The Union prison located at Elmira, NY , it's told, was every bit as bad as the reputation held by the Confederate prison for Union prisoners at Andersonville, Georgia. Some called it "Hellmira".
While in use a total of 12,123 Confederate soldiers were kept there.
Elmira, New York, was notable during the Civil War for housing a significant Union Army prison camp, known as Elmira Prison or Camp Elmira. Established in 1864, it was designed to hold Confederate soldiers, but conditions were harsh, leading to high mortality rates due to disease, malnutrition, and overcrowding. The camp became infamous for its poor treatment of prisoners, reflecting the broader struggles and challenges of wartime. After the war, the site was closed and eventually repurposed, but its legacy remains a poignant reminder of the conflict's human cost.
There was more than one Union camp for captured Confederates. All of them were located in the most barren, unhealthy places which could be found. There was one on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River below Philadelphia, which was all mud, called Fort Delaware. There was one on the tip of a peninsula jutting out into Chesapeake Bay, at Point Lookout, Maryland. There was a bad one at Elmira, New York. There was one on another peninsula sticking out into Lake Erie at Sandusky, Ohio. There was one in Chicago, Camp Douglas, by Lake Michigan. There is a city park there now, on top of the unmarked graves of Confederates. Many captured southern officers were held in Fort Warren, on an island in Boston Harbor. Its a little known fact today that more Confederate POWs died in Yankee camps than Yankees died in southern ones. The percentage of southerners who died as prisoners is higher than the percentage of Yankees as well. All one hears about today is Andersonville - the most notorious southern camp. But the south could not even feed its own armies. The north vindictively located their camps in the most awful places they could find, and then deliberately withheld food and medical care, so the Rebels starved in the midst of plenty.
Assuming you mean the American Civil War: Andersonville - the most famous. A Confederate prisoner of War Camp for Federal troops. It's head warden Henry Wirz a brigadier general, was the man executed after the War by the Federals, though questions of whether or not the Union was right to execute him continue to this day. Libby Prison - a Confederate prisoner of War Camp for Federal troops that gained a reputation as being one of the most harsh prisoner of war camps in the South. Elmira Prison - a Federal prisoner of War Camp for Confederate troops gained a reputation for neglecting its prisoners. Of 12,123 Confederate Prisoners 2,963 died of malnutrition, prolonged exposure to winter conditions and disease cause by poor sanitary conditions and the lack of medical facilities. Nobody was held accountable for the neglect. Camp Douglas - a Federal prisoner of War Camp for Confederate troops that, similarly to Elmira, gained a reputation for neglecting its prisoners. More than 6,000 Confederate prisoners died for disease, starvation and prolonged exposure to winter conditions. Nobody was held accountable for the neglect of the Confederate troops at Camp Douglas and it's commander was the only Union officer to get a General's rank without seeing active service in the field. Point Lookout - a Federal prisoner of War Camp for Confederate troops that was vastly overcrowded and overwhelmed. Here Confederate troops suffered mainly because the amount of prisoners held there were too much for the Camp to handle. 50,000 Confederate were held here when it was only designed to hold 10,000 prisoners however only 4,000 prisoners died while at the camp, which is a relatively good percentage compared to other prisoner of War Camps both North and South.
Henry Wirz was commandant of Andersonville Prison and was executed. This was done out of spitefulness and vindictiveness, just after the war, and if it was justifiable, there were quite a few others who also deserved that fate. Wirz was a foreign born person, from Switzerland, still had an accent, and was not a likeable person. He was not a very good officer, and lost control of the situation at Andersonville. He should have been relieved of his command. Conditions in the prison were harsh. It should be borne in mind, however, that at that stage of the war the Confederacy was not even able to feed its own armies in the field, and the prisoners fared about as well as the average Confederate soldier as far as food goes. For the first several years of the war, prisoners were exchanged - so many privates for an equal number the other side was holding, so many sergeants, so many captains, and so on. Sometimes, when large numbers of prisoners were taken, they were paroled. Their names were taken and recorded on a list, and they were given a piece of paper which was their "parole", and they were let go, to go where they pleased, so long as they did not return to their army and fight again until "properly exchanged". A "cartel for the exchange of prisoners", being officers from each side, would meet, compare lists of paroled prisoners, and declare an equal number "exchanged". Those exchanged would be called back to the army and could resume fighting again. When Grant was made the Union General In Chief, one of the first things he did was to stop the exchange of prisoners. This was a cold blooded decision, based on Grant's understanding that exchanging prisoners did not make the most of the Union's huge advantage in manpower. Grant calculated that retaining Rebels in northern prisons, instead of exchanging them to fight again, would hasten the end of the war. Grant made this decision in full knowledge that northern troops in southern prisons, who henceforth would not get to be exchanged, would suffer greatly, but he was willing for that to happen. He weighed the situation and made that choice. So it was Grant's decision in this matter that resulted in the large numbers of unexchanged POWs in southern hands late in the war to start with. Moreover, while the south was largely unable to help the conditions of the northern POWs in their hands, the north COULD help what happened to Rebels in their hands, and the north made the deliberate decision to locate its POW camps in the most barren, inhospitable, unhealthy places they could find, and once the prisoners were in these places to withhold food, clothing, adequate shelter, and medical care. IT IS A LITTLE REMARKED UPON FACT, CLEARLY STATED IN THE "OFFICIAL RECORDS" OF THE WAR COMPILED BY THE US GOVERNMENT, THAT MORE SOUTHERN PRISONERS DIED IN NORTHERN POW CAMPS THAN NORTHERN PRISONERS IN SOUTHERN POW CAMPS. This was both a larger percentage of prisoners dead, and a larger number in absolute terms. But all one hears of today is Andersonville. Of course no one in the north was reproached in the slightest for establishing such hellholes as Point Lookout, Fort Delaware, Camp Douglas, Elmira, or Sandusky, each of which was as bad or worse than Andersonville. And again, the cruelty routinely inflicted in all those placed was deliberate, to starve men in the midst of plenty, while that at Andersonville was without remedy. No one in the north felt the slightest bit guilty over any of this. Quite the contrary. Those who thought up and instituted this policy were heroes, and the brutal, murderous prison guards who carried it out were given pensions, paid in part by taxes on the southern states. Wirz did not deserve to die for his failures, and those who did deserve to die for the vicious treatment they accorded to helpless prisoners in their care, being all Yankees, were never even spoken to harshly about it.
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While in use a total of 12,123 Confederate soldiers were kept there.
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