My name is Chris Mackowski, editor in chief of emerging civil war. Delighted to have you with us. Our first speaker today is derrick maxfield. Hes an associate professor and batavia new york, hometown of emory upton for those of you who are from spots of india. Derek has recently earned fame for his brand new book as part of the emerging civil war series. It is called hellmira, the unions most notorious prison of war camp in elmira, new york. Thank you very much, im very pleased to be here to talk about my latest project. Prisoner of war camps in general have been quite a surprise to me. Ive studied the civil war since i was quite young and i knew the length of the tragedy during the civil war. But it was eyeopening to me the extent of the humanitarian crisis that unfolded over the course of those four bloody years. Over 56,000 died in prisoner of war camps over that time. Just over 500,000 incarcerated in total. Although we understand that this is just a small number of casualties considered the total number of casualties during the civil war. Over 750,000 now, we believe. When you consider that we could have been better, both north and south, when you consider that this was in our power to a large measure to make lives for those that were incarcerated better, its really quite disappointing. It tells us much about ourselves i think, then as today. This was a project that actually started because i was asked by Chris Mackowski to write this book. But it was something that something of a surprise to me because, when i was growing up just 30 miles from elmira four, i had no clue that elmira was the set of a p. O. W. Camp. I think i learned in college for the first time about this and was just entirely shocked. I thought by that time i was fairly well versed in the civil war. I come to learn that theres a good reason why i did not know about it, and in fact, many people in elmira did not know about it. To some extent, it was an exercise in civic amnesia. This was a community that wanted to hide its past. And really, it was only quite recently that they began to embrace whats happened there along the river. In large measure, the reason for this had to do with being compared to anderson bill. So anderson ville, many people know, was the p. O. W. Camp near americas georgia. It was the largest of the p. O. W. Camps. It was the most deadly of the p. O. W. Camps of the civil war. It held over 30,000. It had a death rate approaching 30 . As the war came to an end and the union came to learn more and more about the tragedy, the atrocities at anderson bill, they began to be this kind of back and forth fingerpointing where every time the union would scream about the atrocities at anderson bill, the south would answer what about elmira . This is the way its going to go on for some 30 years after the war. As both sides try to blame each other for what happened in these p. O. W. Camps. It was not until the 1990s that this community decided to we embrace its past. A High School Teacher in elmira at the time let a movement to place a monument on the spot where the camp sat. About 30 acres on the river on water street. So you see this here. The original flagstaff of the camp was placed near this monument as well at that time. About that same time, the only two modern books until mine were published. One by Michael Horgan and in the one by michael great. Both were released within a year of each other. But before that, the next book you have to look at would be clay holmes book, just before world war i. So it has not had a lot of attention by historians. Those that knew about it really had no reason to want to under cover this again, fearing that it would be bad for business, bad for tourism, which is an industry which elmira relies upon quite heavily. This was part of my interest. Another interest of mine had to do with this man here. This is william the race, this is my third greatgrandfather, in my research i came to learn that he served in elmira during the time that it was a prison camp. He was part of the invalid core, so called, for the veterans reserve corps. He had been in the battle of gettysburg. He was injured on the first day. After that, he could not return to full duty. He ends up in elmira, perhaps cutting some of the prisoners that i would be studying. Lets start the story of p. O. W. Camps in general just to contextualize this a little bit. This is montgomery meigs. Hes the quartermaster tunnel for the union. As the civil war got underway, one of the things we see is neither side gave serious thought to the potentialities of having to hold prisoners of war. Although there were prisoners taken in some of the earliest battles of the war, they were exchanged pretty much on the spot in a kind of informal way that harkens back to the way the things were done during the mexican war. No formal policy at all. It was in the early days of the war that meigs suggests to simon cameron, was then the secretary of war, maybe we should do something to prepare in case we need to hold prisoners of war. Simon cameron was more interested, i think, in lining his pockets at that time than anything else. As a result, nothing gets done. The confederates do little or nothing either. Then we come to the story of william hawk men. Lieutenant colonel william offman. Hes going to be appointed at the request of montgomery meigs. The commissary general of prisoners. One of the things that occurs to me and all of this is that if youre going to take this problem seriously, you want to have your best people on this. When i look back at the way that both sides operated peel w. Camps from the top down, part of how they couldve done things better is the people they chose to run these facilities. Hoffman was a good enough officer, but he had no administrative experience at all. He happened to be available. One of his qualifications was he was a peanut w. And sell for