Camp Irwin

Type: General Entry

Published: December 1, 1994

Camp Irwin, also called Camp Placedo, was a Mexican War encampment established in October 1846 on Placedo Creek near the Port Lavaca-Victoria road, twelve miles west of Port Lavaca in Victoria County. It was named for James R. Irwin, chief quartermaster of Winfield Scott's army during the Mexico City campaign, and served as a rendezvous for troops assigned to Gen. John E. Wool's Center Division and as a temporary military supply depot. Military units that used the camp were Col. John J. Hardin's First Regiment, Illinois Volunteers; Col. Humphrey Marshall's regiment of Kentucky Volunteers; Capt. John S. Williams's independent company, Kentucky Volunteers; and Col. Jonas E. Thomas's regiment of Tennessee Volunteers. Accounts describe the site as low, swampy ground where disease was common and conditions were barely tolerable.

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George W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. George C. Furber, The Twelve Months Volunteer (Cincinnati: James, 1848). Edward D. Mansfield, The Mexican War (New York: Barnes, 1848).

Time Periods:

Antebellum Texas

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.

Charles Spurlin, “Camp Irwin,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed May 18, 2022, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/camp-irwin.

Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

Original Publication Date:: December 1, 1994

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