Camp Lawrence

While walking through Breckenridge Cemetery in Bedford, Lawrence County, my daughter and I noticed an interesting stone that was set back into a little wooded area.  Near it were a lot of Civil War memorial stones, so we immediately assumed that it was a memorial to soldiers that died/served in the Civil War.  But we saw it was far more interesting,

The stone reads:

"Camp Lawrence

1861-1865

was used as an union training camp and a

Confederate prisoner of war Interment camp.

The camp was located southeast of this cemetery 

near the railroad.

Buried on this site are the remains of 25

Confederate prisoners of war and 7 Union

soldiers who died at Camp Lawrence during

the Civil War whose names are known but to God."

Considering, with all of my research into various cemeteries and burials over the last 10 years or so, to find a Civil War interment camp just south of where I lived, I was surprised.  I had never run across any information about this camp anywhere. 

And, that seems to be a running them with this post.  I found little to no information at all about it.

What I did find were two articles about Memorial Day.  One was from the Times-Mail dated 2014. It noted that a group of students, while studying Indiana during the Civil War, made a trip to Breckenridge Cemetery to honor the soldiers buried there.  

Camp Lawrence was a stopping point on their way to Camp Morton in Indianapolis.  Conditions at Camp Lawrence were deplorable, which seemed to be the norm at most of these POW camps.  The physical health of the soldiers interred there and the conditions at the camp led to the deaths of 25 Confederate soldiers and 7 Union soldiers who likely died at the Union training camp located at Camp Lawrence.

It is said that the Camp was located nearby, likely under the parking lot of the local GM Plant, but no one seems to be entirely sure.  There is a rail road near this location and I did find a photo in a bout called Lawrence County, Indiana by Maxine Kruse that shows the rail yard and that it was near the camp.

   

Unfortunately, we will likely never know that names of the men that died at the Camp, either Confederate or Union.  Their names are long gone.  

There is so little information about this particular site.  I know that a man named Jay Wilson did a lot of research about Camp Lawrence, but I don't have access to a lot of that information.  I am going to continue to do some research and if I find anything else, I will update this post later on.

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REFERENCES

Time-Mail dated May 25, 2014 - History Lesson

WBIW dated May 28, 2021 - "Killed In Action" Remembering those who served and died - Memorial Day

Lawrence County, Indiana  by Maxine Kruse