Camp Ford - Early Days as a Prison Camp
During the winter of 1863-64 the camp housed only about 170 prisoners, mostly officers. Life was generally
pleasant and the men were well treated. Prison crafts and endeavors flourished. Fairly substantial log cabins were
erected. Streets were laid out and named, and Captain William May of the 23rd Connecticut even produced three
issues of a hand lettered prison newspaper The Old Flag. Most important for the future, Captain Amos
Johnson of the USS Sachem was named "commissioner of Aqueducts" and developed a series of catch basins in
the spring branch, one for drinking, one for washing, and one for bathing.
Enlargement of the
Stockade
In early March 1864, with the threat of the Union advance on Shreveport, the 700
prisoners from Shreveport were marched back to Tyler. On April 8th and 9th 1864, at the battled of Mansfield and
Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, Confederate forces captured more than 2,000 Union soldiers, who were quickly marched to
Tyler. The Camp Commander, Col. R.T.P. Allen, recieved orders on April 12 to prepare for the new inmates. The
existing stockade did not have sufficient area to house them, and an emergency enlargement was undertaken.
Local slaves were again impressed, the north and east wall dug up and the logs cut in half, and the top ten feet of
the logs of the south and west walls were cut off. The resulting half logs gave sufficient timbers to quadruple the
area of the stockade, and it was expanded to about eleven acres.
With additional battles in Arkansas and
Louisiana, the prison population had grown to around 5,000 by mid June. Hard-pressed CS officials had no ability
to provide shelter for the new prisoners, and their suffering was intense. The number of tools was inadequate, and
many men could only dig holes in the ground for shelter. Rations were often insufficient and the death rate soared,
but nowhere to the levels of other prisons. Of the 316 total deaths at the camp, 232 occurred between July and
November 1864. Probably the most significant factor for the Camp's low death rate was Captain Johnson's catch
basins' that kept the camp's water from being contaminated.
Summer of 1864
Feeding over 5,000 prisoners placed a strain on the Smith County area, and efforts were
made to reduce the population at the Camp. Camp Groce was reopened and on July 4, 504 prisoners were sent
there. On July 22, 856 of the early prisoners captured in Louisiana were paroled and sent to Shreveport for
exchange.
The prison settled into a period of grim boredom. An open area at the top of the hill was used for
playing baseball, and it was circled by a track or "ring" where prisoners would aimlessly walk for hours.
With the
approach of fall, the prisoners felt it imperative to have better quarters and made pleas to the US military to supply
clothing and tools. In a convoluted trade for Confederate cotton, those items were sent through the lines in mid
September. With further exchange of another 800 prisoners in October, the remaining men were able to erect
sufficient log huts for the upcoming winter.
Marker is on U.S. 271 near Loop State Route 323, on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
