When Hell Was in Elmira

woodshed87

Some Civil War Northern Style
Found This Today.
Have Not Read It All So If Something Isnt Right Don't Yell At Me.[:D]

http://www.ithaca.com/news/when-hell-was-in-elmira-civil-war-prison-camp-years/article_72dae506-1f7f-11e5-ab7a-83357cae3961.html

kimi

Elmira has been very well known to those of us who have studied this war, yet it has a much better reputation than Camp Douglas that was located in Chicago.

Thanks for the story.

Ford 23

I recall reading Stanton (not sure have the correct name) in Lincolns cabinet thought CSA prisoners should receive same treatment as the Yankees in Andersonville and made sure they did.

nord

Roger,

They didn't call it "Hellmira" for nothing. Poor rations, unsanitary conditions, crowding, and located next to the river. Not a nice place and only a few miles from me.

Woodlawn National Cemetery attests to the prisoner death rate as we have many Confederate soldiers who rest here. At least the care they failed to receive in life has been granted after their death.

We in Chemung County honor their memory and the Stars and Bars are not a symbol of hatred. Rather, they're a symbol of honorable men who fought for a cause that may well have been correct. If they accomplished anything it's that 150 years later we look upon their markers with sadness and realize that the war never should have been.

And you do realize that in addition to the veterans from north and south resting in Woodlawn Cemetery is a man by the name of Samuel Clemmons... Otherwise known as Mark Twain.

wpage

The bad old days...

kimi

I read one account where the prisoners were billeted on the frozen lake or that it was used as a means of punishment. I don't recall the reference, but it might have been in an official report, or in a letter from one of the survivng prisoners. There are good reasons for Elmira having the history that it does, and we're not likely to ever know just how bad it was. It had to have been intolerable to beat out Capm Douglas (80 Acres of Hell) in Chicago.

Smitty500mag

My GGGrandpa John W. Miller of the Union Army's 1st Tennessee Calvary Company. E was a prisoner of war at the Confederate prison in Cahaba, AL on the banks of the Alabama River. He was captured at the battle of Athens on Sept. 23rd 1864. Luckily Cahaba prison was ran by Captain H. A. M. Henderson, a Methodist Preacher, that tried his best to see to it that the prisoners were treated decently but the South didn't have enough food for their own men let alone Northern prisoners.

The Alabama river was another problem since it flooded pretty often which kept them standing in water a lot of the time in the old Cotton Warehouse that was converted to be the prison. Cahaba prison was more crowded than Andersonville but due to the Methodist Preacher there were fewer deaths. He also allowed the towns people to supply some food and other items to the prisoners which helped a lot.

Then to make matters worse when GGGrandpa was released from Cahaba he was put on the paddle wheel steamboat Sultana at Vicksburg, MS. The Sultana blew up a few days later which killed approx. 1,800 Union Soldiers on their way home from the war up the Mississippi River from a faulty repair to one of the boilers. He survived the blast but was burned pretty badly.

That's still the biggest US maritime disaster of all time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultana_(steamboat)

I had kin on the South side too but I don't have any detailed info like I do on GGGrandpa Miller. I wouldn't have known anything about him either if it hadn't been for the info I found in my Grandma's bible after she died. I sent off to Washington DC and got his pension papers a while back. He was getting $12 bucks a month at the time of his death in 1916.

Smitty500mag

quote:Originally posted by kimi

When did he enlist in the Union Army, and from what county?


He lived in Knox County. I'd have to look up the date I can't remember when he enlisted right off the top of my head. He was mustered out on June 10th 1865 at Nashville if I remember correctly.

perry shooter

Camp Perry OHIO was a WW II pow camp but then became the site of National Pistol and rifle championships each HUT that the shooters rent held 4 people but POW's were housed 8 to a hut. They just took down the last of the original huts a few years ago.so I can say I spent over 1/2 a year in a WW II pow camp [:0]