Camp Groce

Camp Groce
Hempstead, Texas
Type	Training Camp and Confederate Prison Camp
Site information
Controlled by	Confederate States Army
Site history
Built	1862
In use	1862–1865
Battles/wars	American Civil War
Garrison information
Occupants	Confederate soldiers Union prisoners of war

Camp Groce was originally built in 1862 as a training camp for Confederate States Army soldiers from Texas. The camp was located east of Hempstead, Texas along the Houston and Texas Central Railway on a plantation owned by Leonard W. Groce. Beginning in 1863, the camp was used to house Union Army prisoners of war, but by the end of 1864 all the prisoners were repatriated. In April 1865, Texas regiments belonging to Walker's Division marched to Camp Groce where their units disbanded at the end of the war. There are a few Texas Historical Commission markers near Hempstead commemorating sites associated with Camp Groce.

References

• Blessington, Joseph P. (1875). "The Campaigns of Walker's Texas Division". New York, N.Y.: Lange, Little & Co.. https://archive.org/details/05296883.3325.emory.edu/page/n307/mode/2up. 
• Clampitt, Brad (2012). "Camp Groce". Handbook of Texas. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/camp-groce. 
• Clampitt, Brad. "Camp Groce, Texas: A Confederate Prison". pp. 364–384. https://www.jstor.org/stable/30241701.