C.S.A. Prisoner of War Compound
Cherokee County, Cherokee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
At this site. Housed some of the more than 3,000 Federals captured at Mansfield, LA., on April 8, 1864, in Red River Campaign to prevent Federal invasion of Texas. Camp Ford, at Tyler, was largest P.O.W. camp west of the Mississippi. Texas had two others, at Hempstead, Waller County, and Camp Verde, Kerr County. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This site once held some of the more than 3,000 Union soldiers captured at the Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana, on April 8, 1864, when Confederate forces turned back the Federal Red River Campaign aimed at invading Texas. Overflow from Camp Ford at Tyler—the largest prisoner-of-war camp west of the Mississippi—these men were part of the vast logistical problem of holding captives in a resource-thin corner of the Confederacy. The marker anchors one node in a network of Texas prison camps far from the war's famous battlefields.
Why it matters
It reveals the Trans-Mississippi theater's hidden human cost, where thousands of captured soldiers endured the Civil War in improvised camps deep behind the lines.
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Related events
- · Battle of Mansfield
- · Red River Campaign
Themes & tags
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