CONSCRIPT TRAINING

The Confederate States Government, realizing that greater manpower would be required to fight the Civil War passed a Conscript Act in April, 1862. This draft act, the first ever passed in the history of America, would require all able bodied men between the ages of 18 and 35 to serve in southern armies. In Texas, Colonel John S. “Rip” Ford was appointed Superintendent of Conscription.

A camp of instruction for newly inducted conscripts from northeast Texas was soon established four miles northeast of Tyler and named Camp Ford. It served as a basic infantry training camp. The camp was well supplied with an abundance of spring water and wood.

PRISON CAMP

Meanwhile, as small numbers of Union prisoners were captured in Texas and Louisiana. they and their escorts would stop over at Camp Ford in transit. However, the arrival of 461 Union prisoners in November 1863 posed a serious security problem at Camp Ford since the prisoners could only be guarded by a ring of Confederate soldiers posted around them. A rumor spread among Tylerites that the prisoners planned to overpower their guards and sack Tyler. Fearing for their lives and property, citizens turned out in large numbers and within ten days constructed a log wall within which to confine the dreaded Yankees. The log compound, roughly rectangular in shape, enclosed an area of from three to five acres. Thus, Camp Ford “prison” evolved.

INMATE LIFE

Life for the inmates, though primitive, was reasonably comfortable. Prisoners were allowed to build shelters ranging from log cabins to brush covered lean-tos. However, this satisfactory arrangement was over-whelmed in the spring of 1864 with the arrival of several thousand prisoners captured in Louisiana and Arkansas. The stockade was doubled in size to accommodate the nearly 5000 prisoners. By this time Camp Ford was the largest prisoner of war compound for captured Federals in the Trans-Mississippi theater. These prisoners came from all but two of the Union states.

PRESENT SITE

In 1993 efforts were begun to develop the site of Camp Ford in order to preserve and restore this historical area for present and future generations. Funds were obtained for archaeological exploration, interpretive trails and an explanatory kiosk. Dr. Alston V. Thoms, Director of the Center for Ecological Archeology at Texas A&M University said “Camp Ford is the most important archeological site in Texas today.” He further describes work at the site: “Archeological field work in 1997 and 1998 on a forested hillside near Tyler revealed the well-preserved remains of Camp Ford, a prisoner-of-war site where approximately 6,000 Federal soldiers and other war-related prisoners were held by the Confederacy between July 1863 and May l865.”