Follow
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 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. 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.
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 north of the prison camp site, was designated a National Cemetery in 1877.
The Great Shohola train wreck occurred on July 15, 1864 during the American Civil War on the broad gauge Erie Railroad 11⁄2 miles west of Shohola, Pennsylvania, killing at least 60 people. Aboard the 18 car train were 833 Confederate prisoners of war (many captured at the Battle of Cold Harbor) and 128 Union guards from the Veteran Reserve Corps. The prisoners were being taken from Point Lookout, Maryland to newly constructed Camp Rathbun at Elmira, New York, built to house 10,000 inmates. They had begun their journey by steamer, traveling along the Atlantic coast from Maryland to New Jersey. Here they were switched to railroad for the final 273 miles to Elmira.
The official death toll was 65 people killed composed of 44 prisoners, 17 guards, and 4 railway staff, however estimates range from between 60 and 72. A subsequent enquiry found the dispatcher, who fled the scene, to be negligent.
The dead were buried in unmarked graves next to the track, where they remained for 47 years until 1911 when they were moved to the Woodlawn National Cemetery at Elmira, and the Shohola Monument erected with the names of the Union soldiers on one side and the names of the Confederate soldiers on the other. The Shohola Railroad Historical Society houses a museum dedicated to the wreck in a caboose stationed permanently in Shohola.
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. A source suggests that the camp was so embarrassing, the site was deliberately destroyed. The area where the prison once stood is residential today, but work is underway to reconstruct the camp.
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.