Camp Ford

Camp Ford
Location Tyler, Texas
Coordinates 32°23′44.13″N 95°16′07.28″W / 32.3955917°N 95.2686889°W / 32.3955917; -95.2686889Coordinates: 32°23′44.13″N 95°16′07.28″W / 32.3955917°N 95.2686889°W / 32.3955917; -95.2686889
Established 1996
Governing body Smith County Historical Society
Location of Camp Ford in Texas

Camp Ford was a prisoner of war camp near Tyler, Texas, during the American Civil War.[1] It was the largest Confederate-run prison west of the Mississippi River.[2][3]

Established in the spring of 1862 as a training camp for new Confederate recruits, the camp was named for Col. John Salmon Ford, a Texas Ranger and the Superintendent of Conscripts for the State of Texas.[4] The first Union prisoners to arrive at camp Ford in August 1863 included officers captured in Brashear City Louisiana in June, and included naval personnel captured when the 'Queen Of The West' and the 'Diana' were seized by the Confederate Navy. The captives were initially held in the open, but a panic ensued in November 1863 when 800 new prisoners threatened a mass breakout. A military stockade enclosing 4 acres (16,000 m2) was soon erected.[3]

19th Iowa Infantry, exchanged prisoners.

With over 2,000 new prisoners taken in Louisiana on April 8 and 9 1864, at the battles of Mansfield, and Pleasant Hill, the stockade was quadrupled in size. Among those imprisoned there following these battles were 17 members of the 47th Pennsylvania Infantry, the only regiment from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to fight in the Union's 1864 Red River Campaign across Louisiana and the only regiment from the Keystone State to have men imprisoned at Camp Ford.[5] [6]

With more prisoners captured in Arkansas, the prison's population peaked at about 5,000 in July 1864. The population was reduced by exchanges in July and October 1864,[3] and again in February 1865. The last 1,761 prisoners were exchanged on May 22, 1865.[2]

During the course of the war, the total number of prisoners who passed through the camp was slightly more than 5,500. About 327 prisoners died in captivity, giving the camp a mortality rate of 5.9%, one of the lowest of any Civil War prison. The deceased prisoners were reinterred to the Pineville, Louisiana, National Cemetery in 1867.[2]

Historic Park

The original site of the Camp stockade is now a public historic park, owned by Smith County, Texas, and managed by the Smith County Historical Society, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1959 by individuals and business firms dedicated to discovering, collecting and preserving data, records and other items relating to the history of Smith County. The park contains a kiosk, paved trail, interpretive signage, a cabin reconstruction, and a picnic area.[7]

The park is located on US Highway 271, .7 miles north of Loop 323 in Tyler, Texas. The geographical coordinates are: 32°23'44.13"N - 95°16'7.28"W

See also

References

  1. ↑ House of Representatives: Report on the Treatment of Prisoners of War by the Rebel Authorities during the War of the Rebellion, page 199. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1869.
  2. 1 2 3 "A Short History of Camp Ford". Smith County Historical Society, Tyler, Texas. Archived from the original on 2010-11-29. Retrieved 21 Mar 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 Texas State Historical Society: Camp Ford. Retrieved August 18, 2010.
  4. ↑ Texas Beyond History, Camp Ford
  5. ↑ Snyder, Laurie. Red River Campaign (Louisiana, March to May 1864), in 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment's Story. Retrieved online, March 17, 2017.
  6. ↑ 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Records, in Camp Ford Prisoner of War Database. Tyler, Texas: The Smith County Historical Society, 1864.
  7. ↑ Smith County Historical Society: Camp Ford.
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