a short time. He was a p. O. W. Himself for a short time. He was a graduate of west point. He served in the mexican war. He was in the eight u. S. Regulars infantry. Very early in the war, he found himself a p. O. W. He was exchanged in this kind of informal manner. While awaiting exchange, he was in washington and they said, weve got this job, how about you . This is how he comes to the job. I think that when you look at his administration of the p. O. W. Facilities, one of the things that i think is a characteristic that is important here is his ingrained frugality. He is really cheap. Thats himself, but thats also the way hes going to run these p. O. W. Camps on a real shoestring. That is something that, incidentally, makes the secretary of war at wooden stanton very pleased because they dont want to spend more money than is necessary either. On the confederate side of things, they did not have as formal in administrative structure when it came to the p. O. W. Camps. The closest they came was their Provost Marshal. This is sean winder, who was Provost Marshal of richmond, virginia. Asked when the war started, he will be placed more or less in charge of the p. O. W. Facilities in richmond itself. Thats primarily where theyre p. O. W. Facilities will remain for quite some time. Only later near the end of the war do they make this in any way more formal. Winder is an interesting guy. Hes a west point graduate. He was a Tactics Instructor a little bit after is graduation. A mexican war veteran. Known for gallantry in the field. He has more of an administrative capacity then hoffman did, but he has Less Authority, much Less Authority than his union opposite. So the p. O. W. Issue comes to a head at shiloh. Shiloh is really the big battle early in the war. It is a battle that opened the eyes of the north and south to how long and how bloody this war is really going to be. And over the course of two days, its saw over 23,000 casualties. Its also meant that you had hundreds if not thousands of prisoners taken on both sides. And shiloh is in the middle of a vast wilderness. Pittsburgh landing is on the tennessee river, which is a water i weigh out of their, but where the battle took place is really in the middle of nowhere. And so you have to move your wounded and your casualties out of this wilderness to be treated or to be imprisoned. What this meant was really kind of an emergency in the west at this time for the holding of p. O. W. s. They have to be shipped north and the union, and very quick order, has to convert what facilities they have available to them. This might be old penitentiarys, prisons, old fairgrounds. Anything where you can convert to holding a large number of prisoners in a very short amount of time. The issue of Prisoner Exchange was really complicated by Abraham Lincolns stance when it came to recognizing the confederacy, which he could not of course to. He saw this as an insurrection, a rebellion, and to treat with them about the p. O. W. Issues, in some ways would be to recognize them, which is something he could not do. And yet, a pragmatist in lincoln recognized that weve got to do something. We have to formalize a system of exchange because this really isnt going to work otherwise. And this is wet leads to what is called the dixville cartel. So you had these two men, john dicks and general hale, who come to an agreement largely based on the mexican war. Its largely a man from man exchange and a formula of exchange between officers and enlisted men. But at least they have something in place and something they can work from. That gives some hope two men that find themselves incarcerated, and to some extent, empties out the p. O. W. Camps that were then in pay lace. But this is all quite complicated by the emancipation proclamation issued in january 1863. So Abraham Lincoln came to the conclusion that, in order to win this war, this measure would be necessary. So, he issues a preliminary emancipation proclamation after the battle of antimatter, seeing this as a victory. It becomes official in january of 63. As you might imagine, it also sends it into a tailspin over this, and there is some fury. It opens the door to African American prisoners. This is where the breakdown of the cartel system begins. The high command of the confederacy, of course, does not want African American soldiers in the field, they are offended by this. They absolutely refused to treat them as white soldiers. This complicates exchange dramatically. At the time, black soldiers were not recognized in anyways as soldiers subject to the rules of war, and they absolutely refused to exchange African Americans. This gets worse as time goes on, because not only is the confederacy refusing to exchange the African American soldiers they to, four ports get to Union Authorities that many men are shot in the process of surrender. The casualty rate among African Americans that are incarcerated is very high, over the course of the war, over 800 black p. O. W. s are taken, which is a small number of those that the numbers should reflect. Of those that do go in connectivity, only 35 die in captivity. Lincolns response to this at the time is to halt exchanges. When you hard exchanges, both sides have the burden of taking care of these p. O. W. s. Where will you hold them . As the war goes on, and the fighting gets worse, this problem becomes worse. They have to open a new camps, they have to be on the lookout for new facilities, and the one that most impacts our story is Point Lookout maryland. Point lookout, maryland results from the fighting in 1863, the camps are overflowing, and camp off men, a gay Point Lookout, is created. Its a beautiful area, a former resort, it also had the added advantage of being near the Biggest Union hospital. This hospital you can see down here on the point, looks like spokes on the wheel. Hammond General Hospital is the