Elmira: Death Camp of the North

Why did the death toll at the Elmira prison camp exceed that of similar camps? The Civil War prison camp at Elmira, New York, opened on July 6, 1864, and closed the following July. During that single year, almost 3,000 Confederate prisoners died. The prison's death rate of nearly 25 percent was the highest of any camp in the North, compared to an average death rate of just over 11 percent in all Northern camps and about 15 percent in the South. Clearly, something went wrong in Elmira. Drawing on ten years of research, this book traces the story of what happened.

Elmira's Civil War prison camp from 1864 to 1865 could have comfortably accommodated 4,000 prisoners. Instead, it held more than 12,000, and nearly 25 percent died.