Attendees at a reunion of the Twenty-Second Iowa Regiment on the steps of the Old Capitol, University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1897. Image from the State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa City collections, Military & War – Civil War – Reunions 006, 1897-09-09

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Conclusion

Camp Pope was the center of training for three regiments of Iowa Civil War volunteers from August to December 1862. As the three regiments arrived and began to learn how to conduct themselves in combat, handle small arms, and to cook and sew, they lived in a rural field southeast of Iowa City. Just under 3,000 men gathered, trained, and left for the field from Camp Pope. Temporary buildings were constructed, tents pitched, and camp fires lit. Daily drills and dress parade would have trod the grass flat. Twenty-two barracks, each holding 96 men, on the edge of a meadow dotted with scrub brush and occasional trees.The men had to present themselves for inspections daily at dress parade, one of the more memorable aspects of their lives in camp. The camp was a curiosity for the residents of Johnson County who would come out to see the official ceremony. Young boys drilled near the men with wooden weapons and affluent women of Johnson County provided essential aid to the training soldiers. A spectacle of white tents, guard houses, barracks and the knowledge that an unknown number of the men would not return from the war made lasting impressions on young visitors. 

Several soldiers who trained at Camp Pope who were farmers or college students kept diaries or wrote memories. Most of these men advanced to notable rank. Letters were written home to loved ones and friends. The topics of training drills, government payments, the barracks, and food are often mentioned in their accounts. Scheduling final visits and concern for affairs at home were mentioned as were business issues with the family farm. Many men became sick at Camp Pope and some died. The numbers overwhelmed the regimental surgeons and their assistants who were grateful for help from the Ladies’ Soldiers’ Aid Society of Iowa City. The men sent home their earnings as they could. Many wives and children left on the family farm took up tasks usually handled by farm hands, husbands, and fathers who had gone to war. Out of the eight men that recorded observations about life at Camp Pope, four died, one had a leg amputated and it seems some also struggled with the mental weight of the death of so many men. The accounts of the camp allow a solid determination of its location in 1862. Today the camp is situated in the Longfellow neighborhood of Iowa City. A rock commemorating the camp was placed on at Longfellow School in late September 1926 by the Samuel Kirkwood Camp of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.

The historical record has preserved the memory and facts of this event in Iowa and United States history. S. C. Jones made his maps of Camp Pope at a time when the living memories of survivors of the Civil War were being lost to history. The camp had an ephemeral existence and left no visible traces. It is hoped this essay will serve as a lasting reminder of the place where approximately 3,000 men, including a future governor of Iowa and several prominent businessmen, prepared to fight a war for the preservation of the United States.