Malnutrition during its one year in operation. Next, derek next field, author of hellmira the unions most infamous pow camp of the civil war talks about the conditions at the prison and some of the officers in charge. His talk was part of a symposium on the war in the east hosted by the emerging civil war blog. ,. He is an associate professor in batavia, new york, hometown of emory upton. He earned fame at the battle of spotsylvania courthouse. Drerk has earned fame for his brandnew book as part of the emergence of war series, called. Ladies and gentlemen please welcome derek max field. Derek maxfield. Thank you very much. I very please to be here and talk about my latest project. Hellmira and prisoner over cams in general have been quite a surprise to me. , although we understand, that this is a small number of casualties, consider the total number of casualties during the civil war, or 750,000 now we believe, you know when you consider that we couldve done better. Both north and south. When you consider that this was in our power, to a large measure to make lives for those who are incarcerated better, it is quite disappointing. It tells us much about ourselves i think. This was a project, that actually started because i was asked by Chris Murkowski to write this book but it was something that it was a surprise to me because when i was growing up just 30 miles from el marra i had no clue that helm ihra was a sight of a p. O. W. Camp and i think i learned in college for the first time about this and i was entirely shocked i thought by that time i was pretty well versed in the civil war and ive come to learn that theres good reason why i did not know about it and as a matter of many people in hellmira didnt know about it. This is a community that want to heighten its past. And it was quite recently, that they began to embrace what happened there. Along the river. And in large measure, the reason for this had to do with being compared to anderson ville. Many people know that, it was the p. O. W. Camp under the americas georgia, it was the largest of the p. O. W. Scam, it was the most deadly of the civil war. It held over 30, 000, and i had a death rate of approaching 30 . As the war, came to an end. And the union came to learn more and more about the tragedy. And the atrocities at anderson ville, they began to be this kind of back and forth of finger pointing, where every time the union would scream about the atrocities at anderson bill, then they would respond what about hellmira look. And this will go on for 30 some years after the war. And as both sides, try to blame each other for what happened in these p. O. W. Camps. It wasnt until the 1990s, that this community decided to read embrace its past. A high School Church teacher, in hellmira at the time led a movement to place a monument on the spot, where the camp set. Along the river. And so, you see this here. The original flagstaff of the cap, was placed with money it was as well at the time. But the same time, the only two modern books, were published. One by michael and another by michael ray. They were released within a year of each other. But before that, the next book you have to look at would be clay holmes book before world war i. It has not had a lot of attention by historians, and those that knew about it really had no reason to want to uncover this again. Fearing it would be bad for business, bad for tourism. Thats industry that hellmira relies upon. Another interest of mine, had to do with this man here. This is william b reese. And in my research it came against learned that he served in hellmira. And he was part of the invalid core. And he had been in the battle of gettysburg, he was injured and after that could not return to full duty. He ends up in hellmira perhaps watching some prisoners. So lets start the story of p. O. W. Camps in general just to contextualized it. So this is the quartermaster general for the onion, montgomery makes. And neither side gave serious thought through the potentialities of prisoner of war. And even though there were prisoners taken from the earliest part of the war, it was they were exchanged in an informal way, as. No formal policy at all and it was like they did in the mexican war. It was in the early days of the war that meigs suggests that maybe we should do something to prepare in case we need to hold prisoners of war. And Simon Cameron was more interested in lining his pockets at the time than anything else, so as a result nothing gets done. So the confederates, do little or nothing either. So as then we come to the story of, william huffman. Lieutenant colonel william huffman. Hes going to be appointed, at the request of montgomery meigs. One of the things that occurs to me, in 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 the p. O. W. Camps from the top down, a part of how they couldve done things better is the people they chose to run these facilities and often was a goodenough officer but he had no administrative experience it all. He happened to be available. And one of his qualifications was, he was p. O. W. Himself for a short time. And huffman was a graduate of west point. He served in the mexican war. He was in the eighth u. S. Regular infantry. That was early in the war. He found himself a p. O. W. He was exchange in this informal manner. While waiting exchange, he was in washington and they said hey, you have this job, how about it. And 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 of and whats important here, is his ingrained frugality. He is really cheap. Thats about himself, but the way that he is going to run this p. O. W. Camp. On this real shoestring. Thats something that incidentally, makes the secretary of war, Simon Cameron, but also stanton real picky. Elsewhere we like it because they dont want to spend any more money than they have to either. On the confederate side of things, they did not have and the same formal as an informal structure. The closer they came the closest they came was this Provost Marshal