Camp Ford
In the Piney Woods of East Texas, a lone historical marker on a busy highway denotes the site of a ramshackle stockade where, during the last years of the Civil War, some 6000 Union prisoners, Confederate guards, and African-American slaves lived, worked, and variously made their mark on the history of the area. In 1997, when archeologists from Texas A&M set about to explore Camp Ford, only the faint impressions of trenches, drainage ditches and berms, along with a few pieces of rotting wood, were visible on the ground surface. But by using a battery of archeological and historical research techniques, they were able to uncover Camp Ford and begin to tell its little-known story. What they learned will be used in creating an interpretive center and display for visitors at the site of Camp Ford.
Located in Smith County near Tyler, Texas, Camp Ford was closely tied to support operations for Confederate forces west of the Mississippi River during the Civil War. This part of Northeast Texas became a military-industrial complex for the Confederacy's Trans-Mississippi Department, serving as both a headquarters area and a critical manufacturing center for guns, ammunition, and other war supplies.
For more information about Camp Ford, please visit Here!
 |
 |
EVPs
Henry