Non-Fiction
HELLMIRA: Union Prisoner-of-War Camp at Elmira, New York
By Monte R. Anderson
The City of Elmira today is a town of 29,200 nestled in the Southern Tier of New York State, straddling the Chemung River, and surrounded by forested hills. The locals take great pride in the fact that Samuel Clemens’ in-laws came from Elmira and that he is buried there. Another historically significant fact hardly mentioned is that Elmira was the site of a Union POW camp during the Civil War with one of the highest mortality rates of any prison during the war.
Elmira was a strategic transportation hub long before the war. A canal system and railroads connected commercial centers in Rochester and Buffalo with Albany and New York City. The Chemung Canal had its southern terminus in Elmira and the Junction Canal connected Elmira with Corning. Later, the Erie Railway and the Northern Central Railway crisscrossed there.
Early in the war Elmira was designated as a Union Army training and muster point known as Camp Rathbun. In total, 34 units were formed at Elmira: 24 infantry, 4 artillery, and 6 cavalry. By the summer of 1864 fewer units were mustered and the camp fell into disuse at the same time that the number of Confederate prisoners was increasing. The government decided to convert part of the camp into a POW camp to relieve overcrowding at other prisons.
Camp Rathbun consisted of a number of barracks with each barracks made up of a number of wooden structures. The group of buildings commonly referred to as Barracks Number 3, which became the prison, was located on 30 acres near the Chemung River and was referred to as the “River Barracks” but called “Hellmira” by the inmates. A stockade fence with a catwalk and sentry boxes was built around the barracks. A frog pond known as Foster’s Pond was enclosed inside the stockade.
The camp could hold 4,000 prisoners and there was enough space for another 1,000 in tents. The prisoners that could not be housed in the buildings were put into tents until more buildings could be constructed. The commander of the camp was Major Henry V. Colt who commanded until December 1, 1864 when he was replaced by Colonel Stephen Moore. Major Colt had fifteen or twenty officers and as many noncommissioned officers to assist him. The guard details consisted of approximately 780 Union soldiers, most from veteran reserve corps units. The first prisoners arrived on July 6, 1864. The camp officially closed on July 10, 1865. The last prisoner left on September 27, 1865. In the fifteen months that the camp was used, 12,123 prisoners were incarcerated and of these 2,963 died.
Clay Holmes published a book in 1912 about the Elmira POW camp in order to refute several charges that were made about the high mortality rate and the running of the camp. His was the first comprehensive study made since the war. Holmes interviewed as many prisoners who were still living or got access to their letters, biographies, and diaries. He also interviewed as many of the Union officers that ran the camp and obtained official correspondence and documents from the War Department.
Holmes concluded that the primary reason for the high mortality rate was due to sickness. However, he cites the following factors which contributed to the sickness:
· The summer of 1864 and the winter of 1864-65 were severe.
· Foster’s Pond was stagnant and without proper drainage.
· Over crowding
· The lack of proper medical treatment.
In an article in the Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. I, the Honorable E. M. Kelly was quoted about these factors;
“The barrack accommodations did not suffice for quite half of them, and the remainder were provided with “A” tents, in which they continued to be housed when I left the prison in the middle of the following October, although the weather was piercingly cold. Thinly clad as they came from a summer’s campaign, many of them without blankets, and without a handful of straw between them and the frozen earth, it will surprise no one that the suffering, even at that early day was considerable.”
“But the great fault, next to the scant supply of nourishment, was the inexcusable deficiency of medicine. During several weeks, in which dysentery and inflammation of the bowels were the prevalent disease in prison, there was not a grain of any preparation of opium in the dispensary, which no family is ordinary without—that is, if men ever die for want of drugs.”
“Now I know well that many of the sick died from this and kindred diseases produced by the miasma of the stagnant lake in our camp; but the records, which I consolidated every morning, contained no reference to them. I inquired at the dispensary, where the reports were handed in, the cause of this anomaly, and learned that Dr. Sanger would sign no report, which ascribed to any of these diseases the death of the patient! I concluded that he must have committed himself to the harmlessness of the lagoon in question and determined to preserve his consistency at the expense of our lives…”
Foster’s Pond had neither inlet nor outlet. The camp sinks were located on the banks of the pond. The mess halls, cook house, and hospital were also located next to the pond.
A Union ex-medical officer wrote, “The sick in hospitals were curtailed in every respect (fresh vegetables and other antiscorbutic were dropped from the list), the food scant, crude and unfit; medicines so badly dispensed that it was a farce for the medical man to prescribe.” The summer of 1864 was hotter than usual which made the crowded conditions unbearable. It also contributed to the stagnation of Foster’s Pond.
