Continuing our look at historic sites around Lake Seminole, this is Camp Recovery.Located in Decatur County, Georgia, less than a 30 minute drive from Jackson County, Camp Recovery was a hospital camp established for soldiers at nearby Fort Scott during the great fever outbreak in 1820.
Surgeons at the fort were anxious to find some way of relieving the suffering of the soldiers stationed there. Of the 780 men at Fort Scott, 769 were ill with what modern experts believe was malaria.
Finally, after considering the options, they decided to move as many of the men as they could to a camp located on a high pine ridge a few miles south of the fort. It was hoped that moving the men from the "swamp air" at Fort Scott would help them recover. The cause of malaria had not yet been identified in 1820 and most experts believe it was caused by "bad air."
More than 100 soldiers were moved to the site known today as Camp Recovery, where a camp was established in the open pine woods. At first they did show signs of recovery, but a heavy rain set in and the soldiers soon relapsed. A number died and were buried in a cemetery at the site. The camp was abandoned soon after.
During the 1880s, the U.S. Government placed a monument at the site to mark the burial ground.
We will have more on Camp Recovery in our next post.
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