Southeastern Ohio

Last Update: 02/SEPTEMBER/2021

Compiled by Pete Payette - Š2021 American Forts Network

Camp Worthington
(1861 - 1862), Worthington
A Civil War training camp.

Delaware Trading Post
(1750), Franklin County
A British trading post. Undetermined location.

Fort Franklin (1)
(1791), Columbus
The fort was destroyed not long after it was built.

Franklinton Fort
(1812), Columbus
A local militia defense. Undetermined location. Columbus was once known as Franklinton.

Columbus Civil War Camps
(1861 - 1865), Columbus
Camp Chase (Cemetery) (1861 - 1865), located at 2900 Sullivant Ave., west of Powell Ave.. Later became a Confederate POW camp after 1862. There were about 8000 POWs here in 1863. Confederate officers were sent to Johnson's Island after 1862. The two acres of the camp cemetery is all that remains today. The rest of the site is now the Westgate residential community.
Camp Goddard (1) (1861), location undetermined.
Camp Jackson (1861), located four miles east of Camp Chase, near a railroad depot. Relocated and became Camp Chase.
Camp Lew Wallace (1862), located northwest of downtown.
Camp Thomas (1861 - 1866), located in the Olentangy Village area, four miles north of the city. A Regular Army (18th Infantry) recruiting and training camp. The barracks were used for city housing after the war. The last known remaining structure was razed in the 1990's.
Tod Barracks (4) (1863 - 1866), marker on North High Street near the present-day Columbus Convention Center and Union Station. A major recruiting (and later muster-out) post for state troops. Became the military headquarters for central Ohio. It was a nine-acre fenced compound with six barracks, a guardhouse, messhall, hospital, and Officers' quarters. Nearby Goodale Park was used for troop overflow. The last structure was finally torn down in 1911.

Fort Hayes
(Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center)
(1863 - 1960's/1999), Columbus FORT WIKI
Construction of the initial Federal ordnance post was completed in 1865. First known as Columbus Arsenal until 1875, then as Columbus Barracks until 1922, used for recruit training. The post was expanded in 1908 with new barracks, Officers' quarters, and a hospital. Transferred to the Ohio National Guard in 1947. A portion of the original post was still used by the Ohio National Guard and Army Reserves until 2009. Located at Cleveland Ave. and Buckingham Street. A shot tower (1864) remains, one of only six such structures left standing in the entire country (the others are located in Philadelphia, PA, Baltimore, MD, Wytheville, VA, Spring Green, WI, and Dubuque, IA). Four original buildings, including the Shot Tower, are now part of the Fort Hayes MEC, a public alternative magnet high school established in 1976 on 50 acres of the former post.
Fort Hayes - Forgotten Ohio.com

Columbus Army Ground School
(1917 - 1919), Columbus
An Army Ground School on the Ohio State University campus.

Camp Willis
(1916), Upper Arlington
A National Guard barracks complex used in the mobilization for the 1916 Mexican Border Crisis.

Camp Bushnell
(1898), Bexley
A Spanish-American War assembly camp located at the former Bullitt Park on the east side of Alum Creek.

Glenford Indian Fort
(100 BC - 500 AD), Glenford
A 27-acre Hopewell Indian hilltop enclosure composed entirely of sandstone boulders. On private property on Township Road 19, on the south side of Jonathan Creek. Public access allowed with prior permission.

Hockhocken Trading Post
(1747), Fairfield County
A British trading post on the Hocking River. Undetermined location.

French Margaret Trading Post
(1755), Lancaster
A British trading post. Also known as Margaret's Town Trading Post. The Delaware Indian village of Assisink (1764) was later established in this vicinity.

Camp Anderson
(1861), Lancaster
A Civil War training camp located at the old county fairgrounds. Also known as Camp Fairgrounds (2).

Camp Circleville
(1861 - 1862), Circleville
A Civil War training camp.

Richard Butler's Trading Post
(1770's), near Westfall
A British trading post on Lick Run near the Shawnee village of Kispoko, known to the British as Old Chillicothe.

Camp Charlotte
(1774), near Leistville
An open (unfortified) base camp built by Virginia's Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, and the VA colonial militia during Indian troubles, after the Battle of Point Pleasant in present-day West Virginia (October 1774). Located about six miles southeast of Circleville on Scippo Creek.

Fortified Camp Lewis was built on Congo Creek to the southwest, about two miles south of the Shawnee village of Grenadier Squaw's Town, near Logan Elm State Memorial. The ancient Indian mounds at Circleville still existed at the time based on period maps. See also Lord Dunmore's War from Ohio History Central.org

Spruce Hill Indian Fort
(100 BC - 500 AD), near Bourneville
A Hopewell Indian stone-walled hilltop structure similar to that of the Glenford Fort. It encloses 140 acres. Site is currently private property, no public access.

Matthew Elliott's Trading Post
(1775), Ross County
A British trading post. Undetermined location. Probably the same as McKee's Trade Post (1) listed below.

Alexander McKee's Trading Post (1)
(1775), Ross County
A British trading post. Undetermined location. Probably the same as Elliott's Trade Post listed above.

Chillicothe Barracks
(1813 - 1815), Chillicothe
Log barracks located at 2nd and Walnut Streets used by Federal troops. This town was the first capital of the Ohio Territory in 1800.

Camp Bull
(1813 - 1815), Chillicothe
A blockhouse and stockaded POW camp for British prisoners after the naval Battle of Lake Erie.

Camp Logan
(1861), Chillicothe
A Civil War training camp located at the site of Camp Bull.

Camp Sherman (1)
(1917 - 1921), Chillicothe FORT WIKI
A National Army cantonment training encampment and demobilization center for the 83rd Division. Several ancient Hopewell Indian mounds on the site (part of the Mound City Group) were destroyed to build the cantonment. Other divisions that trained here included the 84th, 95th, and 96th Divisions. German POWs were also kept here until 1919. Transferred to the state in 1921. Nothing remains today except the former Post Library building now located off of Moundsville Road (RCI Farm). An original pair of concrete gateposts at the Wharf Street entrance (off of North High Street) also still exist, at the former camp's south entrance. Another pair was found buried in 2007, near the camp's north entrance, and were restored and relocated to the north entrance of the Chillicothe V.A. Medical Center off of OH 104. The grounds of the former camp are now incorporated into the Chillicothe Correctional Institute (built in 1966) to the south, the Chillicothe V.A. Medical Center (opened in 1924 as the first V.A. Center in the U.S., a successor to the Camp Sherman Post Hospital) to the northwest, the Ross Correctional Institution (built in 1987) to the west, and the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park (established in 1923 as Mound City National Monument). Marker located at Camp Sherman Memorial Park on OH 104 at Pleasant Valley Road. The Camp Sherman Memorial Museum is planned to be built in the future. See also Ohio History Central.org

NOTE: A new Camp Sherman (2) Joint Training Center was established by the Ohio National Guard in 2006 to replace and consolidate the Chillicothe Armory (1927) and Tarlton Armory (1968). Located at 2154 Narrows Road.

Shawnoah Trading Post
(1740 - 1750's), West Portsmouth, Portsmouth, South Portsmouth, KY
Originally a French trading post was located southwest of the Scioto River mouth near the Shawnee Indian village Lower Shawnee Town. By 1749 British traders were in control. A French expedition under Capt. Pierre-Joseph Céloron evicted the traders in 1749. British trader George Croghan took over the post in 1750 and moved it to the mouth of the river. Also known as the Scioto Trading Post. The Indian village was moved to higher ground (present-day Portsmouth) after floods in 1752-53.

Fort Scioto (1)
(1774), Portsmouth
Breastworks built by the VA colonial militia during the Indian troubles of the so-called "Lord Dunmore's War".

Camp Morrow
(1861 - 1862), Portsmouth
A Civil War training camp, originally located by the Ohio River, it was relocated in 1862 to Renshaw Place, just north of town.

Located nearby, or in the same place, was Camp Portsmouth.

Gallipolis Civil War Camps
(1860's), Gallipolis
Camp Carrington (1861), the site of the first muster of Ohio troops for the western Virginia campaigns. Later the site of a wartime hospital. A marker is in the public square.
Camp Brough (1862), undetermined location.

Fortification Hill (aka Mound Hill), on the west side of town off of Portsmouth Road, was the site of an artillery battery facing West Virginia. Mound Hill Cemetery (established in 1880) is adjacent to the site.

Camp Scott
(1861), Portland
A Civil War training camp.

Fort Gower
(1774), Hockingport
A stockaded blockhouse built by the VA colonial militia during Lord Dunmore's War (October 1774). Also known as the Hocking River Fort. See also Fort Gower Resolutions from Ohio History Central.org

Camp Wool
(1861), Athens
A Civil War training camp. Originally named Camp Jewett. Monument located at West Elementary School.

Fort Harmar
(1785 - 1790), Marietta
This U.S. Army stockaded star-shaped fort on the west bank of the mouth of the Muskingum River was built to keep white settlers out of the area until proper surveys could be made. Also known as Muskingum Fort (2). It was later dismantled. The Treaty of Fort Harmar was signed here in January 1789. Historic Harmar Village is located on the site, at the foot of present-day Market Street.

Campus Martius
(1788 - 1795), Marietta
First organized American settlement in the Northwest Territory. Only the Rufus Putnam House remains, located within the museum building at 2nd and Washington Streets. The stockade was a regular parallelogram with an exterior line of 720 feet, with a blockhouse at each corner. The stockade was dismantled to provide lumber for new houses in the town. See also Ohio History Central.org

The settlers' original fortification was a temporary stockade that extended from the Ohio River at "Picketed Point" (Bicentennial Plaza) up along Front Street to Monroe Street.

Marietta Fort
(1812), Marietta
A local militia defense. Undetermined location.

