In 1862 the Union Army was looking for additional facilities to quarter troops prior to sending south to battle. As a result, Col. William Hoffman, Commissary-General of Prisoners, ordered Capt. H. M. Lazelle of the Eighth Infantry to look at facilities in Albany, Utica, Rochester and Elmira. Below is a report Capt. Lazelle sent to Col. Hoffman after inspection Camp Hillhouse in Rochester. This area is now a part of the Strong Memorial Hospital on the south side of Crittenden Blvd.
Col. WILLIAM HOFFMAN, DETROIT, MId., June 25, 1862.
Commissary- General of Prisoners, Detroit, Mich.
- COLONEL: In compliance with your order dated Washington June
12, 1862, requiring me to visit the permanent camps at Albany, 2liJtica,
Rochester and Elmira and the U. S. barracks at Buffalo to ascertain
their capacity for quartering troops and to make to you a written report
thereon accompanied by a general plan of each camp, I have the honor
to submit the result of my examination of the camp so specified at
Rochester, N. Y., as its condition when visited by me on or near the
22d instant.
This camp is known as the Camp of the State Fair Grounds.* The
grounds were rented by the Government at $100 per month for the first
three months occupied; after that period at $50 per month. It erected
on them quarters for 1,000 men, mess hall, kitchen, guard-house, stables,
officers quarters, sinks, &c., and for a considerable period occupied
them with volunteer troops. Within a few months, however, the build-
ings so erected and the furnishings contained in them have been sold,
and they together with the grounds are now in possession of the
authorities of the State Fair who contemplate holding there a fair in
September next.
The barracks, mess halls and k,itchens are now being removed of their
furniture for that purpose. It occupies a fine situation, being located
on an excellent road about two miles southeast from town on a plot of
ground gently sloping, of a rectangular shape, being 400 by 800 yards.
The soil is firm and hard at all timesis composed of gravel covered
with sward. The camp at present contains no troops. The ground is
quite as high as the surrounding country and there is not in its vicinity
either marsh, standing water or forest or any locus of malaria or dis-
ease. The camp is abundantly supplied with pure limestone water
from never-failing wells on the ground. The Genesee Canal passes
within a few hundred yards of the west side of the camp and the New
York Central Railroad lies very near it. It is surrounded by a high,
close, board fence of about 8 feet.
The buildings were all, with the exception of that formerly used as a
hospital, erected by the Government. They are all new, of one story,
of wooden frames, with rough board coverings both on the sides and
roofs. These boards are matched and the seams again covered with
outer boards. The roofs are pitched and are, at the ridge poles of the
buildings used as the mens quarters, mess halls and kitchens, abont2O
feet high and at the eaves 10 feet. The buildings used as officers quar-
ters, hospital and guard-house are about 15 and 8 respectively. They
all have firm floors of planks and are well ventilated. In two iong
buildings built closely together and parallel with each other, each 280 by
40 feet, are the quarters for the men and mess halls. At the south end
of these two buildings and abutting against them is the kitchen, whose
extreme length is, together with a small shed at one end, just equal to
the united width of the two larger buildings plus the interval between
them, viz, 90 feet. The kitchen is 30 feet wide and contains but little
of ordinary cooking apparatus, most of it having been removed. In
one of the large buildings above mentioned is a mess hall 130 by 40
feet and in the other another hall 70 by 40. They will comfortably
seat 1,000 men, but most of the tables and benches have been removed
to the outside since the sale of the buildings.
There are two sets of quarters, one in each of the large buildings,
each 40 feet wide and 150 and 210 feet long respectively. In each the
bunks are placed end to end and are arranged in 5 rows of double
bunks, the outer rows of 3 tiers and the 3 inner ones of 4 tiers each.
By this arrangement the larger set of quarters will readily accommo-
date 600 men and the smaller 400, 1,000 men being the original adapta-
tion of the buildings. There are sufficient bunks for the reception of
this number but no ticks for straw. The hospital is 60 by 30 feet with
an L of 20 by 10 feet. The guard-house is 20 by 15 feet with an addi-
tion for cells and prison rooms of 30 by 10 and is not sufficient but for
temporary occupancy of the camp. There are 4 small buildings of 15
by 10 feet each, of 1 room each, used for officers quarters. There is no
bake-house but the rations are furnished, cooked and placed on the
tables, and furniture supplied for the tables, at 22 cents each, the con-
tractor furnishing his own cooking apparatus. The sinks are filthy
and out of repair. There is a good bath-house at the northwest end of
the ground 70 by 15 feet. On the south side are stabling sheds for
100 horses, and on the north side of the grounds stabhing sheds for 50
horses.
Hard wood is delivered at the camp for $4 per cord and soft at $3;
coal at $5 and $6 per ton. Lumber can be purchased at $9 and $10
per 1,000 feet. I was informed by General John Williams, of Rochester,
under whose care these grounds formerly were, that at Le Roy, a point
thirty miles west from Rochester, is a large stone building formerly
used as a car depot, completely fitted with furniture and ready for the
reception of 1,000 men; that the Government formerly hired and placed
in this building its furnishings but that it has now sold them, but that
they can be had complete at present if desired as they are not in use,
and have not since being occupied for military purposes been disturbed.
I am, colonel, with the highest respect, your obedient servant,
H. M. LAZELLE,
Captain, Eighth Infantry
