Ohio History Journal

RESCUE HEADQUARTERS HOUSE AT CAMP

SHERMAN

 

Mr. Louis H. Warner, Chairman of the Pueblo

Lands Board, in a contribution to the February issue

of the National Republic writes:

Did you ever consider how closely we associate men and

events with certain buildings and structures? To think of one is

to recall the other. This seems always to have been so. Can you

think of the temples of Old Jerusalem, the Parthenon of Ancient

Greece or the Roman Forum without at once being reminded of

the men and events of these periods? Before the World War the

Kremlin suggested the Czar; the Mosques of Constantinople, the

Sultan, and the Palace of Potsdam, the Kaiser.

So long as Ohio history shall endure the site of

Camp Sherman and the few structures that remain upon

it will recall the thousands of men who were marshalled

here for service in the World War and the "cultured

gentleman and soldier, General Edwin F. Glenn," who

directed the military training at this point and led the

83rd Division overseas to the far-flung battle line of

France.  The   old  headquarters   building  that  he

occupied while in this camp has a history extending back

almost to the admission of Ohio into the Union. It is

now abandoned to the elements and unless something

is promptly done its massive brick walls will soon be

reduced to ruin.

Within recent years much interest has developed in

the marking of the places of scenic and historic im-

portance in Ohio. Imposing monuments have been

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Rescue Headquarters at Camp Sherman    713 erected to the memory of St. Clair at the site of his de- feat in the village of Fort Recovery and to Oliver Haz- ard Perry at Put-in-Bay.  More recently a memorial of appropriate design and proportions was erected to General Anthony Wayne on the site of the Battlefield of

Fallen Timbers. The achievement of George Rogers Clark in the battle of Piqua near Springfield has been celebrated in a granite monument of heroic size to that intrepid General of Revolutionary times and a sesqui- centennial celebration has been arranged in his honor. The village of Schoenbrunn, erected in 1772 and later destroyed, is again in process of resurrection as the site

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714      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

of the first school and the first church built within the

present limits of Ohio. Other monuments of almost

equal importance have been erected or authorized at

different points in Ohio. A Revolutionary Memorial

Commission has been appointed to continue the work of

appropriately marking sites celebrated in the early his-

tory of our State. All this is as it should be. It is by a

knowledge of our past that we measure the extent and

direction of our social, civic and industrial progress.

The time that has elapsed since these sites became

famous has in many instances removed the last vestige

that marked their exact location. In many instances it

is difficult now to determine the exact point upon which

memorials should be erected.

It is well to mark the points within our borders that

have gained title to enduring fame, even when nothing

remains to remind the traveler that here he is on historic

ground.

But it is even more important that historic sites and

objects should be permanently memorialized while their

landmarks remain and men and women are still living

whose service helped to make them memorable.

It is well to reconstruct famous buildings that have

gone down to dust and ashes, but it is better to preserve

them in their original form and on their original sites,

as in the case of Faneuil Hall, Independence Hall,

Washington's Headquarters at Valley Forge, and the

Rufus Putnam house on the site of Campus Martius at

Marietta.

Governor Myers Y. Cooper, in an address at Chilli-

cothe on the 12th day of last December made an eloquent

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Rescue Headquarters at Camp Sherman          715

plea for the repair of General Glenn's Headquarters and

the memorializing of Camp Sherman. He said in part:

It is, indeed, a very real satisfaction for me to come to the

city of Chillicothe--a site enriched by historic achievements.

As we drove into the city tonight, I was reminded of the stir-

ring scenes enacted just beyond its corporation line at Camp

Sherman during the great World War.

There are yet standing buildings which were erected at that

time on this site. The Headquarters of General Glenn, that cul-

tured and soldierly gentleman who commanded here, still remain,

although I was sorry to note neglected and in urgent need of re-

pairs.

The city of Chillicothe has a past that is rich in archaeology

and history. Before the white men came, the aborigines of an

older day built in these valleys earthworks that still survive. These

are known generally as mounds and those who erected them as

moundbuilders. Many noted works of this character are found

within the limits of Ross County and a number of them have

been restored. It is fitting that this should be done.

Coming down to the period when events were recorded in

writing and this region had been discovered and explored, we find

that the site of this city and adjacent country was the theater of

events of first magnitude in the history of our State.

Here in 1802 was framed the first Constitution of Ohio.

Here on March 1, 1803, the State Government, under the Con-

stitution was launched on its eventful and prosperous career.

Here in the War of 1812, frequently and not inappropriately

called the Second War of American Independence, American

armies were marshalled for arduous service in the Old Northwest.

Here in the war with Mexico, the great Civil War, and the war

with Spain, Central Ohio and Chillicothe patriotically responded.

And here in the last and greatest war of all, the valiant young men

of Ohio assembled at the call of country to defend invaded rights

on the high seas and to aid, in a distant land, the rescue of threat-

ened civilization.

Here in Camp Sherman, our khaki-clad youth received their

military training; here their friends and relatives came to meet

them and cheer them on their patriotic mission. Here in the

midst of farewells they entrained for service overseas. Many

here tonight will call to memory the stirring scenes in this ancient

capital preparatory to service in the World War.

That service began here--and the sacrifice as well. In spite

of all that could be done for the comfort and health of the sol-

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716       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications diers in training, influenza and pneumonia entered this camp and here 1,260 boys in uniform made the supreme sacrifice. And they that were stricken and expired in hospitals here just as certainly, as patriotically and heroically died for their country as did those who fell on the far-flung battle lines of a foreign land. We are living at the beginning of an era in connection with the interest of the State in historical matters. A commission was created at the last session of our General Assembly to make a survey and designate certain sites that should be marked and monumented. The State has already appropriately marked a number of these. I submit that Camp Sherman stands out prominently as a site that should be honored with an inspiring monument and me- morial that would proclaim more eloquently than words to the thousands who visit this shrine, the eternal gratitude of Ohio and the nation to those who in the supreme crisis of the world came here and entered the service to bring an end to a desolating war and to win an enduring peace. Such a memorial, perhaps, should be the joint effort of the State and National Governments, and it should be the gift of the generation that lived through the crisis that it commemorated.

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