Marietta Civil War Camps
(1860's), Marietta
Camp Putnam (1861 - 1862), located at the old fairgrounds.
Camp Marietta (1862), undetermined location.
Camp McClellan (1), undetermined location.
Camp Tupper, located at a still-extant ancient Hopewell Indian ceremonial flat-top mound, or "elevated square", known as "Quadranaou", now a city park at present-day Fourth and Warren Streets.

Fort Frye
(1791 - 1796), Beverly
A triangular stockade with three blockhouses, built after the "Big Bottom Massacre" (January 1791), attacked in March 1791. Located on the north bank of the Muskingum River. It was later abandoned.

Big Bottom Fort (State Memorial)
(1790 - 1791), Stockport
A blockhouse and stockaded town defense that was the scene of the "Big Bottom Massacre" in January 1791. A monument (1905) marks the location in Big Bottom Park.

Zanesville Fort
(1812), Zanesville
A local militia defense.

Zanesville Civil War Camps
(1860's), Zanesville
Camp Goddard (2) (1861), located at the county fairgrounds.
Camp Zanesville (1862), undetermined location.

Camp Jefferson
(1864), Bellaire
A Civil War training camp. Also known as Camp Bellaire.

Cadiz Fort
(1810), Cadiz
A local militia blockhouse.

Fort Steuben
(1786 - 1794), Steubenville
A U.S. Army fort built to protect surveying parties for the Northwest Territory. Abandoned in 1787, the post was afterwards used by settlers and local militia rangers. The fort was burned in 1790 and rebuilt. The four wooden blockhouses and stockade were reconstructed beginning in 1989 on the original site along South Third Street. Admission fee. See also Ohio History Central.org

Steubenville Fort
(1812), Steubenville
A local militia defense. Possibly a re-use of Fort Steuben above.

Camp Steubenville
(1862), Steubenville
A Civil War training camp.

Indian Willow Creek Blockhouse
(1786), Jefferson County
An American military blockhouse. Undetermined location.

Yellow Creek Blockhouse
(1791), Yellow Creek
A Pennsylvania state militia blockhouse located at the mouth of Yellow Creek, across from "Baker's Bottom", WV.

Early Pioneer Settlement Forts of Ohio

Belmont County:
Baker's Fort (1790), undetermined location. (NOTE: there was another Baker's Fort across the river at Cresap's Bottom, WV in 1784-87.)
Dillie's Fort (1791 - 1796 ?), Dilles Bottom, a blockhouse located opposite Grave Creek, WV.
Capt. Robert Kirkwood's Blockhouse (1789 - 1791), Bridgeport. Attacked by Indians in 1791, but held.

Franklin County:
Franklinton Trading Post (1797), Columbus.

Gallia County:
Gallipolis Stockade (1790), Gallipolis.

Jefferson County:
Brilliant Blockhouse (1790), Brilliant, located on Blockhouse Run.
Cable's Blockhouse (1785), undetermined location.
George Carpenter's (Fort) Blockhouse (1783), undetermined location.
John Carpenter's (Fort) Blockhouse (1781), undetermined location.
Decker's Blockhouse (1786), undetermined location. (NOTE: there was another Decker's Fort across the river in Follansbee, WV in 1774.)
Mingo Bottom Blockhouse (1785), Mingo Junction.
Mingo Station (1788), Mingo Junction.
Tiltonsville Station (1785), Tiltonsville.
Warrenton Station (1785), Warrenton.

Morgan County:
Center Bend Station (1794), undetermined location (Center Township ?).
Meigs Creek Blockhouse (1790), located at the mouth of Meigs Creek at the Muskingum River, near Mill Grove.

Scioto County:
Scioto Stockade (2) (1785), Portsmouth.

Washington County:
Point Garrison Stockade (1791), Marietta. Also known as Picketed Point.
Anderson's Bottom Stockade (1790), located north of Marietta.
Plainfield Stockade (1790), located above Campus Martius.
Duck Creek Stockade (1790), on Duck Creek, east or northeast of Marietta.
Farmer's Castle (1791 - 1794), Belpre, located opposite Backus Island, it was a palisaded complex with several blockhouses, armed with only one gun. There were 13 houses in two rows.
Goodale's Garrison (1790), undetermined location. A stockaded dwelling.
Newbury's Stockade (1790), near Belpre.
Capt. Jonathan Stone's Fort (1790), Belpre, on Riverbank Road. Contained four blockhouses and several cabins.
Lowell Stockade (1791), Lowell.
Maj. Dean Tyler's Station (1789), Waterford. Also known as Tyler's Fort. A blockhouse located on the south side of the Muskingum River, near the present-day railroad station. Also used as a school.
Waterford Stockade (1) (1789), Old Waterford.
Relief Station (1794), Relief.
Wolf Creek Mill Stockade (1790), Wolf Creek.

Northwestern Ohio - page 1 | Southwestern Ohio - page 2 | Northeastern Ohio - page 4
Greater Toledo Area - page 5

QUESTIONS ? Please send any corrections and/or additions to this list to:
"Updates" at NorthAmericanForts.com