Page "Jeffersonville, Indiana" Paragraph 5

The American Civil War increased the importance of Jeffersonville.

Jeffersonville was one of the principal gateways to the South during the Civil War, due to its being directly across from Louisville.

It was served by three railroads from the north and had the waterway of the Ohio River.

Naturally, this influenced its selection as one of the principal bases for supplies and troops for the Union Army.

Operating in the South, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad furnished the connecting link between Louisville and the rest of the South.

Camp Joe Holt was instrumental in keeping Kentucky within the Union.

The third largest American Civil War hospital, Jefferson General Hospital was located in nearby Port Fulton ( now within Jeffersonville ) from 1864 – 1866, as it was close to the river and Louisville.

The original land was seized by the Government from the Honorable Jesse D. Bright, United States Senator, a sympathizer of the Confederate cause.

During the war it housed 16, 120 patients in its 5, 200 beds and was under the command of Dr. Middleton Goldsmith.

A cemetery was built for fallen soldiers down the hill, but the wooden grave markers by 1927 had rotted away, causing the Jeffersonville city council to build a ball field over the cemetery, and not bothering to move the graves, located on Crestview Avenue.

The Jeffersonville Quartermaster Intermediate Depot had its first beginning in the early days of the Civil War, near its present location.