Elmira Prison

Elmira Prison
Part of American Civil War prison camps
Elmira, New York, United States
Union prisoner of war camp for detaining civilians and military personnel of the Confederate States of America
Type	Union Prison Camp
Site information
Owner	U.S. Government
Controlled by	Union Army
Open to the public	Yes
Site history
Built	1864
In use	July 6, 1864–July 11, 1865
Demolished	1865
Battles/wars	American Civil War
Events	Shohola train wreck (1864)
Garrison information
Past commanders	Major Henry V. Colt
Occupants	Union soldiers, Confederate prisoners of war

Elmira Prison was originally a barracks for "Camp Rathbun" or "Camp Chemung", a key muster and training point for the Union Army during the American Civil War, between 1861 and 1864. The 30-acre (120,000 m²) site was selected partially due to its proximity to the Erie Railroad and the Northern Central Railway, which crisscrossed in the midst of the city. The Camp fell into disuse as the war progressed, but its "Barracks #3" was converted into a military prison in the summer of 1864. It was the prison holding the largest number of Confederate POWs. Its capacity was 4,000, but it held 12,000 within one month of opening.^[1] A different source says that Camp Rathbun had a capacity of 6,000 recruits, but that it was turned into a prison for 10,000 and the Union Commissary General was given just 10 days to make it happen.^[2]

The prison camp, in use from July 6, 1864, until July 11, 1865 (date of last arrival), was dubbed "Hellmira" by its inmates. During those 12 months, 2,970 of the 12,100 prisoners died from a combination of malnutrition, continued exposure to harsh winter weather, and disease from the poor sanitary conditions on Foster's Pond, combined with a lack of medical care. The camp's dead were prepared for burial and laid to rest at what is now Woodlawn National Cemetery. The cemetery, which is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of the prison camp site, was designated a National Cemetery in 1877.^[3]

At the end of the war, each prisoner was required to take a loyalty oath and given a train ticket home. The last prisoner left the camp on September 27, 1865. The camp was then closed, demolished, and converted to farmland.^{[4][5][page needed]} A source suggests that the camp was so embarrassing, the site was deliberately destroyed.^[2] The area where the prison once stood is residential today, but work is underway to reconstruct the camp.^[6]

One of the conspirators of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, John Surratt, claims to have been in Elmira on a spy mission to gather information about the prison when Lincoln was shot. Upon hearing the news, he fled to Montreal, Quebec.