Newport News POW Camp
Where Valor Proudly Sleeps
The monument that stands before you was erected in June 1900 by the members of the Magruder Camp No. 36, United Confederate Veterans, to honor the 163 Confederate soldiers reinterred at this site who had died in the POW Camp next to Camp Butler on Newport News Point.
Following the war’s end, the victorious Union army had thousands of Confederate troops to parole and return to their homes throughout the South. With Northern camps already filled with captured Confederates, a Newport News POW Camp to hold and process 10,000 to 20,000 prisoners was quickly built. The site, built next to Camp Butler on Newport News Point, was described as “twenty-five acres, enclosed by a fence twelve feet high, inside of which is a railing twenty feet from the fence, which prisoners are not allowed to pass. Outside of the fence a gallery has been erected for the sentinels, from which they can observe who approaches the railing and also any unusual disturbance among the prisoners.”
Other facilities, including a hospital, were constructed. The 122nd U.S. Colored Troops, Battery B, 2nd U.S. Colored Light Artillery, and the 1st U.S. Colored Cavalry were assigned to guard the camp. Col. J. Ham Davidson commanded the camp.
Union officials soon realized the futility of imprisoning former Confederates until they were formally paroled, and the Newport News POW Camp never reached its anticipated capacity. By July it was empty. The camp never held more than 3,490 prisoners, of whom 168 died during captivity and 12 escaped. The Federal authorities deactivated the camp in August 1865.
Marker is on Parish Avenue, on the left when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
