Elmira Civil War Prison Camp

Nearly 12,100 Confederate soldiers were held here from 1864 to 1865, and almost a quarter of them didn't survive — 2,963 men died from disease, cold, and starvation. The inmates called it "Hellmira." The dead are buried at Woodlawn National Cemetery next door.

The suffering at Elmira left a permanent supernatural scar on the area. Homes built on the former camp site are haunted by Civil War soldiers who never left their prison. Residents report seeing men in Confederate uniforms, hearing moaning and crying, and feeling overwhelming despair.

At nearby Chemung River, where prisoners died attempting escape, visitors have sensed the presence of desperate soldiers. The mass graves at Woodlawn Cemetery generate sharp temperature drops, orbs in photographs, and EVP recordings of men speaking in Southern accents. The concentration of death at Elmira created one of upstate New York's most haunted areas.