Camp Lawton

Camp Lawton was located in Millen, Georgis which is eighty miles northwest of Savannah and thirty miles north of Statesboro. It was the largest prisoner of war camp during the war in terms of area. It is one of the most preserved prison sites of the War. The exact site was located in 2010 by archeology students from Statesboro's Georgia Southern University. They are still working on the site to uncover, document, and preserve information regarding life in this prison.

Camp Lawton was constructed in the late summer and fall of 1864 to alleviate the overcrowding and other issues at Camp Sumter at Andersonville. The land for the prison was rented from Mrs. Caroline Elizabeth Jones, a widow in Millen. The site chosen was a 42 acre plot of ground in a shallow valley with a spring producing seven to nine million gallons of fresh water a day. There was a stream running through the area. The upstream portion was for drinking and washing. The downstream portion served as a latrine. This was a huge improvement in sanitation as provided in other camps.

The 42 acre compound was surrounded by a structure constructed of rough pine logs fifteen feet high. Limbs from the stockade logs and additional cut trees were left on the ground for the prisoners to use to construct shelters.

There were more rations for the prisoners because of the food supply from surrounding area. Several brick ovens with kettles were built for cooking. There was also a guards' camp and hospital, administrative buildings, a POW hospial, and two burial grounds for POWs located around the stockade.

The Millen prison was named Camp Lawton in honor of the current Quartermaster General of the Confederacy, Alexander R. Lawton. Captain D.W. Vowles served as the prison's commander. By early October 1864, the first Union prisoners had arrived at the camp. It was built to accommodate up to 40,000 inmates. Actually, 10,299 POWs were eventually housed at the camp.

Camp Lawton was actively used for only six weeks. The prison was in the path of Sherman's march to the sea and the prisoners had to be moved to other camps. Most of them were moved to camps in South Carolina and Savannah. Camp Lawton was completely evacuated by early 1865.

Even though records differ, at least 500 to 700 Union soldiers died at Camp Lawton. Most were sick from previous imprisonment. They were orginally buried at the Lawton National Cemetery near the camp. In Feb., 1868 they were transferred to the National Cemetery in Beaufort, S.C.

In early 1865 the land was returned to the owner who farmed it for years. Over the next 145 years the stockade rotted away and the site remained undisturbed. Georgia Southern University's Department of Sociology and Anthropology began a project in 2009 to investigate the Camp. Nearly 200 artifacts have been uncovered so far, including uniform buttons, a picture frame, coins, utensils, bullets, and a three inch clay pipestem with a soldier's teeth marks on it. "The archeological work will continue so that the research at this site will help us better understand the lives and deaths of prisoners throughout the Confederacy and Union prison system".

Information from article on Camp Lawton from UDC magazine, Feb. 2012 issue.

Thank you for sharing this.

I was glad to share the article. If I can get the bibliography, ill be glad to share. I will have to request one from editor and may take a while.

One of the prisoners at Camp Lawton was Private Robert Knox Sneden. He was born in Nova Scotia in 1832 but was found in New York City by 1850. He found work as an apprentice architect in N.Y.C. and enlisted in the Union Army of the Potomac in 1861. He joined the 40th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment where he served as quartermaster. In January, 1862 he began his service as a draftman working on campaign maps. He participated in the Peninsula Campaign and took part in the battle of Bull Run.

In October, 1863 he was captured and imprisoned in Richmond, Va. He was then moved to Georgia was held in Andersonville and eventually at Camp Lawton.

While a prisoner, he continued his practice of making sketches. It is during his stay at Camp Lawton that he produced his most brilliant work. Part of reason he could draw, was that he worked as a paroled prisoner and wrote Latin prescriptions in the hospital. He was allowed greater freedom than other prisoners.

After 13 months of internment, he was eventually exchanged. He went back to New York where he found that he had been declared dead. He was disabled, and devoted 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 then 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.

There is an interesting article on Sneden in Archaeology Magazine titled "Sneden's Legacy" by Eric A. Powell. It is at http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/sneden/

There are pictures of the paintings at Camp Lawton and his map. These paintings and the map have been of great help to the research and digs at Camp Lawton.

Information on Sneden from Georgia Southern University Camp Lawton and from the article "Sneden's Legacy".

500 dying out of 10,000 sounds like less than the deaths from disease in normal winter camps. Lawton was a huge improvement over Andersonville with clean plentiful water and better rations. Of course people see what they want to see.

Edit: Not aimed at you Ole, the soldiers. I'm sure they assumed the worst.

The information in first post on this thread is from "United Daughters of the Confederacy Magazine," February 2012, pp.25-27. The author of the article that I got information from is Donna Bailey, Alfred Holt Colquitt Chapter 2018 Atlanta, Ga. The other information was from "Archaeology Magazine", article "Sneden's Legacy" by Eric A. Powell. I don't have page as it wasn't posted in site I got the article from.