Elmira "Hellmira" New York prison camp during the Civil War...

[Wheeler]

I'm sure we’ve all heard of the prison camp at Andersonville, GA. But, how many of us know about the prison camp at Elmira, NY.

 

Elmira "Hellmira" Prison

 

Almost 25 percent of the 12,123 Confederate soldiers who entered the 40 acre prisoner of war camp at Elmira, N. Y. died. This death rate was more than double the average death rate in other Northern prison camps, and only 2

percent less than the death rare at infamous Southern prison at Andersonville, Ga. The deaths at Elmira were caused by diseases brought on by terrible living conditions and starvation, conditions deliberately caused by the vindictive U. S. commissary-general of prisons, Col. William Hoffman.

The conditions were inexcusable; the North had more than enough food and materials for its armies, population, and prisoners.

 

A stockade was built around an unused Union army training camp to create Elmira "Hellmira" Prison in June 1864. The prison contained 35 barracks and was intended to house as many as 5,000 prisoners. On July 6 the first 400 arrived, and by the end of the month there were more than 4,400 prisoners, with more on the way. By the end of August almost 10,000 men were confined there, many of them sleeping in the open in tattered clothes and without

blankets.

 

On August 18, in retaliation for the conditions in Southern prison camps, Colonel Hoffman ordered that rations for the prisoners be reduced to bread and water. The over crowded conditions ensured that any disease introduced to the malnourished population would spread rapidly. Without meat and vegetables, the prisoners quickly succumbed to scurvy, with 1, 870 cased reported by September 11. The scurvy was followed by an epidemic of diarrhea then pneumonia and smallpox. By the end of the year, 1,264 prisoners had

died, and survivors had nicknamed the prison "Hellmira". The winter was bitterly cold, but when Southern families sent clothes for the prisoners, Hoffman would allow only items that were gray to be distributed. Clothes in other color were burned while the sons and husbands for whom they were

intended literally froze to death. By the end of the war, 2,973 Elmira prisoners had died.

 

Before resigning to avoid court martial for his criminal treatment of sick prisoners, the chief surgeon at Elmira was overheard to boast that he had killed more Rebs than any Union soldier.

 

The Elmira Article was written by Stephen T. Foster

[logcabinmama]

 

 

[Homesteader]

I had read about this in History class. How some Union Generals took revenge on the confederate prisoners. However, I had never heard about Elmira specifically though. I had a few relatives in the civil war on both sides but fortunately none were killed or taken prisoner.

[logcabinmama]

I did some searching yesterday and came up with all kinds of sites to check out.