Camp Ford held more naval prisoners than any other prison camp in either the North or South. Because the military branches did not coordinate prisoner exchanges and each was responsible for arranging the exchange of its own men, many naval prisoners remained confined for long periods; by the fall of 1864, some had been held since January 1863 and were pleading for release, saying their superiors had forgotten them. Negotiations stalled when Confederates demanded that any exchange of Camp Ford prisoners include C.S. Admiral Franklin Buchanan, captured at Mobile Bay in August 1864. In early 1865, negotiations resumed and led to the exchange of another 1,200 prisoners, including most of the naval personnel, on February 22. The camp’s last three months brought few deaths but great boredom. Although the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered on April 9, there was still some thought that the Trans-Mississippi might continue fighting, but by mid May the end was clearly near. The final departure of the prisoners proceeded in an orderly way as the war’s last formal exchange, with paperwork noting that the Confederate States had a deficiency and owed the United States more than 300 men in prisoner equivalents. The last 1,800 men marched out on May 19, 1865, and the facility was abandoned. Nearly 5,500 prisoners had come from every northern state except Delaware and Vermont.
