Camp Lawton

Camp Lawton
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Nearest city:	Millen, Georgia
Area:	101 acres (41 ha)
Built:	1864
Architect:	Winder,Brig. Gen. John H.,C.S.A.
Governing body:	State
Added to NRHP:	March 24, 1978
NRHP Reference#:	78000992

Camp Lawton was established during the Civil War in the fall of 1864 by the Confederate Army to house Union prisoners of war at Magnolia Springs in order to take advantage of the abundant water supply. Built by slave labor of pine timber harvested on site, the walls measured 12 to 15 feet (4.6 m) high. The stockade began receiving the first of at least 10,299 prisoners in early October. The post was abandoned by the end of November when threatened by Sherman’s drive on Savannah. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) conducted in December 2009 by the LAMAR Institute revealed a possible location for the southwest corner of the prison stockade. Georgia Southern University has begun archaeological investigations to “ground truth” the results of the GPR survey.

Georgia Southern University announced on Aug. 18, 2010 that several archaeology students have uncovered numerous priceless and unique Civil War artifacts at the site.

"This is truly a stunning find with historical implications that will be studied for decades," said Georgia Southern University Archaeology Professor Sue Moore, Ph.D. "While we knew we were searching in the immediate vicinity of the site of the Civil War's largest prison camp, we were amazed by some of the artifacts that were uncovered and at their condition. These pieces tell the story like nothing else can of what life was like for the thousands of prisoners and soldiers who lived here at the close of the war."

The artifacts including a makeshift smoking pipe, bullets turned into gaming pieces, a tourniquet buckle, jewelry, eating utensils, and coins"were found at Magnolia Springs State Park in Millen, Ga. The area was the site of Camp Lawton, which at the close of the Civil War was believed to be the largest prison camp in the world. The state park was established in the 1930s, after the exact boundaries of the prison camp were no longer known. The widely accepted view by many archaeologists was that there were no significant or personal Civil War artifacts to be found at the site.

Georgia Southern University archaeology graduate students began conducting research there in the fall of 2009 at the request of Georgia Department of Natural Resources Director Chris Clark. Clark, an alumnus of Georgia Southern University, hoped the team could pinpoint the location of the stockade walls that originally surrounded the prison. If the team was successful, Clark eventually planned to reconstruct the walls to bring additional tourists to the park. However, no one believed the land still contained much else in the way of Civil War artifacts.

"Many Civil War sites have been stripped by a century and a half of farming and development," said Georgia Southern University graduate student Kevin Chapman, who is heading the project and discovered the first artifacts. "Now we have unearthed numerous items that haven't been touched in 150 years. We never believed that we would find anything of this magnitude."

Camp Lawton was constructed in 1864 by the Confederate Army to replace Georgia's notorious Andersonville prison. Camp Lawton housed more than ten-thousand Union prisoners, and hundreds of Confederate soldiers. But, the camp was only occupied for six weeks before evacuations began in the middle of the night on November 26, 1864 as the Union army approached during Sherman's March to the Sea. Chapman believes that hasty exit may be the reason so many artifacts remained on the site.

"What we've found were treasures of the prisoners who were kept here," Chapman explained. "They would have hidden these things from the Confederate guards. When they were roused in the middle of the night to begin the move out, there may not have been time to retrieve them. Also, records tell us anywhere from 750 to 1,200 men died at Camp Lawton over the course of six weeks. Some of these items may be things the soldiers hid away and were never found between their death and the time of the evacuation."

Under an agreement with the federal government, the portion of the land in Magnolia Springs State Park where the artifacts were found was recently transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This area is now enclosed by a fence and is under 24 hour video surveillance and manned security to prevent looting of the site. Anyone caught looting in the area is subject to prosecution, with penalties that could include prison time and hefty fines. Georgia Southern University students will continue their scientific research and excavations in an effort to study the area as thoroughly as possible.

"This is sacred ground," said Moore. "Hundreds of men died here and what they, and the other prisoners, left behind belong to the public and future generations. When these artifacts are excavated and preserved in the correct, scientific way they give us a detailed picture of the people who lived and died at Camp Lawton. We are dedicated to preserving these pieces so everyone can have an up close look at these secrets that have been buried for more than a century."