largest of the union hospitals. It has Good Transportation access, it is also a place that is hard to escape from. They begin to set up cams near there. You see those in the upper right of the screen. Point lookout will quickly swelled to over 20,000 at its peak. This will be the big peter camp that what becomes amara. There is another view. At about the same time, early 64, anderson vote is created in the south. We talked about this earlier. This was a camp that would come to house over 30,000. It is a big pan where union shoulders are thrown and they have little freshwater, food occasionally, as the confederacy can get supplies to them. Most immediately, reports get back to the union about how things are going in the state of the prisoners, in the confederate charge. The Overland Campaign is a neither thing that directly impacts the overflow and the real humanitarian crisis of the p. O. W. Camps. This is a campaign that will see over 65,000 union casualties, 35,000 confederate casualties. All the p. O. W. s are taken captive, there is no exchange at this time, so these camps are busting at the seams. Grant says at the time that it is hard on our men to be held in southern prisons, not to exchange them, but humanity to those left in the ranks to fight our battles. He fell through exchange, prisoners with help the south, it would help them to fight longer. He felt this was a way too quick in the end of the war, even if that meant that Union Soldiers would suffer in the process, they certainly did. Omar comes into the story because of the hearing in camps busting at the seams. Where will we put these men . The Point Lookout was coming unbearable, and they were beginning to have security concerns. So, they decided to look about for another location. Ill mired suited them well, because it was a draft rendezvous. It was on a Major Railroad hub, next to a canal. This was a place that had been a feature location for Union Soldiers, early in the war. Many of the facilities were still there and still available. There would be a minimum of preparation necessary to get this ready. At that post was Lieutenant Colonel south eastman. He was your average soldier. He was not unable administration, he was a topic avalanche nearby trainee. He graduated. Here is a guy that was also not up to the job. He is a good soldier, and you can see in his correspondence with his superiors, hes ready to do what they want him to do. He is not in great health himself, he is also conflicted because his real interests are not the military, they are in oil painting and illustrating, and being an artist. Really, the stress and physical toll that the camp takes on him will lead to his removal in a short amount of time. While he is there, he does the best he can. One interesting side note on this is eastmans wife, Mary Henderson was a virginian. And as v. From the first families of virginia. Very pro slavery, and was so agitated by the book written by harry bleacher still, that she wrote her own version called and felicitous cabin, or the way life really is in the south in answer to this. That had to be controversial. It is more interesting when you consider that harried beach or stole summoned in all minor, new york. These two ladies would have been circulating in the same part of a league elm iris society. One wonders with those conversations were like. One of the more interesting couldnt figurines in henry cold, he also is on the injured reserve. He was with new york regiment and he had been injured in battle, 104th new york, and they put him on duty at elm ihra to run the p. O. W. Camp. It is interesting that when you look at the memoirs of the prisoners in the years after the war, the vitriolic is quite thick. Some of that is guided by the controversy over anderson girl at the time. What is really interesting is, although they have to rubble things to say about conditions and the food, they love this man. They love this man. In the memoirs, especially the memories of anthony karlyn, who we will talk about, they talked about how humane and kind this man was. He is their jailer, and they are right about how terrible place omar was, and yet they love the man that is in charge of it, which i find interesting. In january, when he returns to duty, the prisoners give him a parting gift on a silver platter. A chalice that is made from a coconut, that is the people of this cup, handmade chalice as a gift to him on his way out. You see the rough outlines of the p. O. W. Camp in elm ihra. The wall at the camp is on cimarron river. This is built on a flood plain. Fosters pond, you see a third of the way down, and the largest amount of the camp is there in the bottom half. This encompassed over 30 acres of land. Just to give you some notion of what this looks like today. This is an overlay of that map in the modern neighborhood. You senior the top, water street, foster spawned overlaid, and a place on the river. There are probably 100 homes that sit where the p. O. W. Camp was, during the war. Fosters pond was one of the big controversies in the occupation of this land. Fosters pond is a farm pond, still water, really in the occupation in july of 64, they set up the sink, the latrines, very close to the pond. They were poorly cited, and the pond quickly gets filled with urine and excrement. Its still water, no freshwater running through it. A big insisting very bad. At the time, this was cited as a health concern. And inspector from the War Department cited it at such, citing my as most. A word used at the time for these orders that made men sick. This was cited as an issue very early on, he had nothing will be done about it despite the fact that this feel this is hazardous to the health of the soldiers. The prisoners are marched in, theyre housed intense, and that is the way will remain for sometime. One of the early tragedies in the history of the camp was a wreck of a train