Camp Beauregard Memorial in Water Valley

The Camp Beauregard Memorial, outside Water Valley, Kentucky on Kentucky state road 2422 northeast of town, marks the site of Camp Beauregard during the American Civil War. It was named for Confederate general P. G. T. Beauregard. It was situated to protect the right flank of the Confederate base at Columbus, Kentucky. While an active military installation, from September 1861 to March 1, 1862, it trained 5,000-6,000 soldiers for the Confederate States of America. However, the place was disease-ridden, resulting in 1,000-1,500 deaths at the camp. The diseases included cerebrospinal meningitis, pneumonia, and typhoid fever with poor weather and lack of sufficient supplies for the troops contributing to the dire situation. In a single day 75 cases of typhoid and pneumonia were reported. Under the direction of the 27th Tennessee Regiment's Colonel Thomas Logwood, the camp was burned down. Union forces captured the site shortly after the abandonment. In 1909 the United Daughters of the Confederacy placed a small monument dedicated to the dead soldiers at the site entrance, and then an eleven-foot monument within the cemetery. A concrete base was added in 1930. There were plans for a larger memorial, but they never materialized. The now-private cemetery is believed by some to be haunted. On July 17, 1997, the Camp Beauregard Memorial in Water Valley was one of sixty different monuments related to the Civil War in Kentucky placed on the National Register of Historic Places, as part of the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky Multiple Property Submission. Two other monuments on the list are in Graves County, both in Mayfield: the Confederate Memorial in Mayfield and the Confederate Memorial Gates in Mayfield.