The artifacts will be on exhibit at the Georgia Southern University Museum beginning October 10, 2010. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the custodian of the artifacts, which belong to the American people. For more information about Georgia Southern's discovery at Camp Lawton, please visit www.georgiasouthern.edu/camplawton.

Camp Lawton Discovery

In 2009, Georgia Southern University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology began a project to investigate the archeology at Camp Lawton, a Civil War prisoner of war camp situated in Jenkins County, Georgia. Working with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, archeologists used the drawings of Private Robert Knox Sneden, a prisoner at the camp, to designate several initial survey areas and to identify the likely location of the camp stockade. About that same time, the group learned that Dr. John Derden of East Georgia College was completing a history of Camp Lawton. His knowledge and expertise provided valuable guidance to the archeological project.

In December 2009, the LAMAR Institute (a private archeological research group) did ground penetrating radar (GPR) in an area where we believed the stockade walls crossed. GPR allows archeologists to “see” beneath the ground surface using microwaves, allowing us to dig more efficiently.

GPR showed a distinct disturbance in this area and this is where we dug our first test trenches. Work has continued in this area in an effort to gather enough information to reconstruct a partial replica of the stockade wall. Work in one of the survey areas began in January 2010. The group began by digging inside the stockade enclosure north of Magnolia Springs Creek to determine if anything remained of the place where prisoners lived and worked. We did not expect to find much. The archeological team assumed that over the years most of the artifacts had been removed, much like at Andersonville Prison. If the artifacts had not been taken, then it was assumed that surely years of cultivation and landscaping would have destroyedalmost all evidence of the occupation. This was not the case.

The archeology has slowly begun to yield critical new information about life in this Civil War prison. It adds a new dimension to the history of Camp Lawton and, more importantly, provides insight into the experiences of prisoners who were held there — those who survived and those who did not. Even though the camp was occupied for only six weeks, we have found a complex story of loss and hardship along with survival and ingenuity, a story that is vital to our understanding of the experiences of Civil War soldiers, both Union and Confederate, during the tumultuous March to the Sea.

Camp Lawton: “The World’s Largest Prison"

Source: Dr. John K. Derden

The treatment of POWs by both sides is a particularly dark chapter in the history of the American Civil War. It is a tale replete with poor planning, inadequate infrastructure, fatal illnesses, mutual recriminations, and lingering bitterness. Tragically, many captured soldiers who had survived death-dealing battlefields found themselves in situations that rendered mortality in other less “heroic” ways.

Camp Lawton is an integral part of that history. Described by its builder, Brigadier General John H. Winder, as “the largest prison in the world,” Camp Lawton was hastily constructed in the late summer and fall of 1864 to alleviate the horrendous overcrowding and supply and health problems of the Confederate military prison at Andersonville (Camp Sumter), Georgia, that eventually resulted in the deaths of nearly 13,000 Union POWs. The land for the prison was rented from Mrs. Caroline Elizabeth Jones, a local widow. Camp Lawton was initially occupied by enlisted Union POWs during the first week of October. Located along the Augusta and Savannah Railroad five miles (8 km) north of what was then Millen Junction in Burke County, the new prison facility was modeled after Camp Sumter, but in its execution and operation, was an improvement in most respects.

Situated in a shallow valley through which flowed a spring-fed stream, the prison featured a 42-acre (170,000 m²) compound framed by a 15-foot (4.6 m)-high stockade wall of locally harvested pine logs. At regular intervals along the outside walls, guards were stationed in “pigeon roosts” to keep watch over the inmates. A low fence of pine scantlings ran 30 feet (9.1 m) inside the perimeter of the stockade wall and served as a “dead line” to keep prisoners away from the wall. Several brick ovens equipped with kettles were built for cooking purposes, although prisoners typically cooked their rations individually and in small messes. The stream flowed through the prison, bisecting it. The upstream portion was used for washing and drinking, and the downstream portion served as a latrine. A wooden bridge crossed the stream at the point where a sutler’s cabin stood. Ancillary facilities — at least three earthworks, a guards’ camp and hospital, log buildings for administrative purposes, a POW hospital, and two burial grounds for POWs — were located around the stockade.

