William Hamilton Miller
Ohioans volunteered in large numbers when the Civil War started in 1861, straining the state's supply and training facilities. In Butler County, the immediate response to the April 12 attack on Fort Sumter was so great that some able-bodied men were turned away.
April 15, the day after the surrender of the fort in Charleston harbor, President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers for three months service. May 3 he asked for an additional 42,000 troops, this time for three years.
Within a few days of the president's first call, Ohio had about 30,000 men to offer for federal service, most of them gathered in Columbus, then a town of 18,554 residents.
Only 23 regiments -- or 12,357 Ohio men -- were accepted by federal officials, well over the state quota of 10,153. That number included more than 300 volunteers from Butler County who left their homes within a week of Lincoln's "appeal to all loyal citizens."
Before Lincoln's second appeal for volunteers there was a need for a place to assemble and train military units in Butler County.
Captain J. W. C. Smith had organized the Butler Pioneers too late to be part of Lincoln's original call. His unit was one of several that had to wait because Ohio had surpassed its quota of volunteers. In the interim, the Butler Pioneers were housed in Hamilton hotels and drilled in city streets.
April 23 -- less than two weeks after the Civil War started -- some of the void was filled with the creation of Camp Hamilton at the 40-acre Butler County Fairgrounds, northeast of Hamilton along the Miami-Erie Canal. Captain Smith's Butler Pioneers were the first volunteers to report to Camp Hamilton.
"On arrival at camp they found the change anything but pleasant," noted an observer, referring to the switch from hotel rooms.
"The first two or three nights were very cold for that season of the year," he recalled. The volunteers "had but little straw for bedding, and but few of the soldiers were so fortunate as to have blankets of their own. The unfortunate shared with the fortunate, and it was laughable to see a half dozen trying to sleep under one blanket. The consequence was a great deal of shivering, only a little sleep and a great deal of catching cold."
The women of Hamilton soon came to the rescue, providing a shirt and blanket to each man. Butler County farmers also responded, donating adequate straw for bedding.
Fairgrounds stalls that had housed horses, cattle and pigs during the annual fair were converted into sleeping quarters for the men.
Tables for 400 people were erected, and Straub, Reutti & Company of Hamilton was paid 35 cents a day per soldier to feed the troops.
Records have vanished, but newspaper reports and other sources indicate that the number of men at the camp ranged from a few dozen to nearly 1,000 during the summer of 1861.
Training received in the camp varied. Some remained only a few days. Others stayed a month or more. One of the latter was the 35th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The 900-man unit drilled for more than a month, but without weapons. Its guns were issued aboard a train on the way to its first war assignment.
Camp Hamilton was moved in September 1861 to a new site, known then as "the commons." Water had become a problem at the fairgrounds. There wasn't enough to drink, and too much laying in the camp after heavy rains.
The new location was just outside the city limits at the north end of North Third Street, north of Vine Street. After the Civil War, it was the site of numerous factories and, most recently, Champion paper warehouses.
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539. Nov. 11, 1998 -- William H. Miller directed Camp Hamilton:
Journal-News, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 1998
William H. Miller directed Camp Hamilton before heading for duty in western Virginia
By Jim Blount
William Hamilton Miller, a 38-year-old Hamilton lawyer, railroad executive and community leader, directed the formation of Camp Hamilton at the start of the Civil War in 1861.
Miller was born July 16, 1823, at Trenton in Butler County. He read law in Hamilton under Lewis D. Campbell. He practiced law for a year or more in Nashville, Tenn., before returning to Hamilton, teaming
first with P. C. Conklin and later with John Woods.
Miller had married a daughter of John Woods in October 1851, a month after the first trains entered Hamilton on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad. Woods had been instrumental in bringing that railroad to Hamilton.
Woods, a leader in many community projects, also had promoted the building of the Junction Railroad, the line from Hamilton west to Oxford, College Corner and Indianapolis. From its eastern terminus in Hamilton, Junction trains had access to Cincinnati.
The Junction Railroad had a long birth. It was incorporated in Indiana in 1848 and in Ohio in 1849, but construction didn't start on the Hamilton-College Corner section until September 1853. After conquering some engineering problems, the railroad opened six years later. Woods, president of the Junction Railroad, died July 30, 1855, before finishing the task. His son-in-law took charge and saw that the railroad was completed.
Miller was president of the Junction Railroad June 4, 1859, when the first train operated from Hamilton to Oxford. He watched that day as two trains of about 20 cars each hauled about a thousand people for the ceremonial opening of the rail line that today is part of the CSX system.
Miller was among the speakers in Oxford that day. Also sharing the podium was Dr. John Hall, president of Miami University, and Philip D. Matson, village marshal
Camp Hamilton was established April 23, 1861 -- 11 days after the Civil War started with the attack on Fort Sumter, S. C. -- at the 40-acre Butler County Fairgrounds, northeast of Hamilton along the Miami-Erie Canal.
In April 1861, Miller was a logical choice to command Camp Hamilton, where local and area troops were trained. But Miller didn't intend to stay on the homefront. While organizing the camp, he sought an appointment that would give him a chance to fight.
In June 1861, Miller was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 12th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He left his Camp Hamilton post to move into western Virginia with Company B of the 12th OVI. He left behind a pregnant wife and five children.
Sept. 16, 1861, at Peter's Creek, near Gauley, he was leading a scouting party. Miller climbed a tree for a better view of the countryside. Nearby was a Kentucky regiment, also on scouting duty.
One of the Kentucky soldiers, believing Miller was a Confederate, fired at him. The bullet hit him in the stomach and the first commander of Camp Hamilton fell from the tree, mortally wounded.
