Jeffersonville, Indiana

==== Civil War ====

===== Camp Joe Holt =====
{{See also|Camp Joe Holt}}
During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] Jeffersonville was one of the principal gateways to the South. This was largely due to its location directly opposite Louisville. Three railroads (including the [[Jeffersonville Railroad]] and the [[Ohio and Mississippi Railway]]) served Jeffersonville from the north, as well as the waterway of the [[Ohio River]]. Operating in the South, the [[Louisville and Nashville Railroad]] furnished the connecting link between Louisville and the rest of the South. These factors made the city a good location to house supplies and troops for the [[Union Army]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Our County Seat|url=https://www.co.clark.in.us/index.php/about-clark-county-indiana/our-county-seat|access-date=October 18, 2021|website=www.co.clark.in.us|archive-date=October 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018003547/https://www.co.clark.in.us/index.php/about-clark-county-indiana/our-county-seat|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1862, two area regiments established the first military camp in the city. The location was christened [[Camp Joe Holt]], and the name was retained when the camp was converted to a hospital called Joe Holt Hospital.<ref name="IndHist">{{cite web|title=Camp Joe Holt and Jefferson General Hospital Photographs, 1865, Collection Guide|url=http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/collection-guides/camp-joe-holt-jeffersonville-indiana-photographs.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608235043/http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/collection-guides/camp-joe-holt-jeffersonville-indiana-photographs.pdf|archive-date=June 8, 2017|access-date=October 17, 2021|publisher=Indiana Historical Society}}</ref>

===== Evacuation to Jeffersonville =====
In September and October 1862, two [[Military forces of the Confederate States|Confederate]] armies led by [[General officer|Generals]] [[Braxton Bragg]] and [[Edmund Kirby Smith|E. Kirby Smith]] closed in on Louisville, a key strategic prize. General [[William "Bull" Nelson]] ordered women and children to evacuate. So many fled across the river to Jeffersonville that the city's hotels and rooming houses were filled to capacity. On September 24, General [[Don Carlos Buell]] and his men managed to reach Louisville barely ahead of the Confederates. The force of 100,000 Union soldiers successfully defended Louisville and forestalled any invasion.<ref name="Nokes-2002" />

===== Jefferson General Hospital =====
{{See also|Jefferson General Hospital}}Between 1864 and 1866 Port Fulton (now within Jeffersonville) was home to [[Jefferson General Hospital]], the third largest hospital in the country at that time. The institution was built to replace Joe Holt Hospital and occupied land obtained from U.S. Senator [[Jesse D. Bright]], a Confederate sympathizer. The land stretched down to the Ohio River, facilitating patient transfer from riverboats to the hospital. The facility contained 24 wards each radiating out like spokes on a wheel and all connected by a corridor one-half mile in circumference. Each ward was 150 feet long and 22 feet wide and could accommodate 60 patients. Female nurses and matrons were quartered separately from the men. During its nearly three-year existence the institution cared for more than 16,000 patients and served more than 2,500,000 meals.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jeffersonville Jefferson General Hospital Looking West|url=https://digital.library.in.gov/Record/IHS_dc008-1024|access-date=October 17, 2021|website=Indiana Memory|archive-date=October 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018003547/https://digital.library.in.gov/Record/IHS_dc008-1024|url-status=live}}</ref>

===== Construction of the Quartermaster Depot =====
{{See also|Jeffersonville Quartermaster Depot}}

The [[Jeffersonville Quartermaster Intermediate Depot|Jeffersonville Quartermaster Depot]] had its first beginnings in the early days of the Civil War as a storage depot for the Union [[Quartermaster]] Department. As the war came to a close all military supply depots along the [[Ohio Valley]] were shut down (except Jeffersonville's), and their supplies were stored at the Jeffersonville location.<ref name="PDF-2012">{{Cite web |title=The Falls City Engineers, Chapter VII: Civil War Engineering and Navigation |page=113 |url=http://publications.usace.army.mil/publications/misc/un22/c-7.pdf |access-date=January 27, 2024 |website=publications.usace.army.mil |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321223211/http://publications.usace.army.mil/publications/misc/un22/c-7.pdf |archive-date=March 21, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1871, the U.S. Army began consolidating operations in the city into four square blocks.<ref name="Nokes-2002" /> Throughout the rest of the 19th century, the Quartermaster Depot continued supplying troops engaged in [[American Indian Wars|frontier wars]] with Native Americans.<ref name="PDF-2012" />