The same medical officer wrote,
“The winter of 1864-5 was an unusually severe and rigid one, and the prisoners arrived from the Southern States during this season were mostly old men and lads, clothed in attire suitable only to the genial climate of the South. I need not state to you that this alone was amble cause for an unusual mortality amongst them. The surroundings were of the following nature, viz.: narrow, confined limits, but a few acres of ground in extent, and through which slowly flowed a turbid stream of water, carrying along with it all the excremental filth and debris of the camp; this stream of water, horrible to relate, was the only source of supply, for an extended period, that the prisoners could possibly use for the purpose of ablution, and to slake their thirst from day to day; the tents and other shelter allotted to the camp were insufficient, and crowed to the utmost extent—hence small pox and other skin diseases raged through the camp,”
The snow that lasted from December 1 to the last part of February was three to four feet deep. The records show that it snowed as early as October 10. On January 6 and February 18 it was 18 degrees below zero. A snowstorm on February 7 dumped 18 inches on Elmira. The last major snowstorm was as late as March 2. This large amount of snow melted in the spring. On St. Patrick’s Day the Chemung River flooded and inundated the camp. The water was 1-4 feet deep inside the buildings which put the bottom tier of bunks under water. The death rate during the flood was 32 per day.
The mortality rate of Elmira Prison Camp was 25%. In the North, only Camp Alton, Ill., had a higher percentage of 31%. Northern prisons held 227,570 prisoners, of these 26,774 or 11.7% died. The south had 26 prisons compared with the North’s 24. The total Union prisoners in the South was 196,713, of these 30,212, or 15.3% died. Deaths at Andersonville totaled 13.7%.
While Holmes’ book was not an indictment of the camp surgeon, Dr. Sanger, Holmes had little praise for the doctor. A lack of information or evidence compelled him to reserve criticism. However, Dr. Sanger was relieved of duty on December 22; just three weeks after Colonel Moore took command. There were no government records to show why Sanger was relieved. Dr. Anthony E. Stoker took over Sanger’s position the same day and from that point on conditions improved rapidly:
· Foster’s Ponds was adequately drained.
· Medical treatment improved.
· The mortality rate declined.
Sickness and disease were the cause of the high mortality rate at the Elmira Prisoner of War camp. No one died from cruelty and no one starved to death. The contributing factors were the stagnation of Foster’s Pond, over crowding, the lack of medications, and the poor treatment provided by the medical staff under the supervision of Dr. Sanger.
For further reading I recommend The Elmira Prison Camp: A History of the Military Prison at Elmira N.Y. July 6, 1864 to July 10, 1865, The Knickerbocker Press, 1912.
By Monte R. Anderson
The City of Elmira today is a town of 29,200 nestled in the Southern Tier of New York State, straddling the Chemung River, and surrounded by forested hills. The locals take great pride in the fact that Samuel Clemens’ in-laws came from Elmira and that he is buried there. Another historically significant fact hardly mentioned is that Elmira was the site of a Union POW camp during the Civil War with one of the highest mortality rates of any prison during the war.
Elmira was a strategic transportation hub long before the war. A canal system and railroads connected commercial centers in Rochester and Buffalo with Albany and New York City. The Chemung Canal had its southern terminus in Elmira and the Junction Canal connected Elmira with Corning. Later, the Erie Railway and the Northern Central Railway crisscrossed there.
Early in the war Elmira was designated as a Union Army training and muster point known as Camp Rathbun. In total, 34 units were formed at Elmira: 24 infantry, 4 artillery, and 6 cavalry. By the summer of 1864 fewer units were mustered and the camp fell into disuse at the same time that the number of Confederate prisoners was increasing. The government decided to convert part of the camp into a POW camp to relieve overcrowding at other prisons.
Camp Rathbun consisted of a number of barracks with each barracks made up of a number of wooden structures. The group of buildings commonly referred to as Barracks Number 3, which became the prison, was located on 30 acres near the Chemung River and was referred to as the “River Barracks” but called “Hellmira” by the inmates. A stockade fence with a catwalk and sentry boxes was built around the barracks. A frog pond known as Foster’s Pond was enclosed inside the stockade.
The camp could hold 4,000 prisoners and there was enough space for another 1,000 in tents. The prisoners that could not be housed in the buildings were put into tents until more buildings could be constructed. The commander of the camp was Major Henry V. Colt who commanded until December 1, 1864 when he was replaced by Colonel Stephen Moore. Major Colt had fifteen or twenty officers and as many noncommissioned officers to assist him. The guard details consisted of approximately 780 Union soldiers, most from veteran reserve corps units. The first prisoners arrived on July 6, 1864. The camp officially closed on July 10, 1865. The last prisoner left on September 27, 1865. In the fifteen months that the camp was used, 12,123 prisoners were incarcerated and of these 2,963 died.
