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Re: Camp Ford Tyler Texas
In Response To: Camp Ford Tyler Texas ()

Mike, although this is not the answer you seek, it is interesting to read of the prisoner exchange.
http://www.uttyler.edu/vbetts/missouri_democrat.htm
Scroll about 1/2 way down the page to read more.
DAILY MISSOURI DEMOCRAT [ST. LOUIS], August 3, 1864, p. 1, c. 4

Arrival of Federal Prisoners from Texas.
An Account of Their Brutal Treatment.
Their Condition on Arriving at New Orleans.

[Special Dispatch to the Missouri Democrat.]
CAIRO, August 2.--The steamer Continental has arrived from New Orleans the 26th ult. Papers of that date give a detailed account of the arrival at New Orleans on the 25th of the Federal prisoners from the Red River country, nearly a thousand in number. They were prisoners from many battlefields--the True Delta says many of them having been from twelve to sixteen months in captivity. Their story is soon told. They are one installment from the great prison pen near Tyler, Texas, where from 4,000 to 6,000 are gathered.

We will not sicken the reader with a recital of the disgusting history of this camp, its fetid atmosphere, its accumulated filth, its terrible destitution--it can be imagined. A majority of the prisoners returned belong to the States of Iowa and Indiana. The 26th Indiana and 19th Iowa are well represented. Thomas Morehead, company I, 26th Indiana, was cruelly and wantonly murdered by one of the guards, named Frank Smith, while ten paces inside of the guard line.

The Indiana troops have marched 110 miles four times from Shreveport to Tyler, for the purpose of being exchanged, their bare feet being cut with the frozen earth.

Last November, at Camp Ford, they built huts from brushwood, with which to shelter themselves. The work was of slow progress from the want and inability to get beyond the guard lines into the woods for material. Whenever any of these prisoners escaped they were hunted with blood-hounds, and in nearly every case recaptured.

On the 24th of March, Colonel Rose and all the Indiana officers escaped by digging under the stockade; but, after a night's weary marching, were recaptured by the aid of dogs and brought back. Lieutenant Collins, one of the number, escaped again, and was again recaptured, when Lieutenant Colonel Borden, commanding the camp, rebuked the guards for bringing him back alive, and posted an order to all guards capturing an escaped prisoner to shoot or hang him on the spot.

These men were marched to Shreveport under guard of Lieutenant Haynes, commanding a band of conscripts. So cruel were these men, that when the foot-sore prisoners gave out by the wayside, they put a lariat around their necks and tied it to their saddles. Most of the officers were in irons, and all suffering for food, medicines, and clothing. The rations served each day were a few ounces of beef, Indian meal and salt. They died off like sheep. A small quantity of quinine, blue mass and calomel constituted the entire pharmacopiae of the camp. Two hundred of these prisoners have been vaccinated for the prevention of small-pox with virus tainted with the foul leprosy of sin, and are now impregnated with the loathsome disease.

Immediately upon the arrival of these men the representatives of the Western branch of the Sanitary Commission, with the agents of Iowa and Indiana, set themselves busily to work to ameliorate their condition. Before night they will be clad, and their immediate wants cared for.

Colonel Kincaid, by the direction of Governor Morton, made four distinct attempts to send relief to this camp, but without success.

Kirby Smith has now expressed a willingness to permit them to be so supplied, and agents of the different States and the Sanitary Commission will immediately ship a liberal supply of necessaries, together with stores, for the sick, and a supply of healthy virus for vaccine purposes.

Decency forbids us to describe the utter nudity of these men, both officers and soldiers. Many had not rags enough to cover their nakedness, and their feet pressed the sharp stones till blood marked their tracks. They were animated skeletons marching through New Orleans.

Wm. N. McConaughty, private of the 19th Iowa regiment, clerk in the ordnance office, died at New Orleans July 24.
....
CAIRO, August 2.--Nearly 1,000 exchanged Union prisoners from the Red river country, arrived at New Orleans the 25th. Although gathered from many commands, the majority of them belonged to the States of Iowa and Indiana; the 26th Indiana and 19th Iowa being well represented."

There may be some clues here to locate records of those men.
Fran Bolton

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