of richmond virginia. And when the war started, he would be placed in charge of the p. O. W. Facilities in richmond itself. That is primarily where the p. O. W. Facilities will remain for quite some time. Only later, near the end of the war do they make this anyway more formal. He is an interesting guy, he is a west point graduate, and he was a mexican war that, and riveted for gallantry in the field and he has more of an administrative capacity more than huffman did but has Less Authority, much Less Authority than his union opposite. So the p. O. W. Issue comes to a head at shiloh. Shiloh is the big battle early in the war. It is a battle that opened up the ayes to the north and south, how long and how bloody this war will really be. Over the course of two days, over 23,000 casualties. This 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. There is a water highway out of there, but where the battle took place was in the middle of nowhere. 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 emergency in the west at this time, for the holding of p. O. W. s. They have to be shift north, and the union and in very quick order they, have to convert what facilities they have available to them. This may be old penitentiarys, full prisons, fairgrounds anywhere where you could convert to holding a large amount of prisoners in a short amount of time. Now, 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 or rebellion, and to treat with them about the p. O. W. Issues, and in some ways would be to recognize them. It is something, he couldnt do. As and yet, the pragmatist and lincoln recognized that yes we have to do something, we have to formalize a system exchange, because this really isnt going to work otherwise. And this is what leads to, what is gall with the dixville cartel. You have those 2 million, john dicks, that get together and come to an agreement largely based on a framework from the mexican war, with some updates. It is largely a man to man exchange, in a formula of exchange between officers and and listed men. But at least they have something in place, something that they can work from. And that gives some hope to men that find themselves incarcerated, and to some extent, empties out the p. O. W. Camps that were than in place. 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. And, so he issues the preliminary emancipation proclamation after the battle of antietam, seeing this is a victory. And it becomes official in january of 1963. But of course, as you might imagine, it also sends the south into a tailspin over this. And there is some fury. But it also opens the door to African American prisoners. And this is where the great breakdown of the cartel systems begin. The high command of the confederacy, of course, does not want African American soldiers in the field. They are offended by this. But they absolutely refused to treat them as a white soldiers. And this complicates exchange, dramatically. Sudden says at the time that black soldiers cannot be recognized in any way soldiers subject to the rules of war. And they absolutely refuse to exchange African Americans. This gets worse as time goes on because not only is the confederacy refusing to exchange any African American soldiers they take, but reports stock to get back 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 really a small number of those that their numbers should reflect. And of those that do go into captivity, only 35 , im sorry 35 die in captivity. And, so, lincolns response to this, at the time, is to help exchanges. When you halt exchanges that means both sides now have the burden of taken care of these p. O. W. s. And where are you going to hold them . And of course, as the war goes on, in the fighting it swears, this problem becomes worse and worse. They have to open you camps, they have to be on the lookout for new facilities. And the one that most impacts our story, is a point to look out, maryland. Point lookout maryland results from the fighting in ex 1863. The camps are overflowing, and camp huffman, aka Point Lookout is created at the time. Its a beautiful area, former resort area. But it also had the added advantage of being very near the biggest junior hospital. So this hospital, you can see, down here on the point it looks like a spokes on a wheel. This hospital is the largest of the union hospitals, it has a very Good Transportation axis, its also a place that would be hard to escape from. And so, they begin to set up camps, a very near there you will see those in the upper right of the screen. Now, Point Lookout will very quickly swelled to over 20,000 at its peak. This will be the big feeder camp that becomes elmira. Heres another view. What about the same time, early 64 and discern phil is cleared in the south, we talked about this a little bit earlier. This is a camp that will come to house over 30,000. Its really just a big fan where Union Soldiers are thrown. And they will have a little fresh water. They will have food, occasionally. As the confederacy can get supplies to them. But most immediately, reports start to get back to union about how things are going there in the state, the state of the prisoners in the confederate charge. The overlying campaign is another thing that really directly impacts, the overflow and then the real humanitarian crises of the p. O. W. Camps. Because this is a campaign thats gonna see over 65,000 union casualties, over 35,000 confederate casualties. All the p. O. W. s are taken captive, there is no exchange at the time. And so these camps are just busting at the scenes. Grant says at the time, that its hard on our man to be Holding Southern prisoners, not exchanged them. And to give humanity to those left and ranks to fight the battles. He felt that exchanged prisoners would help the south, it would help them to fight on longer, and he felt this was a way too quick in the end of the war, even if that meant that Union Soldiers were gonna suffer in the process. Which they certainly did. So elmira comes in this