The victim of friendly fire was the first Hamilton casualty to be returned home for burial. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
His sixth child -- a daughter, Alice -- was born shortly after her father's death.
April 15, the day after the surrender of the fort in Charleston harbor, President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers for three months service. May 3 he asked for an additional 42,000 troops, this time for three years.
Within a few days of the president's first call, Ohio had about 30,000 men to offer for federal service, most of them gathered in Columbus, then a town of 18,554 residents.
Only 23 regiments -- or 12,357 Ohio men -- were accepted by federal officials, well over the state quota of 10,153. That number included more than 300 volunteers from Butler County who left their homes within a week of Lincoln's "appeal to all loyal citizens."
Before Lincoln's second appeal for volunteers there was a need for a place to assemble and train military units in Butler County.
Captain J. W. C. Smith had organized the Butler Pioneers too late to be part of Lincoln's original call. His unit was one of several that had to wait because Ohio had surpassed its quota of volunteers. In the interim, the Butler Pioneers were housed in Hamilton hotels and drilled in city streets.
April 23 -- less than two weeks after the Civil War started -- some of the void was filled with the creation of Camp Hamilton at the 40-acre Butler County Fairgrounds, northeast of Hamilton along the Miami-Erie Canal. Captain Smith's Butler Pioneers were the first volunteers to report to Camp Hamilton.
"On arrival at camp they found the change anything but pleasant," noted an observer, referring to the switch from hotel rooms.
"The first two or three nights were very cold for that season of the year," he recalled. The volunteers "had but little straw for bedding, and but few of the soldiers were so fortunate as to have blankets of their own. The unfortunate shared with the fortunate, and it was laughable to see a half dozen trying to sleep under one blanket. The consequence was a great deal of shivering, only a little sleep and a great deal of catching cold."
The women of Hamilton soon came to the rescue, providing a shirt and blanket to each man. Butler County farmers also responded, donating adequate straw for bedding.
Fairgrounds stalls that had housed horses, cattle and pigs during the annual fair were converted into sleeping quarters for the men.
Tables for 400 people were erected, and Straub, Reutti & Company of Hamilton was paid 35 cents a day per soldier to feed the troops.
Records have vanished, but newspaper reports and other sources indicate that the number of men at the camp ranged from a few dozen to nearly 1,000 during the summer of 1861.
Training received in the camp varied. Some remained only a few days. Others stayed a month or more. One of the latter was the 35th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The 900-man unit drilled for more than a month, but without weapons. Its guns were issued aboard a train on the way to its first war assignment.
Camp Hamilton was moved in September 1861 to a new site, known then as "the commons." Water had become a problem at the fairgrounds. There wasn't enough to drink, and too much laying in the camp after heavy rains.
The new location was just outside the city limits at the north end of North Third Street, north of Vine Street. After the Civil War, it was the site of numerous factories and, most recently, Champion paper warehouses.
# # #
539. Nov. 11, 1998 -- William H. Miller directed Camp Hamilton:
Journal-News, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 1998
William H. Miller directed Camp Hamilton before heading for duty in western Virginia
By Jim Blount
William Hamilton Miller, a 38-year-old Hamilton lawyer, railroad executive and community leader, directed the formation of Camp Hamilton at the start of the Civil War in 1861.
Miller was born July 16, 1823, at Trenton in Butler County. He read law in Hamilton under Lewis D. Campbell. He practiced law for a year or more in Nashville, Tenn., before returning to Hamilton, teaming
first with P. C. Conklin and later with John Woods.
Miller had married a daughter of John Woods in October 1851, a month after the first trains entered Hamilton on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad. Woods had been instrumental in bringing that railroad to Hamilton.
Woods, a leader in many community projects, also had promoted the building of the Junction Railroad, the line from Hamilton west to Oxford, College Corner and Indianapolis. From its eastern terminus in Hamilton, Junction trains had access to Cincinnati.
The Junction Railroad had a long birth. It was incorporated in Indiana in 1848 and in Ohio in 1849, but construction didn't start on the Hamilton-College Corner section until September 1853. After conquering some engineering problems, the railroad opened six years later. Woods, president of the Junction Railroad, died July 30, 1855, before finishing the task. His son-in-law took charge and saw that the railroad was completed.
Miller was president of the Junction Railroad June 4, 1859, when the first train operated from Hamilton to Oxford. He watched that day as two trains of about 20 cars each hauled about a thousand people for the ceremonial opening of the rail line that today is part of the CSX system.
Miller was among the speakers in Oxford that day. Also sharing the podium was Dr. John Hall, president of Miami University, and Philip D. Matson, village marshal
Camp Hamilton was established April 23, 1861 -- 11 days after the Civil War started with the attack on Fort Sumter, S. C. -- at the 40-acre Butler County Fairgrounds, northeast of Hamilton along the Miami-Erie Canal.
In April 1861, Miller was a logical choice to command Camp Hamilton, where local and area troops were trained. But Miller didn't intend to stay on the homefront. While organizing the camp, he sought an appointment that would give him a chance to fight.
In June 1861, Miller was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 12th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He left his Camp Hamilton post to move into western Virginia with Company B of the 12th OVI. He left behind a pregnant wife and five children.
Sept. 16, 1861, at Peter's Creek, near Gauley, he was leading a scouting party. Miller climbed a tree for a better view of the countryside. Nearby was a Kentucky regiment, also on scouting duty.
One of the Kentucky soldiers, believing Miller was a Confederate, fired at him. The bullet hit him in the stomach and the first commander of Camp Hamilton fell from the tree, mortally wounded.
The victim of friendly fire was the first Hamilton casualty to be returned home for burial. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
His sixth child -- a daughter, Alice -- was born shortly after her father's death.