full of prisoners. On its way to elmira, this was only the third for shipment of soldiers. It was carrying 800 prisoners from jersey city, and they collided head on with the coal train in the mountains of pennsylvania, near show hole law. In that wreck, 14 guards were killed, 40 prisoners are killed, and number have escaped, and all of the townspeople and people from miles around, come help to load up a new train, bury the dead, and deal with the tragedy. In elmira, they had no idea this tragedy had happen. All they know is that the train arrives unexpectedly, and you have vast numbers of wounded that need immediate treatment. The facility to treat these wounded were not in place yet. This leads to untold amount of suffering. At this time, they also i do establish a cemetery to bury the dead. Before august 1st, already 11 prisoners had died. The shareholder dead, will not be removed to a myron till the 20th century. They were buried on the spot, they will be moved later. This was something that was put into the charge of a interesting man named jon jones. Jones was at one time in his life a slave, who ran away to his freedom. Settled in elmira, where he became a prominent conductor in the underground railroad, ushering hundreds to their freedom. He found a new life. He was so trusted that they made him caretaker of the local cemeteries, including would long cemetery. He was also placed in charge of the prisoners that died at the camp. He will have almost 3000 of those to deal with during his tenure as a caretaker. Another interesting figure in all of this is eugene sanger. He does not arrive until six weeks of the existence of this camp. They are operating on local positions at the start, but sangria sent to be the chief surgeon, native of maine. Went to dartmouth call it, before going to medical school in philadelphia, he was not a man that was well respected in elm ihra, especially among the prisoners. Anthony kiley, one of the more prominent of the prisoners are brought amid more. He especially hated sanger. He accused him of murdering the prisoners in his charge, and he had interesting quotes. He called saying, this gentleman with snake looking eyes, and an abnormal head. Kylie himself had much to say about his incarceration, he will be there from july to october. He is worth mentioning, because hes not the ordinary prisoner. When you look at the ranks of the prisoners and amara, these are your foot soldiers from a large fleet. Almost no officers. Kylie actually was a civilian when he was caught in near petersburg and called out to help the local militia. It was the wrong place at the wrong time, we get snatched. He was a member of the Virginia House of delegates at the time. He was incarcerated in point look out and sent on to elmira, where he strikes up an interesting friendship with henry quote. He is given a special job in special quarters, special meals. He really gets abnormal treatment. After the war, his memoir will be one of the most interesting to read. Filled with some of the worst vitriol of any of the memoirs. It is definitely worth reading. Another interesting aspect of this camp, was the enterprising gentlemen on the outside in the town. Who set up an observation platform, you can see it on the right side of the screen. They will charge you ten cents to go to the top and get a look at a live rub. As i said before, seth eastman did not last long. His health was not good when tenure of camp began. His health grew worse and worse, until they finally were forced to remove him. In his place, they put benjamin tracy. Tracy was not on injured reserve. Interesting man in his own right. One of those politician soldiers, that grant in sherman disliked. He was an assemblyman in new york before the war, lawyer, district attorney. To give him credit, he raised a regimen, served with a 109th in new york, and earn the medal of honor for his heroes him at the battle of the wilderness. He earned his strikes, but he was a politician through and through. It is clear that when they place him and amara, the War Department knows who they are getting. He has a clear idea of what is expected of him. They want him to keep his head down, not put any noise, and be prepared to follow orders from the War Department. This includes the cutting of russians twice during his tenure. Despite the fact that food was abundant in the area. This is what has led to some suggesting that wet he had going on in elmira was a union answer and concerted effort to punish confederate the evidence sustains us. As i told you before, they were housed intends at the beginning, so by october 1st you have 9000 prisoners and amara. You normally had a small number of barracks, the first snow arrives in october, you are still going to have hundreds of men intends into january. When the final barracks get up. The man not in barracks are sleeping on the ground, on the bare ground largely, unless they have star something to sleep on. Every prisoner is given blankets, but of course we all know. Those of us from western new york, how cold they can get in elm ihra that time of year. We know by january 1st, there was a foot of snow standing on the ground. These men would have been sleeping in snow, standing in snow each morning, it must have been hard on an alabama or mississippi. Here is a view of the deconstructed fabric that you can see, that were built their. Another interesting prisoner as markets toning, hes from tennessee. In his memoir, we get an interesting view and life of camp, he contracted small pox and had to be house in the small pox hospital. That was set up very close to the shimon river. Away from everybody else, to provide isolation. They thought that this was the best place to put it. Tony finds himself there and gives a riveting account of how the small pox patients whatever position from a man was when that overtook him in that position he froze. They