Clay Holmes published a book in 1912 about the Elmira POW camp in order to refute several charges that were made about the high mortality rate and the running of the camp. His was the first comprehensive study made since the war. Holmes interviewed as many prisoners who were still living or got access to their letters, biographies, and diaries. He also interviewed as many of the Union officers that ran the camp and obtained official correspondence and documents from the War Department.
Holmes concluded that the primary reason for the high mortality rate was due to sickness. However, he cites the following factors which contributed to the sickness:
· The summer of 1864 and the winter of 1864-65 were severe.
· Foster’s Pond was stagnant and without proper drainage.
· Over crowding
· The lack of proper medical treatment.
In an article in the Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. I, the Honorable E. M. Kelly was quoted about these factors;
“The barrack accommodations did not suffice for quite half of them, and the remainder were provided with “A” tents, in which they continued to be housed when I left the prison in the middle of the following October, although the weather was piercingly cold. Thinly clad as they came from a summer’s campaign, many of them without blankets, and without a handful of straw between them and the frozen earth, it will surprise no one that the suffering, even at that early day was considerable.”
“But the great fault, next to the scant supply of nourishment, was the inexcusable deficiency of medicine. During several weeks, in which dysentery and inflammation of the bowels were the prevalent disease in prison, there was not a grain of any preparation of opium in the dispensary, which no family is ordinary without—that is, if men ever die for want of drugs.”
“Now I know well that many of the sick died from this and kindred diseases produced by the miasma of the stagnant lake in our camp; but the records, which I consolidated every morning, contained no reference to them. I inquired at the dispensary, where the reports were handed in, the cause of this anomaly, and learned that Dr. Sanger would sign no report, which ascribed to any of these diseases the death of the patient! I concluded that he must have committed himself to the harmlessness of the lagoon in question and determined to preserve his consistency at the expense of our lives…”
Foster’s Pond had neither inlet nor outlet. The camp sinks were located on the banks of the pond. The mess halls, cook house, and hospital were also located next to the pond.
A Union ex-medical officer wrote, “The sick in hospitals were curtailed in every respect (fresh vegetables and other antiscorbutic were dropped from the list), the food scant, crude and unfit; medicines so badly dispensed that it was a farce for the medical man to prescribe.” The summer of 1864 was hotter than usual which made the crowded conditions unbearable. It also contributed to the stagnation of Foster’s Pond.
The same medical officer wrote,
“The winter of 1864-5 was an unusually severe and rigid one, and the prisoners arrived from the Southern States during this season were mostly old men and lads, clothed in attire suitable only to the genial climate of the South. I need not state to you that this alone was amble cause for an unusual mortality amongst them. The surroundings were of the following nature, viz.: narrow, confined limits, but a few acres of ground in extent, and through which slowly flowed a turbid stream of water, carrying along with it all the excremental filth and debris of the camp; this stream of water, horrible to relate, was the only source of supply, for an extended period, that the prisoners could possibly use for the purpose of ablution, and to slake their thirst from day to day; the tents and other shelter allotted to the camp were insufficient, and crowed to the utmost extent—hence small pox and other skin diseases raged through the camp,”
The snow that lasted from December 1 to the last part of February was three to four feet deep. The records show that it snowed as early as October 10. On January 6 and February 18 it was 18 degrees below zero. A snowstorm on February 7 dumped 18 inches on Elmira. The last major snowstorm was as late as March 2. This large amount of snow melted in the spring. On St. Patrick’s Day the Chemung River flooded and inundated the camp. The water was 1-4 feet deep inside the buildings which put the bottom tier of bunks under water. The death rate during the flood was 32 per day.
The mortality rate of Elmira Prison Camp was 25%. In the North, only Camp Alton, Ill., had a higher percentage of 31%. Northern prisons held 227,570 prisoners, of these 26,774 or 11.7% died. The south had 26 prisons compared with the North’s 24. The total Union prisoners in the South was 196,713, of these 30,212, or 15.3% died. Deaths at Andersonville totaled 13.7%.
While Holmes’ book was not an indictment of the camp surgeon, Dr. Sanger, Holmes had little praise for the doctor. A lack of information or evidence compelled him to reserve criticism. However, Dr. Sanger was relieved of duty on December 22; just three weeks after Colonel Moore took command. There were no government records to show why Sanger was relieved. Dr. Anthony E. Stoker took over Sanger’s position the same day and from that point on conditions improved rapidly:
· Foster’s Ponds was adequately drained.
· Medical treatment improved.
· The mortality rate declined.
Sickness and disease were the cause of the high mortality rate at the Elmira Prisoner of War camp. No one died from cruelty and no one starved to death. The contributing factors were the stagnation of Foster’s Pond, over crowding, the lack of medications, and the poor treatment provided by the medical staff under the supervision of Dr. Sanger.
For further reading I recommend The Elmira Prison Camp: A History of the Military Prison at Elmira N.Y. July 6, 1864 to July 10, 1865, The Knickerbocker Press, 1912.