story because of the union camps busting at the scenes. Where are we gonna put these men . But load at Point Lookout was becoming almost unbearable. And they were beginning to have security concerns, there. And so they decided to look about for another location. And elmira so did them quite well. Because elmira was already a draft rendezvous. It was on a major rare railroad home, it was next to a canal. This was a place that had benefited the location for Union Soldiers in the war. So many of the facilities were still there, and still available. And so there would be a minimum of preparation necessary to get this ready. So, at that post, this lieutenant he was kind of your average soldier. He was not a great able administrator, he was a top graphical engineer by training he will graduated from west point. Here is a guy who was also really not up to the job either. But, hes a good soldier, and you can see in his correspondence with his superiors he is willing to do it they want him to do. Though he is not in great health, himself. Hes also kind of conflicted, because his real interests are not military. His interests are in all painting and being an illustrator and an artist. And, really, the stress and the physical toll the camp takes on him lead to his removal in a short amount of time. But while hes there, he does the best that he can. One interesting side note on this is eastmans wife, was a virginian. She was then ffe, from one of the first timeless of virginia. Very pro slavery. And she was so agitated by the book written by harry, uncle dumps cabin, that she wrote her own version, felicitous cabin. Or the way life really is in the south. And an answer to this, and so that had to be controversial. Its more interesting when you consider the harriet herself summers in elmira, new york. So these two ladies would have been circulating in the same part of elite elmira society. One wonders with those conversations were like. One of the more interesting figures in elmira was the commandant of the elmira p. O. W. Men. He is also in the reserve, if you want. He was worth the new york regiment, and he had been injured in battle, with the 104th new york. And they put him on duty at elmira to run the p. O. W. Camp. And its really interesting that when you look at the memoirs of the prisoners, in the years after the war, the b trio is quite take. And some of that, i think, is guided by the controversy over andersonville, at the time. What is really interesting is, although they had terrible things to say about the conditions and the food, and elmira, especially the winters. They loved this man. Loved this man. And in the memoirs, especially the memoirs of anthony kiley, who we will talk about, they talk about how humane and kind that this man was. So he is their jail or. And they are writing in their memoirs about how terrible the place elmira was, and yet they love the man that is in charge of it. Which i find kind of interesting. In january, when he returns to duty, the prisoners give him a parting gift, on a silver platter. Literally, on a silver platter. A chalice that is made from a coconut, thats the bowl of this cup. Handmade chalice as a gift to him on his way out. Youll see here, the outlines, the rough outlines of the p. O. W. Campaign elmira. You will see that while at the top there is right on the river. This is definitely build on a flat plane. One of the things we will be talking about in a moment, you will see about a third of the way down. And the largest amount of the camp is they are in the bottom half. This encompasses over 30 acres of land. And just to give you some notion of what this looks like, today. This is an overlay of that map on the modern neighborhood. And you will see, near the top, there, water street, you could see fosters fond overly there. In this place on this river. So there are probably at least 100 homes that sit where the p. O. W. Camp was, during the war. You fostered spawned was one of the big controversies in the occupation of this land. Foster spawned is just a farm bond, but it was very stillwater. And early in the occupation, in july of 64, they set up the sinks, the latrines very close to the pond. And they were very poorly cited, so the pond very quickly is getting filled with urine and excrement. And its still, water there is no one running through it. So it begins to sting really bad. At the time, this was cited as a real health concern, and inspector from the War Department cited it as such. Citing my asthmas, which was the word used at the time for these voters. Which they believed would make men sick. So this was cited as an issue, very early on, and yet nothing was going to be done about it this despite the fact that they were feeling this was bad for the health of the soldiers in their charge. There were no hospital facilities in july, 64 when this camp opened. The prisoners are martin, they are housed in tents. And that is a way that it will remain for quite some time. One of the early tragedies in the history of the camp was a rack, a train full of prisoners on its way to elmira. I believe this was only the third or fourth shipment of soldiers. It was carrying 800 prisoners from jersey city. And it collided head on with a coal train, in the mountains of pennsylvania. In that wreck, 14 guards were killed, 40 prisoners were killed. A number escaped and all of the towns people in miles around, came to load up and you train, and deal with this tragedy and we know that it was the middle of the night that the wounded arrived in elmira with no advanced word. So in elmira they had no area that this tragedy had happened all they know this train arrived unexpectedly, and youve got vast numbers of wounded that needed immediate treatment. The facilities to treat these wounded were not in place, yet. And so, this leads to untold amounts of suffering. At about this time, they also have to establish a cemetery to bury the dead. Before august 1st, already 11 prisoners had died. The shopaholic death, by the way will not