Champion Hill, Camp. No. 17 in Huntington County, Indiana, received its name officially in August of 2000 by vote of the assembled members.
The name of the camp was chosen from four offered for consideration. The members decided to not name it after an individual so as not to place one veteran to the fore over the others. Several members liked the name of Stone’s River that identified the defunct camp at Frankfort. So a proposal came for a battlefield name. Of the many battlefields that Huntington area men fought on, none was as important or took a heavier toll than the field of Champion Hill. Of the 43 members of the camp, seven had ancestors at Champion Hill or Big Black Bridge. (16th Ind., 18th Ind., 34th Ind., 47th Ind., 69th Ind. & 42nd Ohio) . The name Champion Hill won by a large majority. The spelling of the battlefield was the same as was used in the book “Grant Wins The War” by James Arnold.
The number 17 was suggested by Brother Jay Crisp of Col. Link, Camp 12, Fort Wayne. It had been brought out in discussion about the name that the largest number of Huntington County men killed or mortally wounded on any single day in the history of the country occurred at Champion Hill. Research indicated that 17 county men died for the Union that day.
