Camp Swift
Elgin, Bastrop County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named for Major General Eben Swift (1854-1935), Camp Swift, established primarily for infantry division training, was a major military training facility for 300,000 men and women during World War II. The camp was active from May 1942 until July 1946, and covered nearly 56,000 acres. Shaped like a triangle, the reservation was like a self-contained city and included 2,750 buildings. The camp had the capacity to house and train 45,000 people. The 95th, the 97th, and the 102nd Infantry divisions and the 10th Mountain Division trained here during the war. The 2nd Infantry Division was processed through the camp after the war. More than 32,000 casualties were suffered by these five divisions. The camp also provided training for more than 100 separate non-divisional combat and other support units, and the only nurses combat training program in Texas. About 4,800 German prisoners of war were also held at Swift. At the end of world War II the camp shifted from war-time training to processing more than 12,400 officers and enlisted personnel from the service to civilian life. On June 30, 1946, the camp became inactive, and utilization was transferred from the U.S. Army to the State of Texas in December 1948. (1996)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
During World War II, rural Bastrop County was transformed almost overnight by Camp Swift, a sprawling 56,000-acre installation that trained some 300,000 soldiers. Several infantry divisions and the famed 10th Mountain Division trained on its grounds, and the self-contained 'city' also held thousands of German prisoners of war and ran the only combat nurse-training program in Texas. After the war it became a demobilization center before closing in 1946.
Why it matters
Camps like Swift show how the American home front mobilized for global war, reshaping quiet rural landscapes and communities in a matter of months.
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Related people
- · Eben Swift
Related events
- · World War II
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Rural Farms and Communities Before Camp Swift
Sayersville, TX
As the U.S. mobilized for war in 1940, the government seized this area for Camp Swift, giving landowners just 30 days to leave. The displacement erased farms and whole rural settlements—among them communities dating to the 19th century, a French immigrant's winery, and a lignite-mining village with its own cemeteries. After the war, many former residents could not buy their land back, and the National Guard retained much of the acreage.
Richard J. and Annie Brieger House
Bastrop, TX
Around 1910, Bastrop merchants Theodore and Mary Hasler hired architect Gus Brieger to build a home for their daughter Annie and her husband — Gus's own brother, Richard. The late Victorian Queen Anne house, home to the Briegers and their five children, became a favorite setting for social gatherings. During World War II it took on a new role, sheltering wives of soldiers stationed at nearby Camp Swift.
Del Valle Army Air Base (Bergstrom Air Force Base)
Austin, TX
Soon after the United States entered World War II, the Army Air Corps established an air base on Del Valle land once part of a Mexican land grant, with the City of Austin buying 3,000 acres to lease to the government. Opened in 1942 as a troop-carrier training center, it was renamed for Capt. John A. E. Bergstrom, Austin's first war casualty, killed at Clark Field in the Philippines in December 1941. Crews trained here flew in the invasions of Normandy and beyond, and over the next half-century the base served through the Berlin Airlift, Korea, and Iraq before closing in 1992 and becoming Austin's international airport in 1999.
John Herron
McDade, TX
John Herron marched from the Mina district as a volunteer in the Texas War for Independence and fought at the decisive Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. That brief, furious campaign won Texas its separation from Mexico and established the Republic of Texas. The State of Texas erected this marker in 1962 to honor his service among the founders' generation.