Most POWs transported to Camp Lawton came from Andersonville via Savannah, where they had been temporarily housed pending the completion of the new prison. Upon entering the prison, POWs were marched across the stream to the north side of the compound, where they were organized and divided into detachments. Although no barracks were provided, POWs constructed their own “shebangs” from materials scavenged from the stockade’s construction along with materials — blankets, pieces of clothing, and shelter halves — they had brought with them. Most Camp Lawton POWs were veteran prisoners and, therefore, had weakened constitutions which contributed to illnesses, but exposure also stalked the inmates as the fall weather turned colder. Subfreezing temperatures, freezing rain, and snow flurries — combined with the illnesses — resulted in death for hundreds of POWs.

Although records are incomplete, the prison guard was probably composed of elements of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Georgia Reserves, the Florida Light Artillery, and the 55th Georgia. Commanded by Colonel Henry Forno, the reserve units were composed basically of teenaged males and older men who were poorly equipped and trained. The prison commandant was Captain D.W. Vowles, and the chief surgeon was Dr. Isaiah H. White. On November 8, Vowles submitted the only existent camp return to the Richmond authorities. It listed 10,299 POWs at the prison, of whom 349 had enlisted in the Confederate Army, 486 had died, and 285 were working at the prison.

Not only was the prison’s administrative staff located on site, but also General Winder (Commissary-General of Prisons in Alabama and Georgia) established his headquarters there. Moreover, just before the prison was evacuated, Winder was promoted to Commissary-General of Prisons east of the Mississippi. Therefore, for a time the administrative apparatus of much of the Confederate military prisons was located at Camp Lawton.

Despite certain improvements over Andersonville in rations (quality, variety, and quantity — at least initially), water supply, space, and sanitation, Camp Lawton POWs ultimately suffered the privations of insufficient rations, inadequate housing, damaging exposure, and poor medical care. Among the events transpiring at Camp Lawton during its brief history was a mock presidential election held among the POWs in November in which Lincoln was the easy victor.

When Confederates attempted to recruit their captives for military and other service, some “galvanized” and joined the Confederate Army; others signed paroles and worked as butchers, administrative clerks, or cobblers. In the middle of November, an exchange of sick prisoners was arranged, and many Camp Lawton inmates were among the several thousand Union and Confederate POWs who were exchanged through the port of Savannah.

Initially, POW burials were located near the railroad in a series of three trenches; later burials were located in a trench near the mill pond downstream from the stockade. Although records differ, at least 725 Union soldiers died at Camp Lawton. Following the war, the Army Quartermaster-General’s Office consolidated the burials of Union dead and established the short-lived Lawton National Cemetery on a 4-acre (16,000 m²) plot near the site of the former prison. A dispute with the landowner led to the closure of the cemetery in February 1868, and the bodies were transferred to Beaufort (S.C.) National Cemetery.

The approach of Sherman’s forces brought Camp Lawton to a precipitous end. The last POWs were evacuated on November 22, barely six weeks after the first prisoners had arrived and only four days before Union cavalry reached the empty stockade. Shipped to Savannah, some POWs were then taken into South Carolina; others were transported to a temporary prison near Blackshear, Georgia. Following the war, the memory of Camp Lawton receded, and the physical remains of the prison almost disappeared. In 1939, a Civilian Conservation Corps camp was established at the site and began the construction of Magnolia Springs State Park that encompassed almost the entire site of Camp Lawton.

Today, the collaborative efforts of historical scholarship and archeological investigations, as well as information gained from recent document discoveries, are combining to reconstruct the story of “the world’s largest prison.”

Archeology at Camp Lawton

When Georgia Southern University was asked to conduct a survey of Camp Lawton at Magnolia Springs State Park, the team began by establishing a plan that would attempt to locate the various aspects of the camp infrastructure. While not all portions of the survey are complete, two are well underway and have yielded amazing results. These two sections include one which was intended to locate the stockade wall itself and another that was intended to examine the prisoner occupation area within the stockade. The first area of the survey was targeted at one corner of the prison stockade. This would have been the left front corner of the stockade as you walked into the main gates. This corner would have been overlooked by the earthworks that are still present at Magnolia Springs State Park. These earthworks presented a valuable clue to the corner’s location, since it would have been situated so that the cannon located there would have had a clear field of fire down both walls. After the area for the survey was decided upon, a ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey was conducted by Dan Elliott of the LAMAR Institute. Based on the initial results of this survey, two excavation trenches were placed in the grassy area near the park offices and pool to locate a large “L” shaped feature.

