Committed to telling the story of Louisiana during the war and the part taken by her sons
Our Museum is open from Wednesday thru Saturday from 10:00 AM until 3:00 PM. We are closed for all National Holidays.and close from Thanksgiving through the end of the year.
The grounds at Camp Moore are open 7 days a week from daylight to dusk for pedestrians. You are welcome to walk the grounds and take our self-guided walking tour. Please respect the grounds and leave them in the same condition you found them.
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Camp Moore Confederate Cemetery
In the spring of 1861, soldiers came by the thousands to Camp Moore to organize into regiments and then were sent off to the "seat of war." Many of these young men became sick while at the camp. Medical procedures were primitive by today's standards and such diseases as measles, diarrhea and pneumonia killed many of these men. There were two bad measles outbreaks, one in the fall of 1861, the other in the spring of 1862. As many as 800 men died here at Camp Moore. We don't know the exact number because records here were burned in 1864. These men died never having seen a blue-coated enemy. They died of disease but that does not make their sacrifice any less heroic. Here lie, in these two acres, the hopes and dreams of many, many lifetimes, a life cut short and countless wives, mothers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters wept and grieved for their loss.
The elements claimed this burial ground after the war and it was not until around 1900 that the veterans themselves and members of the newly formed United Daughters of the Confederacy would reclaim this cemetery. When they came back, all of the wooden headboards were rotted away but one. They erected a fence around the two acres and put up a monument to the men who came to Camp Moore on their way to war. This was completed by 1905. In the last two decades, headstones have been erected in an aesthetic manner to the memory of those men who we have verified died here. The marble statue of a soldier stands as a silent sentinel over the holy ground in which these dreams are buried.
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Private Bill Douglas of the famed Tiger Rifles of Wheat's 1st Special Battalion had the unfortunate luck to be the first death at Camp Moore. Bill was killed only two days after Camp Moore opened. He was hit by a train while doing guard duty on the railroad tracks leading past Camp Moore.
"Sacred to the memory of
the Confederate
Soldiers who died
at Camp Moore.
Buried 1861-1865.
Cemetery was dedicated
to the State of Louisiana
June 3rd, 1905
Twine a garland,drop a tear,
O'er Louisiana's unnamed dead
who slumber here."
"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may or may not have always. Take what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own.
And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.
Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam
Listed as KIA February 7, 1978
In Remembrance
These were brave men that ventured forth, leaving the comfort and security of family and home, to defend their homes from an armed invader. They died at a place none had probably heard of even just a few weeks before. Not one died facing a blue-coated enemy yet their bravery and valor is not diminished one bit. They died serving their Country and their State and one could not have asked more of them. But....there is so much more here than names.
I would like to ask each of you if you can possibly visualize a 19 year old face for William Glover? Can you picture a mother and father waiting at home for word from Howell Thompson? Can you imagine the wife and children of John M. Sample crying when they kissed him goodbye? Can you imagine what crossed the mind of Benjamin Brown as he decided to leave a sailing ship and join an army that would be fighting his native state of Maine? Can you visualize a beautiful young lady waiting at home and writing letters to James Peyton? Can you picture a younger brother of James LaCroix wishing he were old enough to join his brother in the army? Can you picture that each one of these men were at home with loved ones, doing chores, working, providing for families and living life every day, at a time only weeks before their untimely sickness?
Can you imagine the very first thoughts that wracked the minds of the loved ones of John Cockran when they learned that he had died at Camp Moore? Can you imagine the lives of the children of James Shultz as they grew up without a father? Can you possibly comprehend the grief that tormented the lives of so many people that these men loved and that loved them?
I think that if you can imagine any of these things and think of what was truly lost with the untimely death of each of these heros, you will be a little bit closer to understanding the true meaning of why we volunteer to keep Camp Moore open and why we should never forget those who gave us so much.
These are not just faceless names. They are the hopes and dreams of lifetimes, many more than the dozens of lifetimes that ended here at Camp Moore. With these men we lost untold generations of Southerners that were never born, thus never able to give their all to this land. As you place flowers or flags on these graves ....look at the name....try to give it a face, the face of a young man, a face of hope, a face of honor, a face of valor and of courage.....the face of a young man who did his duty and because of it, his own dreams were not fulfilled.
And though you may not have known them or loved them, remember what they gave. Remember the sacrifice. Remember the many other lives that were forever changed because these young men came to Camp Moore, got sick and died. Remember what we lost. Remember them. Remember.