would stay there in those oppositions for more than a day, before their bodies were removed. Food was an issue adel moira, it should not have been. It was an area of plenty. Scurvy was a problem in all my russia. There was no reason it needed to be, there was an abundance of vegetables in the elmira area. The new high command issued a cutting of rations twice in the First Six Months of the existence of the camp, men were forced look out for themselves. There was a lively market in muskrat, a report of dogs going missing, they would scrounge for whatever they could get. Another prisoner said there were drawn or lifeless men, less persons who moped around. Pining away for sufficient food to eat. Losing humanity, eating anything a brute would eat, even gangrene and the like. Another interesting part of the story has to do with the Spiritual Life of the confederates. A number of local pastors and ministers would come to minister to the spiritual needs of the prisoners. Some were welcomed with open arms, others were too preachy for the likes of prisoners. Thomas preacher was probably the most prominent pastor at the time, at the church. One of the things we know that was happening inside of the camp, was these prisoners desperately looking for something to do, they looked further found ways to pass the time. These were pieces of jewelry made by prisoners. Very enterprising man in elmira, they will make rings and drink its, and deals with the cards who would sell them in the community. Some of the money would make it back to the prisoners. The medium of exchange was tobacco, in high demand north and south. This became the replacement for money there, for a time. The winter of 64 65 was quite brutal. We know that the temperatures were below zero for much of early january, deep snows, howling winds, and in the barracks, those that were lucky enough to be in barracks, would be one or two stoves that first, would then later coal stoves. They were given an allotment for the day, but that right now, they would be cold. Largely what would happen, they will be warm for a few hours, run out of their allotment a fuel, and freeze for the better part of eight hours. At least they were sheltered from the wind, shelters provided for them, unlike the prisoners in anderson bill who were provided with none. This was built on a floodplain, on the show among river. She meng is a substantial river. It is surrounded by high heels. There are deep snows on those hills. It does not take a genius to figure out that when that snow begins to melt, that is a river that will swell rapidly. This is something that the authorities in omara should have seen coming. Benjamin tracy has worn several times, you better figure something out. This river will come blooming in february march or april, and thats exactly what happened. There was a quick thaw, and this massive flood that washes down the valley called st. Patricks day flood, march of 65, and they wiped out three quarters of the fencing along the shores among river, almost 90 of the campus underwater, and they have to rescue the smallpox patients who were in vital danger of drowning, the small hospital was out towards the river itself. They mounted this rescue effort in the middle of the night with jury rigged rafts and tow ropes. You have guards and prisoners side by side working through the night, to ask you these prisoners. Some of who fell into the icy water and died. Many of them were rescued. For their efforts, the prisoners were given a ration of whiskey. The dismantling of the camp begins to happen in march of 65. They begin to move prisoners out. By this time, grant has given permission for exchanges to be resumed. In fact, these were resumed before the campaign, so omara began to empty out little by little. It was not until july, long after the surrender had been in place, that these men will go home. Sadly, 140 man were not able to travel and will be staying in elmira for some time. Some of those hundred and 40 never leave, they cant began to be dismantled almost immediately. Part of the Lease Agreement between the foster family who owned the land and the government, was that the land would be returned to its original state as much as possible. All the buildings were dismantled and sold off, auctioned off, but remnants and reminders of what was once there became very sparse in a short amount of time. One of those existing in the 20th century was the former dead house, where they would hold dead bodies until they could be buried over. Clay holmes writes about this in his book shortly before world war i. Today, we have an Organization Called friends of my represent, working really hard to bring back the his tweet in a fall it would happen there. The reconstruction of an original camp building. This was held in storage ever since the civil war, reconstructed 80 of it is original lumbering you could see it and amara today. They also reconstructed original barracks. Lets take a quick look at the numbers before i wrap up here. Over 400,000 soldiers were help, and 150,000 indifferent facilities. 56,000 died in captivity. The elm iran numbers include almost 10,000 held, death rate of 24 . This is why all my rug gets compared to anderson ville. The death rate. In many ways, i dont believe there is an adequate comparison. Would i argue in the book is that it is long past time for fingerpointing, it is time to acknowledge that both sides could have done a better job taking care of the prisoners and their care. Thank you very much. Located in charlton charleston harbor, fort sumner was still held by union forces in april of 1861, despite carolinas secession in 1860. Up next, National Park service historian mark maloy described the events of april 12th, 1861, when confederate guns around the harbor opened fire on fort supporter. This top is part of a symposium on the war in the east hosted by the emerging civil wab