Camp Lawton - The World's Largest Prison

Georgia's Magnolia Springs

Many people have heard of the Confederate prison known as Andersonville (or Camp Sumter).  Far fewer are aware of Camp Lawton (also known as Fort Lawton) which was built in Jenkins County, Georgia, to relieve the unhealthy, crowded conditions at Andersonville.  

During it's brief existance, Camp Lawton was the largest prison in the world.  Occupying 42 acres beside beautiful Magnolia Springs, it was designed to hold 40,000 prisoners of war.  The prison consisted of a log stockade, 1398 feet by 1329 feet, with guard towers on the walls, and a ditch dug within the walls for a deadline.  It was built in September, 1864, by a crew of 800 workers.  On high ground surrounding the prison, three earthen forts were excavated and armed with cannon to prevent escape and guard from attacks.

One of the reasons the prison was located here was the large, pure spring, which could supply ample water to the prisoners  Another factor was the Augusta Railroad which passed just one mile from the camp. If the camp was threatened, prisoners could be loaded onto trains and moved north to Augusta or southeast to Savannah, and to other points from there.

The first prisoners began arriving in October 1864 and within a month 10,299 men were held there. Then on Nov. 25, 1864, the camp was quickly abandoned in advance of the Left Wing of Sherman's army during their cruel and infamous "March to the Sea."  Sherman's invading horde burned the new stockade and it was never rebulit.

Today, the spring is the site of Magnolia Springs State Park. Some of the earthworks remain and historical markers outside and inside the park tell help interpret the site.  The nearby railroad town of Millen had a beautiful depot and hotel which were burned when Sherman's Yankee invaders came through on Dec. 3, 1864. The local Chamber of Commerce, located in the new depot, built 1915, has a large picture of the prison and various historical displays.

  Historic Fort Lawton Earthworks

I have visited Magnolia Springs on several occasions and have found it to be a beautiful, uncrowded place to hike, camp and study nature - especially rare birds and alligators.  It is also a significant Confederate historical site which is too often overlooked and unknown.

Photos and story by J. Stephen Conn  

Fort Lancaster, on the Confederacy's Western Frontier

Ruins of Historic Fort Lancaster in West Texas

Of all the places that comprised the Confederate States of America from 1861–1865, few were as remonte as Fort Lancaster, on the high, arid plains of west Texas.

Established in 1855, Fort Lancaster was one in a series of forts erected along the western Texas frontier. It was located on 82 acres in the Pecos River Valley of Crocket County, 33 miles west of the small county seat town of Ozona. The fort's purpose was to guard the mail, supplies, and immigrants moving along the lower San Antonio–El Paso Road.

Fort Lancaster housed approximately 150 men and 3 officers. In 1856 a United States Army Inspector visited the fort and found that the soldiers were so untrained, he didn’t want them to demonstrate rifle firing. He also discovered 76 prisoners in the guardhouse, 15 of them there for drunkenness. The Inspector reported, "they desire nothing better than to get drunk and lay in the guardhouse." The problem stemmed partly because of lack of officers and also poor conditions at the fort. The men were living in what was called "hackadales," portable frames covered with canvas. The living quarters were soon improved.

The fort saw little action, but in 1857, a wagon train was ambushed by Indians about 25 miles away. The soldiers were able defeat the Indians, with the loss of only one sergeant.

Fort Lancaster was surrendered to the Texans in 1861, at the beginning of the War Between the States. The fort became a part of the Confederate far western frontier line. It played a role in protecting the supply line from Arizona in the New Mexico Campaign of 1861-62. The campaign was intended to make the Confederacy a nation which would have stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Confederate “Minute Men” from the 2nd Texas Calvary occupied this lonely post. The fort was inspected by Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley in the fall of 1861. Regular patrols guarded supply trains and checked Indian activities. When things became dull, the troops entertained themselves by putting out a camp newspaper and spiced things up with the nightly sport of shooting pesky coyotes.

The fort was abandoned in 1867, only to be reactivated briefly as a sub-post during the Kiowa-Comanche troubles of 1871. Today Fort Lancaster is a State Historical Site, operated by the Texas Historical Commission. A handful of graves on the property contain the remains of those who died at this remote, windswept outpost. One of them was a Confederate soldier, Private J. H. Norris, whose tombstone is a silent reminder of the War for Southern Independence.

The lonely grave of Confederate Private J. H. Norris, Fort Lancaster, Texas