Camp Elder — Union Prisoners After Gettysburg

In the chaotic weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg in July of eighteen sixty-three, more than two thousand Union soldiers found themselves in a makeshift camp right here in Westtown Township. They were not prisoners held by the enemy. They were prisoners of paperwork. Some of the men reached the area by train, others after a march to Carlisle, and the place is also remembered as Camp Parole.

Retreating Confederate forces had issued what were called battlefield paroles. A captured soldier would sign a pledge not to fight again until formally exchanged for a prisoner from the other side, and then he was released on the spot. The system was meant to spare both armies the burden of transporting thousands of prisoners. The paroled Union men were sent here to wait for exchange. The camp took shape on a local farm owned by Enoch Williams.

But the arrangement did not last. In August the men were sent back to the front. The camp dissolved as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind one of the stranger chapters of the war in Chester County. Today a historical marker in Westtown Township tells the story, and the township's historical commission has hosted public talks about the camp.