Colonel William Jennings Bryan’s report at page 137 of the 1897-98 Report of the Adjutant General of Nebraska, the first camp of the 3rd Neb. Vol. Inf. was at Panama Park, Florida, near Jacksonville beginning about July 22, 1898. “We are located at Panama Park, a high, sandy, well drained piece of timberland, situated about six miles north of Jacksonville.” There was little shade at this site and the heat forced a move to a camp near the beach at Pablo Beach on September 9. Pablo Beach, a resort area, was renamed Jacksonville Beach in 1925 and is southeast of Jacksonville. The general camp site was in what was then downtown Pablo Beach, north of Beach Avenue about 150 yards in from the ocean, generally in the rectangle formed by 1st and 2nd Streets and Beach Boulevard and 1st Avenue North. The September 14, 1898 New Orleans Daily Picayune places the Nebraska camp a mile south of the town. The September 13, 1898 Florida Times-Union and Citizen places the 3rd Neb. camp “nearly” a mile south of the “railway station “ at Pablo Beach. Following flooding of its Pablo Beach camp on October 2, 1898, the 3rd Neb. moved to its final Jacksonville camp in the Fairfield area. Fairfield is in the southeast corner of Jacksonville. On October 24, 1898, the regiment moved with the Seventh Corps to Camp Onward at Savannah, Georgia. |
| • | Souvenir of Camp Cuba Libre, 1898 was published by the Florida Times - Union and Citizen. In another souvenir booklet, Souvenir, Second Mississippi Regiment Volunteer Infantry, published by J.C. Coovert, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 1898, there are a number of photos of Camp Cuba Libre. There are also several photos of Colonel Bryan of the 3rd Neb. which was at Camp Cuba Libre at the same time as the 2nd Mississippi. |
| • | The August 10, 1898 St. Louis Republic referred to the Jacksonville camp as Camp Jackson when reporting on the 6th Missouri’s destination upon its departure from St. Louis. No other references to this name have been found. |
Camp Dalton, South Framingham, MA (See Camp Dewey)
| • | Named after Major General Samuel Dalton, the state’s adjutant general for many years, including in 1898. |
| • | South Framingham was the site of state military camps beginning about 1873. All Massachusetts volunteer infantry regiments were mustered in for Spanish American War service at the state military encampment grounds at South Framingham. The South Framingham site was abandoned in the 1920s because of size limitations. The camp occupied 115 acres south of Route 9 and west of Concord Street. The site of the camp is the current location of the Massachusetts State Police Headquarters and Massachusetts Civil Defense Headquarters (MEMA) at 400-470 Worcester Road. |
Camp Desoto, Tampa, FL (See Camps Mitchell, Tampa and Palmetto Beach)
Camp Dewey, Columbia, SC (See Camps Ellerbe, Fitzhugh Lee and Fornance)
| • | The 1st and 2nd S.C. Vols mustered in at Columbia. The 1st departed on June 8, 1898 and the 2nd on September 15, 1898. One battalion of the 2nd was a first call unit. It was expanded to a regiment as part of the second call for volunteers. |
| • | The 1st S.C. was camped at Camp Ellerbe. According to Moore,
Columbia and Richland County, published by University of South Carolina Press, 1993, page 318, there were three other camps in Columbia for the state volunteers:
Camp Dewey at Geiger’s Spring, in north Columbia, near where US highways 176 and 21 split. Geiger’s Spring was likely where Earlewood Park is located along north Main Street. This was slightly south and east of the Camp Fornance area. This was the camp of the Charleston Heavy Battery of the S.C. Vol. Artillery from May 25 to May 29, 1898. Camp Fitzhugh Lee at Shandon. The camp was at the rear of the Shandon Park pavilion, which was just north of Devine near Harden Street, at the southeast end of Pavillion Street. This was the camp of the 2nd S.C. Vol. Inf. The battalion that formed the core of the 2nd S.C. moved to the Shandon site on May 24, 1898. The regiment departed for Jacksonville, Florida on September 15, 1898. Camp Prospect at the fairgrounds. The fairgrounds at that time were in the Elmwood Park area at the northwest side of the city. This was just slightly south of the Camp Fornance area. This was an auxiliary camp for the recruiting and mustering of companies before being sent to Camp Ellerbee, according to Floyd, Historical Roster and Itinerary of South Carolina Volunteer Troops Who Served in the Late War Between the United States and Spain, 1898, published by R.L. Bryan Company, 1901. It was initially occupied by a battalion of four companies raised in the first call for volunteers that served as the core of the 2nd S.C. The Charleston Heavy Battery was also camped at the fairgrounds from about May 5 to May 25, 1898. |
Camp Dewey, South Framingham, MA (See Camp Dalton)
| • | Named for Admiral George Dewey by order of Governor Wolcott on May 3, 1898. |
| • | This camp at the state military encampment grounds at South Framingham was the muster in location for all Massachusetts units. |
| • | Source (8) indicates this camp was also named Camp McGuiness. Boston Evening Transcript newspaper articles refer to the camp only as Camp Dewey. |
Camp Dewey, Philippine Islands
Camp George Dewey, Sioux Falls, SD
| • | The 1st S.D. Vol. Inf. mustered in beginning about April 30, 1898 and left Sioux Falls for San Francisco on May 28, 1898. |
| • | The headquarters and two troops of Grigsby’s 3rd U.S. Vol. Cav. that concentrated at Sioux Falls very likely also were at Camp Dewey. |
| • | This camp was on the bank of the Sioux River just across the 10th Street viaduct in the area southwest of the corner of 10th Street and Cliff Avenue, near Nelson Park. |
| • | Named for Dr. Roderick Dodge, whose estate owned the site of the camp and whose heirs donated the use for the camp, according to Arkansas State Guard General Order No. 2 dated May 2, 1898. |
