June 2014 Enlarge Camp Ford Replica Officer Cabin and Interpretive Sign
 
Drawings, maps, and even a POW camp newsletter offer documentation for an accurate replica of the cabin which is not located on the exact site.

June 2014 Enlarge Camp Ford Interpretive Marker: Cabin of Lt. Col. L.B. Leake 20th Wisconsin Infantry

June 2014 Enlarge Camp Ford Panel: Confederate Guards
 
Guard duty was tough and there were many escapes. Towards the end of the war, Brown's 35th Texas Cavalry Regiment was ordered from the Texas Gulf Coast (where most of the men lived and protected their families & homes) to watch the POW's and the guards as a mutiny was feared.

June 2014 Enlarge Camp Ford Panel: Early Days as a Prison Camp
 
Camp Ford started as a training camp, then was converted to a prisoner of war camp. In the summer of 1864 it was expanded due to the large number (approx. 2,000 POWs just on April 8-9, 1864) of Union soldiers who were captured during the failed Spring 1864 Red River Campaign which Union General William T. Sherman called "One d**** blunder from beginning to end."

June 2014 Enlarge Camp Ford Panel: Exchange System
 
A synopsis of the exchange system and political manipulations of both sides.

June 2014 Enlarge Camp Ford Panel: Final Days and Naval POW's
 
There is an illustration of the camp from the 1896 History of the 32nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry and an explanation of the nuances of exchange.

June 2014 Enlarge Camp Ford Panel: Prisoners from Louisiana Fear and Treason
 
The October 30, 1863 arrival of large numbers of Union POW's resulting from CSA General Richard Taylor's victory at Sterling's Plantation, Louisiana (aka Bayou Fordoche , Yankee Dead-um) necessitated a much larger stockade. The citizens of Tyler were in fear because they were outnumbered and the former training camp was not ready. A decision to move Union POW's from Camp Groce, near Hempstead, Waller County, Texas, only added to the fear. The discovery of a plot to help free the prisoners exasperated the situation.
 
The panel shows a lithograph of the camp done by Capt James McClain of the 120th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

June 2014 Enlarge Camp Ford Replica Shebang and Cabin
 
Other than the replica main gate, the replicas of the Shebang and Cabin are the only structures in the park.