I have a Col. and a camp! CAMP GROCE. Camp Groce, at times referred to as Camp Liendo, was located on Col. Leonard W. Groce's Liendo Plantation on Clear Creek and the Houston and Texas Central Railway, two miles east of Hempstead in Waller County. Established in 1862 as a place for instruction for Confederate recruits, Camp Groce had two rows of barracks built in what seemed an ideal spot. However, stagnant water in the creek made the location sickly, and the camp was little used until the summer of 1863 when it was designated as a prison for Union soldiers captured in the battles of Galveston (January 1, 1863) and Sabine Pass (January 21, 1863). After the second battle of Sabine Pass (September 8, 1863), the prisoner population swelled to more than 400 officers, soldiers, and sailors. At first most prisoners lived in an open clearing, but in October 1863 a stockade was built to enclose them.
|