Uncovering Landscapes in Transition: The Search for the Hospital at Confederate Conscription Camp #1, Camp Watts, Notasulga, Alabama.

Summary

This is a poster submission presented at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In 1862, the Confederate government passed the First Conscription Act. In Alabama, Camp of Instruction #1, Camp Watts, was created in Notasulga. It was a tent-city training camp reportedly with a railroad spur and train depot, a supply station, administrative buildings, and a multistory permanent hospital. In July 1864, Union forces burned the camp but spared the hospital. Local lore claims the hospital stood into the 1950s, albeit altered for use as a barn. In keeping with the theme of landscapes in transition, the Camp Watts Archaeological Project seeks to locate the barn remains whether through historical records, photographs, maps, or via archaeological survey techniques. The extant cemetery is presumed to be located close to the hospital remains, but foundational and other archaeological evidence could be obscured by erosion-stemming earth moving and terracing activities from 1930s agricultural extension programs known to have been implemented on this property.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025   •
• 2025 SHA Poster Submissions

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow