Birdseye view map of Point Lookout, Maryland, 1864 by Edward Sachse. Now a state park, Point Lookout POW Camp (Camp Hoffman) was established after the Battle of Gettysburg to incarcerate Confederate prisoners. It was in operation from August 1863 through June 1865. It was the largest Union prison camp for Confederates. Point Lookout was one of the most secure POW camps, being surrounded on three sides by water from the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River, with Union cannons pointed toward the prisoners from Ft. Lincoln and guns of Union ships anchored in nearby waters. Although it is estimated that over 14,000 prisoners died at Pt. Lookout, at present only 3,384 are accounted for as buried in the Point Lookout cemetery. Their graves have been moved twice since the original burial. They now rest in a mass grave under an 85′ towering obelisk monument erected by the federal government.
Before the war, Point Lookout was a fashionable resort hotel and a summer bathing place with over a hundred cottages where the elite spent their leisure time.