The first trench was one meter wide and 10 meters long. Results in this first trench were limited, although it did provide valuable insight into the soil stratigraphy of the location. A second wider trenchwas opened, this one measuring two meters wide and four meters long. After opening the first trench, the team received additional information from the GPR survey indicating the top of the feature was 1.5 meters deep. A feature this deep is very unusual for historic sites in the southeastern United States, which left us with as many questions as answers when digging first began. As the GPR survey indicated, they found an historic ground surface and a highly disturbed linear feature consistent with a stockade wall at this depth. The mystery was solved soon after, when archeologists studied a topographic map dating back to 1920. That map showed a large depression where the excavation trench was placed, most likely a limestone sink that is common in the area. The sink had been filled since the map was made, likely during Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) work at the park. In the future, additional trenches will be opened to fully delineate this corner and then to locate other corners and the stockade’s main gate structure.

The second survey area was intended to explore the prisoner occupation area on the opposite side of Magnolia Springs Creek. Work began by laying in eight straight lines, or transects, six of which are 220 meters long and two that are 180 meters long. The transects are 20 meters apart and run east to west. The team used two methods of survey in this area: shovel testing and metal detecting.

Shovel testing is a traditional archaeological technique where a series of holes are dug, usually in a grid pattern, to explore the subsurface. At Camp Lawton, we decided on one shovel test every 20 metersalong the transect which resulted in 92 shovel tests. Each shovel test was 50 cm x 50 cm (20in x 20in) and to a depth of 80 cm (32 in). All of the soil was screened through ¼-inch screen to find possible artifacts. It was thought, prior to the beginning of the survey, that results of the shovel testing would be sparse due to the site’s short-lived occupation and the supposed lack of prisoner’s material possessions. As the shovel testing progressed, very positive results started to unfold. The shovel tests yielded a minié ball, the common bullet of the day, and a Union soldier’s coat button, both directly related to the Civil War occupation of the site. Other artifacts were less obvious in their relation. One artifact is an iron spoon bowl. Later testing yielded a number of these spoon bowls and also spoon handles. Due to the number found, it is thought they most likely date to the prisoner occupation.

In one shovel test, a number of bricks were found that appear to still be in place with mortar beneath. During the construction of the camp, up to six brick ovens were built for use by the prisoners. These bricks may be the remains of one of those ovens. Unlike shovel testing, metal detection survey is not a traditional archaeological technique. Metal detection on prehistoric sites in the southeastern United States is pointless due to the almost total lack of metal artifacts. Even in historic sites the metal detector has only been used to a very limited extent. The field where metal detecting has seen the most use is in the archaeology of military encampments and battlefields. The high incidence of metal artifacts and the overall ephemeral nature of these sites make them ideal for metal detection.

Georgia Southern archeologists launched into the metal detection investigation with a new detector and techniques taught by Dan Battle of Cypress Cultural Consultants and the LAMAR Institute. Battle has been an advocate for the use of the metal detector as a tool in the kit of archaeologists. The metal detector has suffered the stigma of being unscientific and the tool of the looter, not the archeologist. Battle however, has developed a system that limits the metal detector to the plow zone. The plow zone is the layer of soil that has been disturbed by plowing, and artifacts are not in their original location. By limiting the recovery to this zone, no original features like post holes or hut depressions will be disturbed. The survey was conducted by sweeping a band along the transects, one meter wide, to the south of the transect line. Only hits inside this area were recovered and only to a depth of 25 cm, which we had established as the minimum plow zone depth during the shovel testing survey.

