Sunrise to sunset - a typical day in the life of a Camp Ford prisoner. The Battle of Mark's Mills brings more prisoners.
Fellow prisoners and a lynching of Union men. A change in Commandant brings harsher treatment. Swiggett, 36th Iowa Volunteer Infantry. Swiggett was born in in Maryland, and, when the Civil War broke out, he was working as a Postmaster in Blakesburg, Iowa. He joined a local company and was mustered into service with the 36th Iowa Infantry in October, His regiment was sent to Helena, Arkansas to join Gen.
Prentiss's forces there and participated in the battle of Helena the following July. Falling under the command of Gen.
Steele soon after, his unit marched south to join Gen. Banks at Shreveport in April While escorting a supply train from Camden to Pine Bluff, Swiggett was captured, along with 34 others from his company, near Mark's Mills, Arkansas. Swiggett escaped twice and was recaptured both times. Srofe of the 48th OVVI, his escapes prevented him from being paroled with the rest of his regiment, and he remained in prison to the end of the war. Swiggett claims the dubious distinction of being the last prisoner to leave the Camp Ford compound.
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The following are excerpts from Swiggett's memoirs that describe his stay in Camp Ford. Swiggett's arrival at Camp Ford and early escape attempts. Roll-calls, a greedy trader, and a prison fight. Religion, gambling, and tunneling. Preparing for winter, and forging a pass. Swiggett sits out the remainder of the war. Nott, th New York Volunteer Infantry.
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In December of , he raised a regiment of infantry for New York, the th "Ironsides" Regiment, and became its colonel. The th immediately left for the Gulf of Mexico, and served in the defenses in and around New Orleans, where Nott was captured by the enemy in early and taken to Camp Groce in Texas and later to Camp Ford.
In all, he spent almost 13 months in captivity. The following are excerpts from Nott's book, describing his time at Camp Ford.
From Training Camp to Prison
I sat down where I could see, Life without and sunshine free -- Death within! Nott's arrival at Camp Ford and foraging for food.
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An attempt to escape and diggning a tunnel. A visit by a young poetess, and Nott is paroled. The captives were initially held in the open, but a panic ensued in November when new prisoners threatened a mass breakout. With over 2, new prisoners taken in Louisiana on April 8 and 9 , at the battles of Mansfield , and Pleasant Hill , the stockade was quadrupled in size. Among those imprisoned there following these battles were 17 members of the 47th Pennsylvania Infantry , the only regiment from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to fight in the Union's Red River Campaign across Louisiana and the only regiment from the Keystone State to have men imprisoned at Camp Ford.
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With more prisoners captured in Arkansas , the prison's population peaked at about 5, in July The population was reduced by exchanges in July and October , [3] and again in February The last 1, prisoners were exchanged on May 22, During the course of the war, the total number of prisoners who passed through the camp was slightly more than 5, About prisoners died in captivity, giving the camp a mortality rate of 5.
The deceased prisoners were reinterred to the Pineville, Louisiana, National Cemetery in Over a two- or three-day period, several hundred slaves labored to enlarge the stockade to encompass a to acre area. Although living conditions in the camp had been comparatively good when the prisoners numbered only to per acre, they deteriorated after April, , when or more men became crowded into each acre of the newly enlarged camp. One prisoner wrote that, soon after their arrival, the new POWs began to "arrange their bivouacs into streets and began to amass green boughs for wigwams or dig dark cavernous vaults for troglodytic dwellings.
During the final years of its short-lived existence, Camp Ford took on a more orderly appearance, what one prisoner described as resembling "a very young prairie town.
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Even so, boredom and a desire for freedom apparently occupied the minds of many of the prisoners. Escape attempts, via numerous furtively dug tunnels, met with varying success. In one foiled attempt, a tunnel was dug at an excruciatingly slow pace by a prisoner wielding only a small case knife; dirt was dumped into a cigar box which was drawn out by a string. The tunnel had reached 30 feet when the escape plot was discovered.
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In a more-successful attempt, men from Massachusetts and Indiana managed to complete a tunnel and head out in small squads bound for points north and east. However, one of the last men in the tunnel got stuck and, in a panic, alerted the guards. Due to the early warning, all but two squads were recaptured. With the end of the war in May , Camp Ford was abandoned. Historical records attest to considerable celebration by POWs and guards alike, and to a large rummage sale in which the newly-freed prisoners sold what few goods they had to local citizens in need of utensils, dishes, and various items that had been made by the prisoners.
In the ensuing years, several prisoners were to return to Camp Ford to challenge old ghosts and recall lost friends. Swanger visited the old stockade where he had been imprisoned. Before leaving, he took a last drink from the spring and a final look at the hillside.