Camp Coppinger

Camp Coppinger

Spanish American War Camp, Mobile, Alabama

The camp was informally named after Major General John J. Coppinger, initial commanding officer of the 4th Corps. Some newspaper articles refer to the camp as “Camp Mobile” in the early days after it was established.

The 4th Army Corps initially assembled at Mobile before going to Tampa. There were seven regiments of regular infantry camped in Mobile in early May, 1898, according to the May 7, 1898 Army and Navy Journal. Camp Coppinger was abandoned when the last regiment left about June 27, 1898.

The Spring Hill camp where the regulars mobilized was in the area between the Crichton and Spring Hill suburbs of Mobile, closer to Crichton. According to the Mobile Daily Register, April 20, 1898, page 5, “[t]he camp ground is bound on the north and east by Three-Mile creek, on the south by Stein’s creek and on the west by the Moffatt Road [U.S. Highway 98].”

A May 3, 1898 article in the San Francisco Chronicle refers to the 20th Inf. being at the “Spring Hill Camp” in Mobile.

The Alabama volunteers at Camps Clark and Johnson in Mobile moved to this camp beginning in late May, 1898.