After walking through the history center from the previous post, we went outside to walk around the fort that was up the hill from the camp. Well be walking around the area up the hill where the guards lived and kept watch over their prisoners.
Fort Lawton is the name of the fort housing the Confederate guards as it appeared in 1865
archaeology
We’ll look at each part of this sign in detail.
It seems like soon after everyone left, the few permanent structures, including its prisoner stockade, burned to the ground, allowing the land to revert to use as farmland. Eventually all traces of the prison site were erased, except for the earthworks they built up. In 2006 and 2007, archaeologists used ground penetrating radar to search for faint traces of the stockade that might be just under the surface.
Since the camp was only here for a short time, the precise locations of the stockade, its defenses, and related structures have been difficult to find. Eventually by using their radar, the archaeologists detected the outlines of a large squarish structure beneath the park’s main parking lot. This outline may be all that remains of the stockade’s main gate.
The state’s archaeologists laid out a grid in areas of the park to be investigated. Next they pulled the radar equipment over the grid lines to record the data. They investigated several areas of the park while trying to determine exactly where the stockade and other camp buildings were.
The presence of buried features shows where walls, posts, fire pits, roads, and paths could have been. One small excavation exposed what might be traces of the pointed wooden spikes that formed a defensive barrier around the camp’s gun emplacements.
looking up the hill to where the guards lived
This sign describes the layout of Fort Lawton that we’ll look at in detail.
Overlooking the prison camp were 3 earthworks built to guard the prison and its approaches. We’ll see 2 of these in a moment.
The earthworks housed 11 of the guns used at Fort Lawton and their accompanying artillery company. The camp was put up so quickly that it wasn’t finished when the Union soldiers got to it in late November.
In Sneden’s drawing of the earthworks, cannon barrels can be seen over the walls (just beyond the road). The guard camp was a collection of tents and log structures located directly behind the earthworks.
A redoubt is a fort system with an enclosed defensive position relying on earthworks. Many were hastily built temporary fortifications. A similar type earthwork is a redan, which is open to the rear. Notice how they built ramps for moving artillery into place.
Sneden’s drawing indicates that the fort was actually a redoubt.
formal drawing of the plans for a redoubt
I’m standing behind the earthworks where the road must have come into the fort (see Sneden’s drawing).
From Sneden’s illustration plant of Camp Lawton, which may not be completely accurate but is good enough for our purposes, the fort lay up the hill and spread out right and left. The 42-acre prisoner stockade took up most of the park’s public area plus some of the hatchery ponds just west of where we are.
The stockade was in 2 sections. The area on the left is where the prisoners stayed, and the stream flowed their this location. On the right is a somewhat wooded area for their use.
This sign has information on the Confederate soldiers guarding the prisoners.
Approximately 736 men guarded the prisoners, and they had previously served at Andersonville. General Winder described them as “the most unreliable and disorganized set I have ever seen.” Private Sneden said they were “good natured and green at soldiering.” Another group of 162 men manned the guns of Fort Lawton that looked down on the camp.
Guards manned their posts 24 hours a day. The Harper’s Magazine engraving shows sentry posts spaced evenly along the walls with ladders leading to each post. Inside the walls, a “dead line” was set at 25-30 feet inside the stockade wall. Remarkably, no prisoner at this camp tried to cross that line (and would have been instantly shot). The guards’ other duties included escort of the burial detail, registering incoming prisoners, and guarding the supply and munitions depots. Guards lived in a group of tents and log structures on the opposite side of the fort from the camp.
Harper’s Magazine‘s depiction from 1864
Sneden recorded that some of the soldiers were fairly educated and were gentlemen’s sons (fathers probably thought guarding prisoners would be a safer job for their sons than fighting on the front lines would be), while others were poor whites who were as ignorant as mules but good hearted as a rule. No bayonets were visible since they were scarce in the Confederate army.
Areas to the left and right that would have made up Fort Lawton.
Civil War prisons in general
Initially these camps were planned as temporary places to hold prisoners until they could be exchanged since neither side expected the conflict to last so long or be so bloody. As the war continued, the camps became formal prisons for captured soldiers. Conditions varied from camp to camp based on the captor’s ability and desire to supply the prisoners. While the Articles of War required that prisoners be fed the same amount as soldiers in the field, prison rations were much less in both the South and the North prisons.
