07/25/2025
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Tomorrow 7/26/25, is the big day!
Morning lecture topics
9AM- "Getting Worse Every Day: The Smallpox Epidemic at the Elmira Prison Camp"
Dr Gary Emerson, Schuyler County Historian
One of the leading causes of death at the Elmira Prison Camp was smallpox. Smallpox was a feared disease at the time because it often resulted in death. The virus was an example of how history is often impacted by our environment and how human actions can often produce unintended consequences. The illness was introduced into the prison camp in the fall of 1864, and despite belated attempts to arrest it the virus spread and killed many men, especially in February and March of 1865.
10 AM - "Paperwork & Bureaucracy Again: Exchange & Parole" - Douglas Cubbison, Curator, US Army Heritage & Education Center
The cumbersome system of handling prisoners of war through paroles and exchanges created a bureaucratic tangle of red tape. When and how prisoners were exchanged entailed a significant amount of red tape and created challenging logistics.
11AM - "Elmira and the Second Wave of Prisons”
Thomas K. Meier Keynote Speaker, Robert Crickenberger, President, Friends of Point Lookout Maryland
As the Civil War progressed into its third bloody year, federal campaigns were sending thousands of prisoners north in numbers that overwhelmed existing prisons. Furthermore, the forced cessation of a prisoner exchange cartel compounded the burden of the already overcrowded prison system, further denying the Confederate government of its much-needed manpower. By mid-1863, a desperate Commissary General of Prisoners, Colonel William Hoffman, began scouring the northern states, seeking locations to build new camps in order to better manage this sudden influx of prisoners. Hoffman’s latest prisons, Point Lookout and Elmira began the succession of new holding areas in what is now referred to as the “Second Wave of Prisons”.
Don't forget the additional activities at our site on Winsor Ave starting with a
1PM presentation by Dr. Michael Gray, Professor of History, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania
2PM Military Drill Demonstrations
3PM Groundbreaking for our newest proposed addition
See you there!