The results of the survey were immediate and stunning. We began to retrieve an amazing collection of artifacts proving that the site was of unexpected importance. The artifacts are not only visually impressive, but they also tell an incredible story individually and as a whole. Some artifacts such as the pipe tell of the ingenuity of these soldiers in the face of adversity. The keepsake items speak of feelings of separation to which we can all relate. The tourniquet buckle and bullets are testaments to the horror of war to which these men were so well-acquainted. As a collection, they tell us about the lives of these men beyond their roles as soldiers and prisoners.

Two of the coins are of German/Austrian origin and would have entered into Union service with the huge number of recent immigrants who enlisted on both sides. Artifacts such as a private coin minted in Columbus, Ohio or a New York State button give clues to geographic origin. In the future, it may even be possible to determine where individual units were encamped within the stockade, using artifact distribution patterns.

The archeological work being conducted at Camp Lawton gives us a unique opportunity to explore a forgotten chapter of the American Civil War. The research conducted at this site will shed light on the little understood lives of prisoners throughout the Confederate and Union prison systems and military internment in all periods of history.

The Illustrations ofRobert Knox Sneden Private Robert Knox Sneden (1832–1918) was born in Nova Scotia but was living in New York City by 1850. He found work as an apprentice architect there and enlisted in the Union Army of the Potomac in 1861. He joined the 40th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment where he served as a quartermaster. In January 1862, he began his service as a draftsman working on campaign maps. He participated in the Peninsula Campaign and took part in the second Battle of Bull Run. In October 1863, he was captured and imprisoned in Richmond, Va., then moved south to Georgia where he was held at the notorious Andersonville prison and eventually at Camp Lawton.

While a prisoner, he continued his practice of making sketches of what he saw. To keep the drawings from being confiscated by the Confederates, he reportedly sewed them into the lining of his coat. It is during his stay at Camp Lawton that Sneden produced his most brilliant work. Part of the reason is because he worked as a paroled prisoner and wrote Latin prescriptions in the hospital during this period, and was allowed greater freedom outside the stockade.

After 13 months of internment, Sneden was eventually exchanged. At this point he made his way back to New York where he found that he had been declared dead. Permanently disabled, he decided to devote his time to painting the scenes he had sketched during his enlistment and time in POW camps. These watercolors lay hidden until 1994 when they were discovered and subsequently acquired by the Virginia Historical Society. The paintings were published as Images from the Storm and Sneden’s diary was published as Eye of the Storm. Sneden’s body of work is the largest collection of Civil War art known to exist.

3-D Non-Invasive Archeological Research at Camp Lawton

Remote sensing systems, such as ground penetrating radar (GPR), provide archaeologists with the ability to study sites without disturbing the archeological features on the surface and below the ground. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is another type of remote sensing technology. LiDAR systems use a laser to find and record the distance to a point on an object. The LiDAR scanner collects thousands of these measured points to generate a three dimensional point cloud of the area or object being scanned.

In the summer of 2010, Georgia Southern University archeologists began deploying and testing two LiDAR systems to record topographic features at Camp Lawton. Fort Lawton will be the first in a series of scan projects planned to demonstrate the use of this technology in the interpretation of the site. LiDAR scans of the fort will be used to generate a three dimensional model of the fort. This model will then be integrated with other data from GPR, excavations, and shovel tests to more accurately illustrate the fort’s relationship to the stockade wall and other site components. Future applications of LiDAR include digital reconstruction of the site, recording and presenting excavation data, and collecting topographical map data.

Camp Lawton’s Past and Future

Camp Lawton must be preserved and interpreted not only for the future, but also for the past. Few, if any, prisoner occupation sites remain from the Southern theatre of the Civil War. Archeology has a chance to tell the stories of these people and of the events that took place at this site. The past occupants of the site deserve no less than to have their stories told from the historical documents and material remains. Without proper archeological and historical research, this is not possible. Archeological sites are a non-renewable resource. Once excavated, a site is destroyed so everyone must be diligent stewards of this resource whether by doing archeology or protecting it from vandalism.

Taking artifacts or damaging a site is never acceptable.

The people who left those artifacts will never have their stories told. When walking around the site, remember to ask questions, imagine the people and their lives, and learn from the stories that the archeology and history can tell us. Americans have a responsibility to protect the past for the future and to make sure those stories are told.

References

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