Camp Watts served as a military hospital, a camp of conscription and instruction, a supply depot, and a cemetery during the War Between the States. At one time, hundreds of headstones and rocks marked the final resting place of soldiers buried there. The conscription camp at Camp Watts was ordered closed after the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. The hospital remained open, staffed by volunteers under the guidance of Juliet Opie Hopkins, who relied on charitable donations from Ladies Aid Societies throughout Alabama and also used her personal funds to keep the hospital operating.