| • | Assembly and muster in site for 1st and 2nd Ark. Vol. Inf. |
| • | The camp was located in southeast Little Rock at the corner of College Avenue and Seventeenth Street. |
Camp Douglas, Camp Douglas, WI (See Camp Harvey)
| • | This was the camp of the 4th Wis. Vol. Inf. that responded to the President’s second call according to the Biennial Report of the Adjutant General of Wisconsin for 1898, 1899. Mobilization began about June 29, 1898. |
| • | The camp site was the Wisconsin National Guard training camp which was established about 1889. The camp still exists as Camp Williams and Volk Field. |
| • | The “Douglas” name comes from James Douglas, who established a lumber camp there in 1864. Eric Lent, curator at the Wisconsin National Guard Museum at the site, points out that the town of Camp Douglas existed before the national guard camp was established and that the camp itself was never formally named Camp Douglas. |
Camp Dyer, Augusta, GA (See Camp MacKenzie)
| • | Named for Col. Daniel B. Dyer who provided the land for the camp. Dyer had moved to Augusta to invest in the electrical development of the city. |
| • | This was the camp of the 10th U.S. Vol. Inf., a Black unit, that concentrated at Augusta beginning about the middle of July to mid-September, 1898. |
| • | The camp was initially located in the Turpin Hill area in the south part of Augusta. This area is south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the vicinity of Turpin St. The camp was moved to the Murray Hill area in west Augusta in late August. The Murray Hill area is generally north and west of Camp MacKenzie. Thomas Murray, the Murray of Murray Hill, was a business partner of Dyer. |
| • | Named for wartime governor Elisha Dyer on May 7, 1898. |
| • | Muster in site for 1st R.I. Vol. Inf. from about May 10 to 26, 1898. |
| • | According to source (8), located on Quonset Point, in Warwick, the camp of the Rhode Island militia because the state militia’s summer maneuvers had been held there. The camp area was later incorporated into the U.S. Naval Air Station which opened in July 1941, according to source (8). |
| • | The camp was in existence from about May 4 to November 19, 1898, according to Annual Reports of the Adjutant General, Quartermaster General and Surgeon General of Rhode Island for 1898, 1899. |
| • | Named for Charles L. Eaton, Adjutant General of Michigan from January 10, 1893 to February 27, 1895, when he died. I once speculated that the camp was named for Commander J.G. Eaton of the U.S.S. Resolute in the naval battle of Santiago, Cuba, but that battle didn’t occur until July 3, 1898. |
| • | The camp was the muster in site for the Michigan National Guard beginning about April 26, 1898. This was also the site of the Michigan National Guard annual encampment in 1900. |
| • | The camp was located south of Brighton and north of Ann Arbor (east of Highway 23 and south of Interstate 96) probably near the state recreation area in Livingston County. There is a historical marker at the site. |
Camp Ellerbe, Columbia, SC (See Camp Dewey, SC)
| • | William H. Ellerbe was governor of South Carolina from 1897-99. According to source (12), the 1st S.C. Vol. Inf. was mustered in at Camp Ellerbe from May 4 until June 8, 1898. |
| • | This camp was located just west of Hyatt Park in north Columbia, along Main Street. Because of a shortage of tents, part of the regiment occupied the Hyatt Park Auditorium built in 1897. The May 4, 1898 Columbia State has a map of the camp. |
| • | Named after Captain J.M. Falkner of Montgomery, general attorney of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. |
| • | This was the muster out camp of the 1st Ala. Vol. Inf. from September 17 – October 31, 1898. The regiment was on furlough during most of the period. |
| • | The camp was at East Lake in the northeast part of the city, near the Interstate 59 and 1st Avenue North interchange. |
Camp Fernandina, Amelia Island, FL
| • | The camp was also often referred to as Camp Amelia after the island on which it was located. Fort Clinch, also on the island, was occupied by regular artillery troops during the war. |
| • | There were at least eight regiments at Fernandina, primarily from the third division of the Fourth Corps, for about 30 days from late July to late August, 1898. The units had been moved from the Tampa area for health reasons. The July 22, 1898 Florida Times-Union and Citizen reported the first regiment had arrived, the 32nd Mich Vol. Inf. The September 6 edition reported that the camp was almost abandoned and the September 14 edition reported that “Camp Amelia becomes a thing of the past” as the 5th Ohio vol. Inf. had departed about September 12. A November 7, 1898 inspection report indicates that the third division of the Fourth Corps moved to Fernandina in late July and moved to Huntsville about September 1 because the camp at Fernandina was crowded and unhealthy. |
| • | The camp extended about one mile north, south and east from 10th and Center Streets in Fernandina. The site of the camp is currently primarily a residential area. The 2nd N.Y. camp was about three-quarters of a mile east of the “village” of Fernandina according to Empire State at page 65. See Empire State pages 138-140, for the description of the 69th N.Y. camp which was about a half mile north of town. |
| • | The 2nd N.Y. regimental history has a photograph of the camps at Fernandina taken from the light house. Lester, History of the Second Regiment, New York Infantry, U.S.V., published by Saratoga Print, 1899, opposite page 32. The Florida Historical Society has a stereoview of “Camp Amelia” in its on-line digital collection. This photograph was also taken from the lighthouse. |
| • | The July 19, 1898 Tampa Tribune reports that all troops in Tampa had been ordered to move to Fernandina because of health reasons. |
|
|
|
|
|
©2005 Fred Greguras
