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Confederate Stockade Cemetery
Johnson's Island
Sandusky, OH 44870
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Office Hours:
See General Information
Visitation Hours:
Open daily from sunrise to sunset.
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Burial Space: This cemetery is closed to interments.
Acreage: 1.2
Floral/Ground Regulations
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Directions from nearest airport:
From the East (Cleveland, Ohio): Take Interstate 90 West toward Toledo, Ohio. Merge onto OH-2 West for 43 miles. Merge onto OH-269 North toward Lakeside/Marblehead for ½ mile. Turn slight right onto Danbury Road ¼ mile. Turn left onto East Bay Shore Road for four miles. At East Bayshore Road turn right (east, name will change to Bayshore) and travel east 5.9 miles to Gaydos Drive. Turn right to access the Johnson's Island Causeway. $2 fee required. On the island, go straight at the stop sign, then bear left.
From the West (Toledo, Ohio): Take Interstate 280 South towards Cleveland, Ohio. Take OH-2 exit number 7. Stay straight onto Dearborn Avenue ¼ mile. Turn left onto Navarre Avenue OH-2 for 40miles. Merge onto OH-269 North toward Lakeside/Marblehead. Turn slight right onto Danbury Road ¼ mile. Turn Left onto East Bay Shore Road for four miles. At East Bayshore Road turn right (east, name will change to Bayshore) and travel east 5.9 miles to Gaydos Drive. Turn right to access the Johnson's Island Causeway. $2 fee required. On the island, go straight at the stop sign, then bear left.
From the South (Columbus, Ohio): Take Interstate 71 north towards Cleveland, Ohio. Take Interstate 80 (toll Road) towards Toledo 44 miles. Take the Interstate 250 North exit 118 toward Cedar Point/Sandusky. Merge onto Interstate 250 West 6 miles. Merge onto OH-269 North toward Lakeside/Marblehead. Turn slight right onto Danbury Road ¼ mile. Turn left onto East Bay Shore Road for 4 miles. At East Bayshore Road turn right (east, name will change to Bayshore) and travel east 5.9 miles to Gaydos Drive. Turn right to access the Johnson's Island Causeway. $2 fee required. On the island, go straight at the stop sign, then bear left.
From the Southeast (Akron/Canton): Take Interstate 77 north towards Cleveland, Ohio. Take Interstate 80 (toll Road) towards Toledo 44 miles. Take the Interstate 250 North exit 118 toward Cedar Point/Sandusky. Merge onto Interstate 250 West six miles. Merge onto OH-269 North toward Lakeside/Marblehead. Turn slight right onto Danbury Road ¼ mile. Turn left onto East Bay Shore Road for four miles. At East Bayshore Road turn right (east, name will change to Bayshore) and travel east 5.9 miles to Gaydos Drive. Turn right to access the Johnson's Island Causeway. $2 fee required. On the island, go straight at the stop sign, then bear left. |
GENERAL INFORMATION
The private and community cemeteries that contain NCA soldiers’ and government lots, and Confederate cemeteries, do not always have staffed offices on site. When administrative information for the larger cemetery is available, it is provided below.
This cemetery is overseen by Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery.
Please contact the national cemetery for more information.
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HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Confederate Stockade Cemetery is located on Johnson’s Island in Sandusky Bay, Ohio, approximately four miles from the city of Sandusky. The rectangular plot is enclosed with an iron fence, highlighted by an iron archway at the entrance closest to the water’s edge.
In 1862, a prisoner-of-war camp opened on Johnson’s Island, the first facility to be constructed by the Union solely for the purpose of imprisoning Confederates. Almost exclusively used for the confinement of Confederate officers, the prison also held a small number of enlisted men, some of whom are buried in the cemetery. A majority of the interments on Johnson’s Island are Confederate officers.
From the early summer of 1862 until the end of the Civil War, Johnson’s Island served as the primary stockade for Confederate Officers. Separating captured officers from enlisted men was based upon the view that officers were gentlemen, worthy of more humane conditions, and to prevent officers from organizing enlisted men to escape or to create disturbances.
The Confederacy continued to lose officers as the war progressed, contributing to the importance the officers imprisoned in the Confederate Stockade. In 1864, Confederate agents in Canada planned to liberate the prisoners on Johnson’s Island by hijacking the U.S.S. Michigan from Sandusky Bay, and using the gunboat to overwhelm the prison guards. The plan was thwarted when word of the scheme was leaked to Union authorities. Afterward, federal forces constructed two additional fortifications on the island, Fort Hill and Fort Johnson, in case of another attempt. In addition, all generals and field-grade officers held at Johnson’s Island were transferred to eastern prisons.
In the initial years following the Civil War, the federal government did not administer Confederate cemeteries. This policy changed in 1878, when Congress appropriated $1,500 for “care and protection of the Confederate cemetery on Johnson’s Island, Ohio…providedthat before any expenditure is made, the title of the land upon which the cemetery is located shall be transferred to the United States.” This marked the first time that the federal government appropriated funds to maintain a Confederate cemetery. Despite this act, the owner of the island, Mr. L.B. Johnson, refused to sell the land. In 1904, the United Daughters of the Confederacy purchased the cemetery from Mr. Johnson, eventually donating it to the U.S. government in 1931.
Johnson’s Island Civil War Prison site, including Confederate Stockade Cemetery, was designated as a National Historic Landmark in June 1990.
Monuments and Memorials
There are four memorials at Confederate Stockade Cemetery.
On June 8, 1910, the United Daughters of the Confederacy erected a statue, approximately 19’ tall, to commemorate the Confederate dead. Sculpted by Moses Ezekiel, a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and a Confederate veteran, the bronze figure titled “The Lookout” stands atop a granite base.
Installed in 1925, the granite and bronze Mack-Hauck memorial commemorates Alice Davenport Mack and Elizabeth Morrison Houck, two members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy who contributed to the preservation of the Confederate cemetery at Johnson’s Island.
Also installed in 1925, the granite and bronze Mary Patton Hudson memorial commemorates the woman who spearheaded the effort of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to purchase Johnson’s Island.
In 2003, the United Daughters of the Confederacy installed a pair of granite memorials commemorating Confederate POWs in a rededication ceremony. The memorials document the use of ground penetrating radar, through which a total of 267 individual remains were discovered in the cemetery.
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NOTABLE PERSONS
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FLORAL/GROUNDS REGULATIONS
Floral regulations are not available for this cemetery.
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