“The Lookout”

          As the Ida Rupp Public Library prepares to host the exhibit  Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War, my thoughts turn to the Confederate Cemetery on Johnson’s Island. The statue designed by Sir Moses Ezekiel, “The Lookout” a bronze representation of the Confederate Soldiers who were imprisoned on the Island, guards the graves of 206 soldiers who perished there.

          The statue, which looks to the South, was dedicated in 1910. It is interesting to note that a former prisoner, General George Washington Gordon, gave the keynote address. The Daughters of the Confederacy, Cincinnati, Ohio chapter erected the statue. “The Lookout” remains a stoic reminder that 10,000 to 15,000 men were held prisoner on the Island, far from their homes.

          Moses Ezekiel, the statue’s creator died in 1917 in Italy and his body was returned to the United States in 1921. Ezekiel is buried in Arlington Cemetery at the foot of the Confederate monument that he designed. Ezekiel was a Sergeant in Company C, Battalion of Cadets from the Virginia Military Institute.

          In the short space of this blog, we cannot do adequate justice to the Johnson’s Island site; but Johnson’s Island has been written about in many books and magazine articles.

Sources  

“Rebels on Lake Erie,” by Charles Frohman

“The Civil War Reminiscences of General M. Jeff Thompson”

“Ohio’s Military Prisons in the Civil War,” by Phillip R. Shriver

The late Roger Long’s enumeration of the graves made available through the www.rbhayes.org website has been invaluable.