Civil War in Lynchburg

This was the site of a Confederate training camp and Union prisoner-of-war camp during the Civil War. Before Virginia seceded from the Union in April 1861, the population of Lynchburg doubled with the influx of soldiers from other parts of the state, as well as from throughout the Confederacy. Virginians were housed at Camp Davis in Lynchburg, while other soldiers bivouacked here at the fairgrounds just outside the city. <br><br> At first, all prisoners-of-war are to be detained in Richmond, the Confederate capital, but the jails and warehouses there quickly filled. Auxiliary facilities were established elsewhere. Lynchburg was an obvious choice for a prisoner-of-war camp because of its superior rail system and its remoteness from the front lines. <br><br> Located on part of the fairgrounds, the camp was for Federal prisoners waiting to be exchanged. No medical services were available, and many deaths occurred in the camp before the autumn of 1862, when the sick and wounded were moved to hospitals in Lynchburg. After the exchange cartel ceased operating in the summer of 1863, the camp quickly became overcrowded. The only permanent structures inside the enclosure were open stalls that had been used for livestock, so the prisoners were forced to live in them or in tents. Most of the Union dead were buried in the City Cemetery by the firm of George Diuguid and then, in October 1866, were re-interred at Poplar grove National Cemetery in Petersburg. E.C. Glass High School now stands on the site of the prison camp.