elmira until the 20th century, they were buried their. They will be removed later. This was something that was charged, a very interesting then named jon jones. Jones was at one time in his life a slave who ran away to his freedom. He settled in elmira where he became a prominent conductor on the underground railroad. He assured hundreds to their freedom. Sit out there, in found a new life. He was so trusted that they made him caretaker of the local cemeteries, including woodland cemetery. He was also placed in charge of the prisoners that died at the camp. And 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 at least six weeks into the existence of this camp. They are operating on local positions at the start, but he is set to become the key surgeon. Native of maine, went to arthur mood college before going to medical school in philadelphia. He was not and then that was really well respected in elmira, specially among the prisoners. Anthony kiley, one of the most prominent of the prisoners who wrote a memoir, said he especially hated sanger. And then fact, accused him of murdering the prisoners in his charge. And kiley has some interest in quotes. So he called sanger a club footed little gentleman mint, with a little head and sneaky looking eyes. Kylie himself had much to say about his incarceration, he will be there from july until october. And its worth mentioning, because hes not the ordinary prisoner. So when you look at the ranks of the prisoners in elmira, these are your foot from these armies, largely. Almost no officers. And kylie, actually, was a civilian when he was caught near petersburg. He was called out to help the local militia and was at the wrong place at the wrong, time and gets snatched. He was a member of the Virginia House of delegates, at the time. He was incarcerated in Point Lookout, and then sent out to elmira. Where he strikes up a really interesting friendship with henry cult. And in fact is given a special job, hes given special quarters, hes giving given special meals. So he really gets abnormal treatment. And yet, after the war, has met more will be one of the most interesting to read. But failed with some of the worst vitriol. Many of the memoirs, in vacuous is a name of his memoir, and its definitely worth reading. Another interesting aspect of this camp was the enterprising gentleman on the outside, in the town. Who set up an observation platform, which you can see on the right side of the screen, there. They charge you ten cents to go to the top and get a look at the real life red. As i said before, seth eastman didnt last long, his health really was not good when the tenure of the camp began. And his health just grew worse and worse until they were finally forced to remove him. In his place they put cornell that german tracey. Now, tracey, its not on the injured reserve. Really interesting man in his own right. He is one of those politicians soldiers that, grant and german so disliked. He was an assemblyman in new york before the war, a lawyer a district attorney. Though, to give him credit, he raised regiments, he served with a 109th new york, and then fact, earned the medal of honor for his heroism at the battle of the wilderness. So here, he was a politician through and through. And its very clear that when they placed him in elmira, the War Department knows who theyre getting. And he has a clear idea of what is expected of him. They just want him to keep his head, down not make any noise, and be prepared to follow orders from the department about how they want these prisoners treat it. Which includes the cutting of russians, twice. During his tenure. Despite the fact that food was a bunted in the air around elmira. This led to some suggesting that what you had going on here, in elmira, was a union answer to the atrocities in andersonville. A concerted effort to punish confederate prisoners because of the treatment of Union Soldiers in andersonville. And the evidence definitely sustains this. As i told you before, they were housed intense. The prisoners were houston tents, in the beginning. So by october 1st we had 9000 prisoners in elmira, but you only had a small number of barracks. The first snow arrives in october, and you are still going to have hundreds of men intense, in january. When the final barracks getup. Its a man not in barracks are sleeping on the ground, on bare ground, largely unless they have some stronger Something Else to sleep on. Every prisoner is given to blankets but of course we all know those of us who are from western new york, how cold it can get in elmira that time of the year. We know that by january 1st, there was a foot of snow standing on the ground. So these men would have been sleeping in snow, standing in the snow and ice, for roll call each morning. It must have been really hard on alabama or mississippi people. In here is a view of the reconstructed barracks. You can see now that they have been built their. Another interesting prisoners marcus joni, he was from tennessee. And in his memoirs, we get an interesting view of life in camp, because he contracted smallpox while he was there. And he had to be housed in the smallpox hospital. Swamp smallpox hospital is set up very down, close to the river. Away from everybody else, to provide isolation. And they thought that this was the best place to put it. Tony finds himself there, and gives us a really riveting account of how these smallpox patients suffered. Someone who died there, he said, were dragged out and left in front of their tents. And whatever position the man was, when death overtook him, in that position he froze. And they would stay there, frozen in these odd positions for as much as a day before their bodies would be removed. Food was always an issue in elmira, it should not have been. It was an area of plenty. Scurrying was a real problem inside of elmira. And again, there is no reason this needed to be, because there was an abundance of vegetables in the elmira area. But as i already mentioned to you, with the