Camp Davis

Camp Davis, a Civil War mustering ground for Confederate troops from Virginia under the command of Col. Jubal A. Early, once occupied this area. At least 130 Southern soldiers died at the camp's own Pratt Hospital and were buried in Lynchburg's Old City Cemetery. The neighborhood's historically African American identity took shape during Reconstruction, when Camp Davis became an important refuge for freed slaves. Before being annexed by the city in 1870, it was the site of Federal military headquarters, the Freedmen's Bureau’s Camp Davis School, headed by Jacob Eschbach Yoder, and a black Methodist Episcopal church.