Situated on land owned by Thomas Worthington, Camp Bull was a stockade constructed in this vicinity to confine British prisoners of war during the War of 1812. When Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry defeated the British fleet on Lake Erie on September 10, 1813, he captured more than 300 seaman. After they were landed on the Ohio shore, General William Henry Harrison, the commander of the American Army of the Northwest, ordered the prisoners marched to Chillicothe for confinement. The prisoners were placed in a two-acre encampment surrounded by cabins on three sides with a picketed wall on the fourth, which faced the banks of the Scioto River. The camp derived its name from "John Bull," a common reference for all Englishmen. The prisoners remained at Chillicothe until July 16, 1814. Before leaving, they witnessed the execution by firing squad of six American soldiers who had been found guilty of desertion.
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