Fort Wayne’s Camp Allen
In late September I visited some sites related to my family history on the Civil War. Among them was the site of Camp Allen in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This was where disparate companies in Northeast Indiana came together and formed regiments – specifically, the 30th, 44th, 74th, 88th, and 100th Indiana plus the 11th Battery. Thousands of Hoosiers transformed into soldiers at Camp Allen, and left for war from this place.
Located along the St. Mary River about a mile from Fort Wayne’s historic downtown, this site today is a neighborhood and small city park known as Camp Allen Park.
While there, I took this picture of the historical marker:
More information on the park can be found here. The contrasts of its original purpose, and what Camp Allen Park is now, are striking and worth contemplating.
Thanks for the picture and thumbnail history. I assume Allen County was named for the veteran. You might want to post this on the Facebook page Historical Marker Enthusiasts.
Camp Allen was the site of the nation’s first professional baseball league game, which was played on May 4, 1871 by the Fort Wayne Kekiongas.
Thank you. Related to Tamma Stein, Co A, 30th Indiana who mustered in there.
Thanks for reporting this Civil War campground connection to Baseball, post war. Prior to this post I believed that the only two similar connections were: 1) Camp Randall at Madison, site of a Camp of Instruction for Wisconsin recruits, and briefly a POW camp for captured Rebels, today called Camp Randall Stadium and used by University of Wisconsin Badgers Baseball until 1952 (still used by Badgers Football); and 2) Cotton Shed Prison at Montgomery, Alabama site of a POW camp housing hundreds of Federal soldiers captured at Battle of Shiloh, today the site is occupied by Riverwalk Stadium, home of the Montgomery Biscuits of the Southern League, Minor League Baseball, Double-A South.
The more one looks, the more Civil War Baseball connections uncovered.
Interesting. In Cleveland, Ohio, there was a training camp in the Tremont area called, appropriately enough, Camp Cleveland. In 2021, a cannon and historical sign were placed to mark the location as a part of the project to develop the towpath of the Ohio and Erie canal for walkers and bicyclists. The cannon was a relica of one stolen by the Union in an early battle in western Virginia.