union high command issued a cutting of russians twice in the First Six Months of the existence of the camp. So men were forced to look out for themselves in some cases. There was a lively market in muskrats there is reports of dogs going missing. They were would scrounge for whatever they could get. Another prisoner said, there is a lot of where life is, mid to less persons who moped here around, hiding away for whatever sufficient food to eat. Losing their humanity, eating almost anything that would be eating, even gangrene pull choices in the. Like another interesting part of the story, has to do with the Spiritual Life of the confederates halos in elmira. A number of local pastors and ministers would come to minister the spiritual needs of the prisoners. Some would welcome them with open arms, others were a little bit too preachy for the likes of the prisoners. Thomas preacher was from the probably one of the most prominent pastors in it elmira, the brother of a another man. One of the things that we know that was happening inside the camp, was these prisoners desperately looking for something to do, boredom was their biggest enemy, apart from the cold. And they looked for different ways to pass the time in these are some pieces, pieces of jewelry, a dime made by prisoners. You can see these now in the valley of the historical society. Very inter prices rang there in amara, they would make deals with the guards who would sell them in the community. And some of the money would actually make it back to the prisoners. The medium of exchange was tobacco. In high demand, north and south. In this kind of became the replacement for money there, for a time. So the winter of 64 65, it was really quite brutal. We know that the temperatures were below zero for much of early january. Deep snow, howling winds, and in the barracks those who are looking up to be in barracks, there would be one or two strokes, one would and then later cold stone. When they run out of the daily supply, they would be called. So largely, what would happen is stay would be warm for a few hours, run out of their allotment if you will, and freeze for the better part of the remaining hours. But at least they were short order from the wind, shelters provided from them unlike prisoners in andersonville, core provided within our shelters at all. Now as i said before, this was built on a flat plane. On a river. A substantial river. In its surrounded by high hills. And i were told you there were deep snows on those hills. So it does not take a genius to figure out when that snow begins to mount, that is a river that is going to swell rapidly. So this is something that the authorities in elmira should have seen coming. Benjamin tracy, has warned him several times and writing, we know this. You better figure something out, because that river is gonna come blooming in february, march, or april. And this is exactly what happens. There was a quick thaw and this massive flood jet washes down the valley was called st. Patricks day flood, march 65. And it wiped out three quarters of the fencing. Along this river. Almost 90 of the camp was underwater and they had to, in fact rescue, the smallpox patients. Who were in vital danger of drowning. As i said, the small pox hospital was way down closer to the river itself. So they mounted this rescue effort in the middle of the night, with drafts and tow ropes. And you had guards and prisoners side by side working through the night, to rescue these prisoners. Some of whom, unfortunately, it fell in the icy water and died shortly after. But many of them were in fact rescued. For their efforts, the prisoners were at least given a ration of whiskey. So, the dismantling of the camp begins to happen in march of 65. They begin to move prisoners out, by this time cranked has given permission for exchanges to be resumed. In fact, these were resumes before a campaign. And so elmira began to empty, out a little by little. It wasnt though until july, of course, long after the problematic since surrendered have been in place, that these men will go home. Sadly, 140 men were not will enough to travel, and will be staying in elmira, for some time. Some actually of those hundred 14 really. The camp began to be dismantled almost immediately. Part of the Lease Agreement between a foster family who owned the land and the government was that the land would be returned to its original state, as much as possible. So all the buildings for dismantle then sold, off they were auctioned off. But remnants and reminders of what was once there became very sparse in a short amount of time. One of those that exist into the 20 or 24 century was a former dead house, where they would hold it bodies until they could be brought over to the cemetery. Some are right about this in your book, shortly before world war i. Today we have an organization in elmira, called the friends of the elmira prison, who are working really hard to bring back that history and acknowledge what happened there. Their efforts have included the reconstruction of an original camp building. This was made from a number that was held in storage ever since the civil war, reconstructed about 80 of it you can see today in elmira. Theyve also reconstructed original barracks. So lets just take a quick look at the numbers, before i wrap up here. Because i said, over 400,000 soldiers were held, and 150,000 different facilities. 53 6000 died in captivity. The elmira numbers include almost 10,000 held, death rate of 24 . This is why elmira gets compared to andersonville, the death rate. In many, or most other ways, i dont believe that theres a good comparison here, at all. But what i argue in the book is that its long past time for fingerpointing. And it is time just to acknowledge that both sides couldve done a much better job, taking care of the prisoners in their care. Thank you very much. Located in charleston harbor, union forces in april 1861. Despite south carolinas succession in 1860. Up next National Park services story i