Prisoner-of-War Camp

This was the site of a Confederate training camp and Union prisoner-of-war camp during the Civil War. Before Virginia seceded from the Union in April 1861, the population of Lynchburg doubled

with the influx of soldiers from

other parts of the state, as well

as from throughout the Confederacy. Virginians were housed at Camp Davis in Lynchburg,

while other soldiers bivouacked

here at the fairgrounds just

outside the city.

At first, all prisoners-of-war are to be detained in

Richmond, the Confederate

capital, but the jails and warehouses there quickly filled. Auxiliary facilities

were established elsewhere. Lynchburg was an

obvious choice for a prisoner-of-war camp because

of its superior rail system and its remoteness

from the front lines.

Located on part of the fairgrounds, the

camp was for Federal prisoners waiting to be

exchanged. No medical services were available, and many deaths occurred in the camp before the autumn of 1862, when

the sick and wounded

were moved to hospitals

in Lynchburg. After

the exchange cartel

ceased operating in the

summer of 1863, the

camp quickly became

overcrowded. The only

permanent structures inside the enclosure were

open stalls that had been used for livestock, so

the prisoners were forced to live

in them or in tents. Most of the

Union dead were buried in the

City Cemetery by the firm of

George Diuguid and then, in

October 1866, were re-interred

at Poplar grove National Cemetery in Petersburg. E.C. Glass

High School now stands on the

site of the prison camp.

Marker is on Memorial Avenue (Virginia Route 163) near Park Lane, on the right when traveling north.

Courtesy hmdb.org

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