Thousands of men died because of unsanitary conditions, exposure to the elements, and lack of nutrition and medical care. Depression, loneliness, and homesickness added to the miserable life in the prisons. Some 30,000 Union soldiers died in Southern camps, and around 26,000 Confederate soldiers died in Northern prisons.
another view of Camp Lawton as seen in Harper’s Weekly
Andersonville (Camp Sumter)
This camp was designed to hold 10,000 prisoners in about 16.5 acres of land. A small creek flowed through its center. Enslaved persons from around the area provided the labor to build the camp.
Prisoners by the thousands started arriving in February 1864. Since the camp was already overcrowded, a 10-acre expansion was completed. At its peak, over 30,000 Union prisoners were held there as prisoners of war.
The photograph, taken from a guard tower shows the prisoners’ makeshift shelters, as well as the “dead line” in front of the stockade walls. Crossing the line meant being shot.
Andersonville’s notoriety was known from the beginning. Prisoners suffered from the overcrowded conditions, lack of shelter, and illnesses. With a death toll a staggering 13,000, this prison became synonymous with the inhumanity suffered by prisoners of war during the Civil War.
Another prisoner, John Ransom, gave us this bird’s eye view of the crowded prison.
Sgt. Patrick Caufield drew this sketch of the camp in June 1864. The dots in the center of the camp represent people; his way of showing how crowded the stockade became.
After the war, Clara Barton, famous for founding the American Red Cross, spent time at Andersonville helping to identify soldiers buried there.
At the end of the war, General Wirz, who oversaw Andersonville, was tried and executed for war crimes.
building Camp Lawton
As we’ve said before, Camp Lawton was built to relieve the overcrowding at Andersonville. General Winder chose this spot because of both its proximity to the Augusta and Savannah Railroad and the abundance of fresh water from Magnolia Springs.
Camp Lawton was named for Confederate Quartermaster General Alexander Lawton who had been president of the Augusta and Savannah railroad in the 1850s. The name of the train depot closest to the camp was known as Lawton Station.
This portion of the rebuilt stockade at Andersonville National Historic Site is a similar design to how the walls might have looked at Camp Lawton. The guard towers were known as “pigeon roasts.”
Sneden’s illustration shows the camp in the middle and the fort in the top left corner. The rebel camp for the guards is just outside and behind the fort in case the prisoners escaped and attacked.
The largest prison in the world at this time, Camp Lawton started receiving prisoners in mid-October 1864; many were from Andersonville. Captain Vowles, who helped supervise the construction, was named prison commandant. Some prisoners noted that Vowles was a better commandant than Captain Wirz at Andersonville, and Vowles escaped the fate of being charged with war crimes after the war.
Prisoners came here from Andersonville by the railroad. This drawing shows how emaciated and ragged they were as they left for Camp Lawton. One man even dared to stop a moment to pick up some food on his way out.
Andersonville had been built on swampy land, but Camp Lawton was built on higher, dry ground with a clear stream running through it. The stockade walls enclosed over 40 acres and was built of pine logs arranged vertically 12-15 feet in the air.
One of the most famous of Camp Lawton’s prisoners was Sergeant Boston Corbett. He was the soldier who shot and killed President Lincoln’s assign, John Wilkes Booth.
The basic requirements of life—food, clothing, and shelter—eluded most Civil War prisoners. In the 2 months that Camp Lawton was used, 750 men died. The picture shows a trench where the dead were buried in a mass grave.
Others found ways to survive the horrible conditions. Giving their word not to escape in exchange for completing tasks assigned them, they could have better clothes, housing, and food than the other prisoners. Some men preyed on those who were weaker and became known as “raiders.” One group of raiders at Andersonville were so bad that the other prisoners tried, convicted, and executed them. Newly arrived men were knows as “fresh fish” to be targeted. Most prisoners just hoped for salvation and managed the best they could.
General Sherman’s coming
Georgia was the industrial capital of the South. More industries supporting the war effort were in this state than in the other Confederate states. The railroad system that ended in Atlanta was the hub of all railroad activity for the Confederate’s movement of troops and supplies to the center of the nation and up the East Coast.
