The Search for a Revolutionary War Prison Camp

YORK, PENNSYLVANIA—Archaeologist Steve Warfel is leading the search for the stockade at the site of Camp Security, where British prisoners from the Battle of Saratoga and the Battle of Yorktown were held during the final years of the Revolutionary War, from 1781 to 1783. “There should be a very specific footprint for this stockade. I’m looking for a soil stain,” Warfel told The York Dispatch. When the prisoners from the Battle of Yorktown arrived at the camp, those from the Battle of Saratoga were moved into huts outside the stockade to make room for them. This area, which came to be known as Camp Indulgence, is thought to have been found nearby in 1979, when archaeologists recovered thousands of artifacts, but no sign of the stockade. Warfel is using its location to help in the search for the Camp Security stockade. “It’s not quite a needle in a haystack, but it’s going to be a challenge,” he said. To read about a Civil-War era prison camp, go to "Life on the Inside."