The initial prisoners at Camp Ford were kept in the open without a stockade until panic followed the arrival of over 600 prisoners on October 23, 1863. Camp commander Col. R.T.P. Allen, with only 40 guards, uncovered a prisoner plot for a mass breakout, and planters in the area were called on to bring their slaves to erect a stockade. Work began on November 11, and within 10 days about three and a half acres were enclosed by a wall of split logs standing sixteen feet above the ground. The west wall ran about ten yards east of this location, and although archaeological work did not discover the main gate, it is thought to have been about 75 yards to the south. Just outside the gate stood the "wolf pen" for disciplinary confinement of prisoners and a cabin for the officer on guard.
