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The Dayton National Cemetery was originally
established as the permanent burial site for residents of the
Central Branch of the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer
Soldiers on April 11, 1867. The first interment was on September
11, 1867, Corporal Cornelius Solly, Co. I, 104th Pennsylvania
Infantry, in Section A, Row 12, Grave 25.
In 1862 the U.S. Sanitary Commission proposed
that a national home be established for soldiers who had served
their country during times of war. On March 3, 1865, Congress
passed an act establishing a National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer
Soldiers. It was one of the last bills signed by President Lincoln.
The law provided for a corporation of one hundred men, named
in the act, to build and administer such an asylum. After five
unsuccessful attempts to establish a quorum, the law was amended
on March 21, 1866, establishing a Board of Managers consisting
of 12 men. Nine were to be elected and the other three--the President,
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Secretary of War--were
to serve ex-officio.
The first asylum authorized by the Board of
Managers was the Eastern Branch at Togus, Maine on September
6, 1866. The second at Milwaukee, Wisconsin on December 7, 1866,
and the Home at Dayton, Ohio was authorized on April 11, 1867.
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Located at Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio was
the Tripler Military Hospital and the Camp Chase Confederate
Stockade and Cemetery. The Tripler Military Hospital was
a federal gift to Ohio. It was given back to the U.S. Sanitary
Commission, and the buildings, approximately 3,500,000
ft. of lumber and $6,169.62 in cash, became available to the
managers of the Central Branch. The buildings were
dismantled
and transported along with the occupants of the hospital,
450 war veterans, in September 1867, to the National
Home at Dayton.
On the highest ground within the cemetery
stands the Soldiers' Monument. It was first proposed by the Monumental
and Historical Association, formed by the veterans of the home,
to perpetuate the memory of those buried at the cemetery. The
Association proposed, and with the aid of the soldiers of the
home, raised all funds for the project, except $2,000 donated
by the federal government to complete the project in 1877. The
cornerstone of the monument was laid on July 4, 1877, and covers
a time capsule containing the Bible, Constitution of the United
States, photographs, coins, muster-roll of officers and men of
the National Home, major newspapers from ten cities, and other
historical memorabilia. The pillar, one of the colonnades from
the U.S. Bank of Philadelphia was given as a gift to the State
of Ohio from the government. Atop the pillar stands a volunteer
on guard surrounded by four statues representing the Infantry,
the Cavalry, the Artillery and the Navy. President Rutherford
B. Hayes delivered the dedication address and unveiled the monument
on September 12, 1877, with about 20,000 visitors attending the
ceremonies.
Located near the Soldiers' Monument stands
the Carillon Tower donated by the AMVETS organization and dedicated
on November 6, 1985. The carillon bells toll daily on the hour
and on the half hour play a hymn in memory of all veterans. The
carillon also provides Taps for every veteran service conducted
at the cemetery.
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Although not buried at the Dayton National
Cemetery, his influence on this, as well as other national
cemeteries, notes special mention. Chaplain Earnshaw marched with the
first
occupants of the National Home from Camp Chase arriving on
September 7, 1867. He served as Chaplain of the Home until his death,
July
17, 1885. He is responsible for locating and establishing
the cemetery grounds at the site of the Home.
He entered the Army at the break out of the
Civil War and was commissioned early as a Chaplain. He served
in the Army of the Potomac until after the battle at Gettysburg
when he was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland under General
George H. Thomas. During his service under General Thomas he
was appointed as Superintendent at Stone River and Nashville
Cemeteries where he gathered and interred the remains of 22,000
soldiers. He was subsequently appointed with two other officers
to select sites and purchase the ground for the national cemeteries
at Ft. Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth, and Memphis.
(Civilian Section, Row 3, Grave 2)
Mrs. Miller's background remains a mystery.
The family story goes that the Millers were living in Chicago
and had made a decision to move to Cleveland. Whether Mr.
Miller left the family to join the Civil War effort, or
whether he simply abandoned them, the fact remains that
Mrs. Miller went to
Cleveland
alone with her three children. While in Cleveland, Mrs. Miller
became active with the Cleveland Sanitary Commission, raising
funds for medical supplies and other necessities for the
soldiers on the front lines. Late in the war, Mrs. Miller
shifted her interests and was the nurse to approximately
17 wounded soldiers, then in a hospital in Cleveland. When
the state of Ohio opened
the Camp Chase facility for wounded and disabled Ohio veterans,
Mrs. Miller accompanied these 17 veterans and continued to
nurse them while in Columbus. When the decision was made
to bring the
veterans to the Central Branch of the National Home for Disabled
Volunteer Soldiers, Mrs. Miller again prepared for the
trip. She, along with 450 other veterans from Camp Chase
were among the first to live on these grounds.
Mrs. Miller continued to live on these grounds, serving the
veterans, until her death on January 18, 1914.
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