After capturing and burning Atlanta, General Sherman and his army started marching southeast toward Savannah. This campaign targeted Georgia’s heartland to break the economic infrastructure of the state and deal a psychological blow to its citizens.
Union troops burned crops, killed livestock, consumed supplies, damaged railroads, and destroyed industrial centers. Milledgeville, Millen (by Camp Lawton), and Savannah were his objectives.
Union troops leaving Atlanta to march the 300+ miles to the Sea.
town of Madison
The town of Madison, just north of us along what’s now interstate 20, was saved. We’ve been there a number of times to appreciate the beauty of this town. From what we were told when visiting, the homes here were the “city” homes for the plantation owners across the southern half of Georgia. During the cooler winter days after the cotton was harvested, the plantation owners and their families would want to socialize, but the distances between the plantations made this difficult. So they built Madison with their “city” homes so they could enjoy each other’s company.
Here’s some more about this lovely town from Wikipedia.
“Madison was described in an early 19th-century issue of White’s Statistics of Georgia as “the most cultured and aristocratic town on the stagecoach route from Charleston to New Orleans.” In an 1849 edition of White’s Statistics of Georgia, the following was written about Madison: “In point of intelligence, refinement, and hospitality, this town acknowledges no superior.” On December 12, 1809, the town, named for the 4th U.S. president, James Madison, was incorporated.
“While many believe that Sherman spared the town because it was too beautiful to burn during his March to the Sea, the truth is that Madison was home to pro-Union Congressman (later Senator) Joshua Hill. Hill had ties with General Sherman’s brother in the House of Representatives, so his sparing the town was more political than appreciation of its beauty.”
back to Sherman’s March to the Sea
Whenever possible, the Union army wrecked the rail system in Georgia to stop the Confederacy from moving troops and supplies. The soldiers heated the metal tracks and bent them around posts and trees, creating what some called “Sherman’s Neckties.”
With Sherman and his army coming, Camp Lawton was abandoned in late November 1864. Troops arrived just a few days after the evacuation was completed. Some prisoners were shipped back to Andersonville, while others were sent to Savannah or to other camps.
No longer needed as a prison, the land was returned to the original landowner in 1865 to eventually become part of Magnolia Springs State Park.
These pictures of Camp Lawton appeared in Harper’s Weekly in 1864 after it was captured by Union forces. Harper’s Weekly was a popular and widely read periodical during the Civil War and used a variety or well known illustrators.
Millen’s nearby railroad depot and other war material was burned as Sherman pressed on to the Sea.
after the war
The Civil War was fought over a period of 4 years with 237 named battles, as well as many more minor actions and skirmishes. All were often characterized by their bitter intensity and high casualties. (Wikipedia input on the American Civil War)
“At the end of the war, Lincoln’s policy for the defeated South was not clear in all its details, though he continued to believe that the main object should be to restore the ‘seceded States, so-called,’ to their “proper practical relation” with the Union as soon as possible.” (from www,britannica.com/biography/Abraham Lincoln)
I’m so glad that President Lincoln extended a hand of friendship to the South and to the Southern generals, many of whom he knew personally, since we were one nation once again.
He was responsible for the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In Congress, it was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864 (while the war was still being fought), and by the House on January 31, 1865 (just as the war was winding down). The amendment was ratified by the required number of states on December 6, 1865, in the aftermath of the Civil War, that abolished slavery in the United States.
President Lincoln was assassinated soon after the war was won. Vice President Johnson, who became president, had views opposite of President Lincoln, so many of Lincoln’s hopes were set on the back burner until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s got us back on the right path.
Andrew Johnson was a Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, coming to office just as the Civil War concluded. As the new President, he favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union without protection for the former slaves. This led to conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress, culminating in his impeachment (our first) by the House of Representatives in 1868. He was acquitted in the Senate by one vote. His main accomplishment as president was the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire. (info from Wikipedia)
This finishes our look at Camp Lawton and the Confederate prison camps in general during the Civil War. I’m sure at some point we’ll come across some Union prison camps for Confederate soldiers to learn from. So glad you made this trip through a slice of history with us.
