Confederate Soldier Monument at Camp Butler National Cemetery - Springfield, IL - American Civil War Monuments and Memorials on Waymarking.com

Provided by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and Sons of Confederate Veterans, the monument states:
IN MEMORY OF THE CONFEDERATE VETERANS WHO DIED IN CAMP BUTLER CONFEDERATE PRISON CAMP. MAY THEY NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.

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From the Veteran's Administration website:

In 1861, the War Department dispatched General William Tecumseh Sherman to Springfield, IL, to select a site for a military training camp. Illinois Governor Richard Yates tasked the state treasurer, William Butler, with assisting the general. The men found an ideal location six miles outside of Springfield with a high ground for camping purposes and a lower, more-level area for drills and training, as well as space for a cemetery. General Sherman was pleased with the site and named it Camp Butler to honor his companion.

The first troops arrived at Camp Butler in August 1861 and by the end of the month, 5,000 men occupied the camp. As the war progressed, additional uses were found for the grounds, including a prisoner of war camp. In February 1862, approximately 2,000 Confederate soldiers captured when Fort Donelson was surrendered, arrived at Camp Butler. As the POWs arrived–from all 11 southern states except Florida—they were put to work constructing a stockade and hospital. The hastily constructed barracks were inadequate and poorly constructed. Sanitation facilities were primitive and the daily ration of food often consisted of little more than hard biscuits and a cup of thin coffee. Almost immediately, the POWs began to die at a rapid rate. The heat of the summer combined with the severe winter cold, as well as diseases such as smallpox, typhus and pneumonia, decimated the prisoner population. Roughly 700 POWs died in the smallpox epidemic of summer 1862.

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As a result, Camp Butler is a National Cemetery with not only Union and Confederate graves (which are marked with a pointed-peak gravestone instead of the more familiar rounded one), but also soldiers from all the subsequent wars.

Date Installed or Dedicated: 12/01/2005 Name of Government Entity or Private Organization that built the monument: United Daughters of the Confederacy and Sons of Confederate Veterans Union, Confederate or Other Monument: Confederate Rating (1-5): Related Website: [Web Link] Photo or photos will be uploaded.: yes

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