Camp Oglethorpe served as a prisoner of war camp during the US Civil War.

Camp Oglethorpe was originally established in March 1844 on the Southwest portion of the city reserve for use of the Bibb County militia.

Prisoners of war began arriving in Macon after May 1862 and were housed housed at Camp Oglethorpe. Camp Oglethorpe's intended purpose was to house officers, but prisoners of private status were also confined to the camp. By June 1863 the camp was holding upwards to 1,400 Union prisoners in rapidly worsening conditions. In June 1862 the city council of Macon decided to construct a prison cemetery on the ridge to the south-west of Camp Oglethorpe.

By spring 1864 the camp consisted of 2 7/8 acres. A 12-foot high board fence surrounded the prison with guards at ten yard intervals. By Summer 1864 the camp was severely overcrowded. With the Atlanta campaign raging a few hundred miles to the north most prisoners were relocated to Charleston and Savannah in July.

Those interred in the camp's cemetery were reinterred in Andersonville National Cemetery in 1866. Not all bodies were identifiable.

In 1870 Camp Oglethorpe was taken over by the Macon and Brunswick Railroad.
The list of graves is mainly from the list of U.S. Burial of Registers, Military Posts and National Cemeteries 1862-1960.

Camp Oglethorpe is described as follows:

Enclosure on the City Reserve about 1/2 mile from the South Western R R Depot nearby and South. The running numbers commencing at the N.W. Corner running SE and then at the SE corner running N.W. thus alternately throughout.

1st Row no. 1 to 20
2nd Row no. 21 to 39
3rd Row no. 40 to 55
4th Row no. 56 to 78
5th Row no. 79 to 97
6th Row no. 98 to 118
7th Row no. 119 to 141
8th Row no. 142 to 165
9th Row no. 166 to 186
10th Row no. 187 to 209
11th Row no. 210 to 227
12th Row no. 228 to 244

The exact identities of 160 of the 244 graves are unknown. Some soldiers are known to have died at the camp, but which of the 160 unknowns they became is unknown. When possible their names have been added.

[The row and lot number has been added to the nickname to make it easier for people to gain information about the unknowns via context of their location to those who are known since lot numbers are not searchable in the system otherwise please do not submit requests to change them as it means people researching the identities of the unknowns will have to look through each individual memorial to find the known graves.]