Camp Ford

Between August 1862 and June 1865, a community of various military and civilian personnel developed within a space of twenty acres known as Camp Ford. While the population of this previously uninhabited tract constantly fluctuated, it is estimated that the total population of Camp Ford may have approached 9,000 persons. On June 2, 1862, Texas Ranger Colonel John S. “Rip” Ford assumed the unenviable role of Superintendent of Conscripts, with orders to enforce the draft laws in Texas. Camp Ford was chosen by a citizen’s committee in the summer of 1862 as suitable for training. Its selection was based on available space, abundant wood and artesian spring water, and its close proximity to local logistical support. Reluctant Confederate draftees from northeastern Texas reported to this encampment, officially named the Eastern Camp of Instruction for Conscripts but known as Camp Ford, for processing and training in August 1862. Conscripts arrived in increasing numbers throughout the fall. Since the trainees constituted a permanent cadre, Camp Ford became a stop-over point for transient Federal prisoners of war.

Beginning in January 1863, small groups of Federals were captured along the Texas coast and transferred to Shreveport, Louisiana, via Tyler, to await exchange. Available logistical support plus the ready supply of guards made Camp Ford a logical choice for temporary detention of these prisoners. In July 1863, forty-eight Federal prisoners were sent from Shreveport to Camp Ford for detention until further notice. They were assigned an encampment space which was guarded by Confederate troops. These forty-eight plus various others constituted the original seventy-two prisoners who were confined indefinitely at Camp Ford. Such a small number of prisoners could be secured easily in the open at this stage. The situation changed drastically in the summer of 1863 with the capture of 461 Federals in southern Louisiana. After a short stay at Camp Groce, located near Hempstead, Texas, they were transferred to Camp Ford. This brought the prison population to over 500. Such a large number of prisoners guarded in the open greatly concerned Confederate au-thorities. Their fear was exacerbated when Confederate guards learned of a plot by the prisoners to overpower them, sack Tyler, and make their way to Union lines. When word spread among the panicky citizens of Tyler, they offered their labor and that of their slaves to erect a stockade wall to contain the Yankees better. In about ten days the stock- ade was constructed; it consisted of a wall of logs, split in half, that were eighteen feet high and set four and a half feet deep. It originally enclosed an area variously estimated at two to five acres and was roughly rectangular. A spring, which surfaced a short distance outside the southwest corner of the stockade, ran under the wall and meandered along the inside of the south wall. The arrival of Colonel R.T.P. Allen to command the prison facility in the winter of 1863 was the first indication that the Confederates had decided to use Camp Ford permanently as a prison camp. This may have been an informal decision on the part of the departmental commander, General Edmond Kirby Smith. There was no better place to accommodate the prisoners. Further, it was reasonably close to Shreveport, the nearest depot in the exchange process. Thus, Camp Ford prison appears more evolutionary than planned.

The location of the prison camp was considered an “eligible” one by local residents, one of whom recalled the general shape of the enclosure as an irregular square with a ravine along the west side. The lay of the land was toward the south which presented a desirable exposure. One of the Union officers described the area as prairies interspersed with timbered hills, with an open plain to the north, cultivated lands to the east, and wooded hills on the west. On guard duty were the Walter P. Lane Rangers, who were encamped west of the stockade, and nearby were the conscripts. A hill rose to the south behind the spring. All accounts placed the main gate on the west side of the stockade. Estimated to be approximately ten feet wide, the gate hung on heavy wrought-iron hinges with a wooden bar across the outside, although it usually was open during the day. The guardhouses and cabins of the sentries were located just outside the gate. The commandant’s headquarters looked down on the enclosure from the hill to the south.