Following the shelling of Fort Sumter at the start of the war, Morton volunteered 10,000 Indiana troops in accordance with President Abraham Lincoln's proclamation calling for forces to suppress the Southern 'combinations.' Looking for a place to train these new recruits, Morton chose the ground of the then-new Indiana State Fairgrounds, naming the facility Camp Morton after himself. It had previously been Henderson's Grove, after Samuel Henderson, the first mayor of Indianapolis. It was a tract north of the city. Its borders were loosely the present-day roads of 19th Street, Central Avenue, 22nd Street, and Talbott Street. Alabama St. runs through the center of what was the camp.