Camp Security - Update
Jonathan Stayer, from the Pa. and Historical Museum Commission, was the featured speaker at the York East Rotary weekly breakfast meeting at Heritage Hills on 10/03/17. He spoke about Camp Security...Photo: Speaker, Jonathan Stayer
York’s Revolutionary War Prison encampment established in 1781 to retain British troops. It is the only undeveloped Revolutionary War camp still in existence in the US today and is located in Springettsbury Township, York County.
General Washington suggested that prisoners be moved from Virginia to be housed in Pa. at Camp Security. Troops arrived July 28 – Aug 2, 1781. York County militia constructed and guarded the stockade area as well as the surrounding town known as Camp Indulgence. Both non-commissioned officers and privates were housed at Camp Security. British officers, some of their wives and children lived in private homes outside the stockade at Camp Indulgence. Those living outside of Camp Security had greater freedoms and privileges and many worked for local farmers and were allowed to leave the camp to sell homemade items such as lace, buttons, buckles spoons and other like objects . Supply shortages and disease such as Camp Fever plagued the camps. Many of the 1600 men, women and children died in 1781 as disease spread throughout the camps ; they were buried in nearby graveyards. By 1783 the Revolutionary War ended. This area became farmland and today only fields remain. Camp Security is presently preserved as a Trail Park and their website is a virtual museum . Various archeological digs have uncovered remnants of this historic site. Join the (non-profit 501C-3) Friends of Camp Security to assure that this site which is now owned by Springettsbury Township, is preserved and / or to volunteer. For further information, visit www.campsecurity.org.
Photo: left, Tom Kelley, President York East Rotary
right, Speaker, Jonathan Stayer