Camp Morton Camp Morton was a Union prisoner - of - war camp located in Indianapolis , Indiana during the American Civil War . It was named for Indiana governor Oliver Morton , who was the governor of Indiana during the War . It lasted from 1861 - 1865 . Originally intended to simply be a training ground , after the Battle of Shiloh the former home of the Indiana State Fair became one of more important prisoner of war camps . Not a trace of the camp remains , but Confederates who died while prisoners are buried nearby in Indianapolis ' Crown Hill Cemetery . Creation . Following the shelling of Fort Sumter at the start of the war , Morton volunteered 10 , 000 Indiana troops in accordance with President Abraham Lincoln ' s proclamation calling for forces to suppress the Southern ' combinations . ' Looking for a place to train these new recruits , Morton chose the ground of the then - new Indiana State Fairgrounds , naming the facility Camp Morton after himself . It had previously been Henderson ' s Grove , after Samuel Henderson , the first mayor of Indianapolis . It was a tract north of the city . Its borders were loosely the present - day roads of 19th Street , Central Avenue , 22nd Street , and Talbott Street . Alabama St . runs through the center of what was the camp . In a span of two days , the fairgrounds were quickly converted to a military facility . The barracks were cattle and horse stalls . The hospital was originally the power hall . The guardhouses were converted offices . The first recruits arrived at the facility on April 17 , 1861 , four days after the surrender at Fort Sumter . Originally the facility had difficulties accommodating so many men and the necessary equipment , tents , and food to support them , but in a few weeks order was eventually established . The soldiers had to bathe in Fall Creek . Many residents of Indianapolis saw the camp as a center of attraction . Military prison . After the fall of Fort Donelson on February 15 , 1862 , near present - day Clarksville , Tennessee , Governor Morton informed Union general Henry W . Halleck that Camp Morton could hold 3 , 000 Confederate prisoners . On February 22 , over 3 , 700 Confederate prisoners arrived at the camp . Having just come from battle , having suffered from lack of adequate food and clothing , and being unused to Northern winters , the death rate among the unfortunate Confederate prisoners was high . March 1862 saw the deaths of 144 prisoners . Local residents of Indianapolis felt sorry for the Confederate prisoners , and provided the necessary food , clothing , and nursing to keep most of the prisoners alive . Governor Morton had assigned Colonel Richard Owen as commander of the prisoner of war camp . Owen initiated various policies regarded as " sympathetic rule " and " firm discipline " . Among these policies were When Owen left for a battlefield position , the prisoners protested . Later commandants of the camp would remove the virtual self - government , but was still far better than most Union prisoner camps . Escape attempts happened more frequently starting in the summer of 1862 . In August 1862 all the prisoners had been exchanged for prisoners in Confederate prisoner camps . New prisoners arrived in 1863 . Conditions were drastically worse in 1863 , but then - commandant Ambrose A . Stevens returned the camp to humane conditions , providing blankets , nourishment , and nursing care . However , escape attempts were still greater than during Owen ' s time ; some escape plans were especially elaborate , including tunnels and uprisings . An extra ration was promised to those that informed their Union captors of escape attempts . A few of these attempts were made by board planks or crude ladders . The period of 1863 to the parole of the last prisoner on June 12 , 1865 saw an average prison population of 3 , 214 and 50 deaths a month , with the maximums for each figure being 4 , 999 and 133 respectively . It was decided that no new facilities were needed for the reopening of the prison . The creek from which drinking water was obtained was affected by limestone , causing diarrhea among the visitors . Another change was that the federal government had control of the prisoners , whereas in 1862 the camp was mostly under state control . When it reopened , Camp Morton was to hold only infirm prisoners , but eventually other prisoners would be kept at the facility . The winter of 1863 - 1864 , with temperatures regularly below zero degrees Fahrenheit for a month , caused the deaths of 263 prisoners . John Hunt Morgan considered attacking Camp Morton during his raid through Indiana , freeing the prisoners , but while at Salem , Indiana chose instead to turn east towards Ohio . Ironically , many of his men captured during the Raid were taken to Camp Morton . After the war . In total , over 1 , 700 prisoners died at the camp , a number considerably lower than most Union prison camps . Within the City Cemetery , 1 , 616 deceased Confederate prisoners were buried ; however , a fire in 1866 ravaged the cemetery office , destroying the records that gave the precise location of the burials . Many of these prisoners would be mass buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in 1931 . A monument to the 1 , 616 at the original burial site was moved to Garfield Park . In 1993 , the names of each fallen Confederate at Camp Morton were inscribed on ten bronze plaques . The Indiana State Fair returned to the grounds in 1868 . The Board of Agriculture , who ran the state fair , sold the grounds in November 1891 , for $ 275 , 100 to three businessmen from Indianapolis , and moved the State Fair to its present location . After 1890 the Herron - Morton neighborhood was built on its grounds , becoming well noted due to its connections with then - president Benjamin Harrison . Southerners would raise $ 3 , 000 to honor Richard Owen , who went on to become the first president of Purdue University in 1873 , and his fair treatment of the Confederate prisoners , with the public debuting of the bronze bust on June 9 , 1913 , with the inscription : " Tribute by Confederate prisoners of war and their friends for his courtesy and kindness . "