Hellmira: The Union's Most Infamous Civil War Prison Camp - Elmira, NY - Couverture souple

Maxfield, Derek

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1611214874 ISBN 13 : 9781611214871

Editeur : Savas Beatie, 2020

Synopsis

Long called by some the "Andersonville of the North," the prisoner of war camp in Elmira, New York, is remembered as the most notorious of all Union-run POW camps. It existed for only a year--from the summer of 1864 to July 1865--but in that time, and for long after, it became darkly emblematic of man's inhumanity to man.

Confederate prisoners called it "Hellmira."

Hastily constructed, poorly planned, and overcrowded, prisoner of war camps North and South were dumping grounds for the refuse of war. An unfortunate necessity, both sides regarded the camps as temporary inconveniences--and distractions from the important task of winning the war. There was no need, they believed, to construct expensive shelters or provide better rations. They needed only to sustain life long enough for the war to be won. Victory would deliver prisoners from their conditions.

As a result, conditions in the prisoner of war camps amounted to a great humanitarian crisis, the extent of which could hardly be understood even after the blood stopped flowing on the battlefields.

In the years after the war, as Reconstruction became increasingly bitter, the North pointed to Camp Sumter--better known as the Andersonville POW camp in Americus, Georgia--as evidence of the cruelty and barbarity of the Confederacy. The South, in turn, cited the camp in Elmira as a place where Union authorities withheld adequate food and shelter and purposefully caused thousands to suffer in the bitter cold. This finger-pointing by both sides would go on for over a century.

And as it did, the legend of Hellmira grew.

In Hellmira: The Union's Most Infamous POW Camp of the Civil War, Derek Maxfield contextualizes the rise of prison camps during the Civil War, explores the failed exchange of prisoners, and tells the tale of the creation and evolution of the prison camp in Elmira. In the end, Maxfield suggests that it is time to move on from the blame game and see prisoner of war camps--North and South--as a great humanitarian failure.

A propos du livre

À propos des auteurs

Derek Maxfield is an associate professor of history at Genesee Community College in Batavia, New York. Author of Hellmira: The Union's Most Infamous Civil War Prison Camp--Elmira, NY, Maxfield has written for Emerging Civil War since 2015. In 2019, he was honored with the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 2013, he was awarded the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.

Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is a writing professor in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University in New York, where he also serves as the associate dean for undergraduate programs. He is also the historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania Court House battlefield in Virginia. Chris, an award-winning author, has written or edited more than two dozen books, including The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, May 14, 1863. He is the editor-in-chief of the digital history platform Emerging Civil War and managing editor of the award-winning Emerging Civil War Series published by Savas Beatie.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Savas Beatie
• Date d'édition: 2020
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1611214874
• ISBN 13: 9781611214871
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 192
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible