3. Camp Beauregard Memorial Camp Beauregard Cemetery, Water Valley
(Graves County) Granite marker on concrete base, 1909
Inscription: 1861 - 1865 Camp Beauregard Memorial in memory of the men who died here for the Confederate States of America and were denied the glory of heroic service in battle - Erected by the Kentucky Division United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Beauregard Monument Association of Louisiana.
Dedicated in 1909 (the concrete base was added in the 1930s), this eleven-foot monument (including base), honors another tragic consequence of the Civil War: death by epidemics that raged in many Civil War camps. Camp Beauregard, named for Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard, was established as a training center in Graves County in September 1861. Within a few months, some 5,000 troops from seven states were stationed there under the command of Missouri Colonel John Bowen. Poor weather and supply shortages contributed to the spread of devastating disease, and by the time the camp was evacuated on March 1, 1862, 1,000 men had died.
This large tombstone monument honors those men buried in mass graves at the site, men who "were denied the glory of heroic service in battle."
Questions/Activities:
Research the diseases that were so devastating during the 1800s, defining the symptoms and conditions/causes that contributed to each. Create a timeline of epidemics in Kentucky during the century, including the communities most effected.
