About This Location
The Elmira Prison Camp held 12,100 Confederate soldiers from July 1864 to July 1865. Conditions were so brutal that nearly 25% of prisoners died - 2,963 men perished from disease, exposure, and malnutrition. The camp earned the nickname "Hellmira" from its inmates. The dead were buried in mass graves, with 2,973 Confederate soldiers now interred at Woodlawn National Cemetery adjacent to the original camp site.
The Ghost Story
The suffering at Elmira left a permanent supernatural scar on the area. Homes built on the former camp site are said to be haunted by Civil War soldiers who never left their prison. Residents report apparitions of men in Confederate uniforms, sounds of moaning and crying, and overwhelming feelings of despair. At nearby Chemung River, where prisoners died attempting escape, visitors have experienced the presence of desperate soldiers. The mass graves at Woodlawn Cemetery generate cold spots, orbs in photographs, and EVP recordings of men speaking in Southern accents. The concentration of death and suffering at Elmira created one of upstate New York's most haunted areas.