The Effingham Hospital Authority and Historic Effingham Society dedicated a historic marker Friday to mark Camp Wilson, a Confederate Convalescent Camp, at the site of the current Sheriff’s Office, jail and prison in Springfield.
Soldiers were sent to Camp Wilson from July 1862 to January 1863, after being treated five miles away at the Guyton Confederate General Hospital for more serious illness or injury.
The marker says the recuperating soldiers were not bed-ridden patients but were sick enough not to be able to perform at full healthy strength.
The camp treated their ailments and returned them to their units as soon as possible.
Dr. William Watson Wilson, a civilian medical doctor, was hired on July 2, 1862, to be the Convalescent Camp physician. The camp was on his property and likely was a tent city, using barns and outbuildings to store food and medical supplies.
The camp had 626 patients in September 1862.