Lt. Col. Anthony Eugene Stocker, MD-- Part 3

Medical Director, District of Key West, FL to 8 Dec 1863.  Medical Director of the District of Key West and Tortugas, FL. to Nov 1864 and there  contracted Yellow Fever.

In charge of  Prisoners Hospital, Elmira, NY until mustered out.  This would have been during the time that the prisoners captured at Fort Fisher on January 15, 1865, would have started arriving.

Brevet Lieutenant Colonel US  Volunteers June  1, 1865.  Honorably discharged September 15, 1865.

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University of Pennsylvania MD degree 1840.

Companion Member:  Militay Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

Freemason and Master of Franklin Lodge #134.  Royal Arch Mason in Chapter #91 and charter member of Philadelphia Chapter #169 and High Priest in 1852.

Knights Templar in St. Johns Commandery #4 then in Philadelphia #5.  Grand Master of Knights Templar in  Philadelphia 1856.  Scottish Rite 33 and Commander  in Chief of Philadelphia Consistory 1868-1896.

Married  Jane Randolph in 1845.

--Old Secesh

Answers to MCCWRT Prisons Quiz-- Part 2: Fort Fisher and a Great Lakes Warship

9.  Enlisted Confederates captured at Fort Fisher on January 15, 1865, were mostly sent to Elmira Prison Camp in New York.

10.  The Confederate nickname for this prison was "Hellmira" because of the horrific conditions.

11.  Two of the main prisons to which Confederate officers were sent during the war were  both in bodies of water.  One was Fort Columbus in New York Harbor.  The other was Johnson's Island in Lake Erie.

12.  Who was the highest ranking Confederate officer to die while a prisoner?  Maj. Gen. W.H.C. Whiting.  He was wounded at Fort Fisher, recovered from the wound, but died from dysentery.

13.What U.S. warship was the target of a Confederate plot to free officers held at Johnson's Island in Lake Erie?    USS Michigan

14.  The USS Michigan served for a long time but near the end of its career, its name was changed to the USS Wolverine.  Why?  So the name Michigan could be given to the battleship USS Michigan (BB-27).

How'd You Do?  --Old Secesh

Col. William Robert Greer-- Part 2

Not only was William Robert Greer one of Fort Sumter's 1863 Defenders, but, he was captured at Fort Fisher on January 15, 1865 and held prisoner for the remainder of the war at Elmira, New York.

Of course, anything involving Fort Fisher immediately sparks my interest.

He was a private when captured at Fort Fisher, so the "Colonel' title must have been an honorary one.

--Old Secesh

Friends of Fort Fisher Attend Elmira (NY) Prison Dedication

From the July 2, 2017, Star Gazette  "Letters: Out of Town Praise for Elmira Civil War Camp" by Tom Fagart.

July 23-24, 2017, the Friends of Elmira Civil War Prison Camp in Elmira, New York, dedicated a restored original prison camp building and also held a memorial service in the Woodlawn National Cemetery, where many of the Confederate prisoners who died there are buried.

It was attended by a number of people from North Carolina and other Southern states, including eight members of the Friends of Fort Fisher.

Mr. Fagart is a member of the Friends of Elmira Prison Camp.

Elmira Prison existed from July 6, 1864, to July 11, 1865 and was dubbed "Hellmira" by the Confederate prisoners held there.  In just over 12 months, 2.970 of the 12,100 held there died of malnutrition, exposure to harsh weather, sanitary conditions, lack of medicine and disease.

Many of the dead were captured at Fort Fisher January 15, 1865.

--Old B-Runner

Elmira Museum Unveils Civil War Prison Camp Exhibit

From the August 12, 2014, Elmira (NY) Star Gazette.

The Chemung County Historical Society at 415 E. Water Street in Elmira, New York, has a new exhibit "So Far From Home: Life in Elmira's Confederate Prison Camp" which has opened.  It is the last in its four-part Chemung County Civil War Experience series.

Earlier in the war, Elmira had been a military recruiting depot where soldiers trained.  Later in the war, Elmira became a draft rendezvous and then a prison.

Just three granite markers showing the boundaries of the camp remain.  They were dedicated in 1900 by the Baldwin Post of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Two are still outside: Water Street and Hoffman Street (northeast corner), West Water Street east of Gould Street (northwest corner) and one is on display at the Chemung Valley Historical Museum.

You hear so much about the horrors of Confederate prisons, it is good to see that efforts are being made to bring the stories of Union ones to the public.  I understand there is a movement to do the same at Chicago's Camp Douglas.

--Old Secesh

Elmira Civil War Prison Building Arrives Home-- Part 2

Elmira Prison operated from July 6, 1864-July 11, 1865.  It was built to hold 5,000 Confederates and ended up with 12,121.

Many of the Confederates captured at Fort Fisher ended up here and died here.

Ron Stack, of North Carolina, had his great-great grandfather held prisoner there.  He has twelve letters sent by him.  He donated two of them and made copies of the other ten to the Friends of Elmira Prison.

The group also is working to gather material about the prison from other places.

When they were taking the building apart before being moved, they threw away modern nails, but kept the Civil War era rectangular ones and will sail them at a fundraiser.

They are also trying to acquire a 3-inch ordnance Griffin rifle cannon cast in 1863 at Phoenix Foundry, weighing 816 pounds.  They also are looking for a carriage for it.

--Old Secesh

Elmira Civil War Prison Camp Building Arrives Home-- Part 1

From the Sept. 12, 2014, Elmira (NY) Star-Gazette by Ray Finger.

It finally took a 5 mile journey, but years of planning and acquiring lumber from the only surviving building of the infamous Union Elmira Prison.

Volunteers unloaded, sorted and stacked the lumber behind the Elmira Water Board's pumping station on Winsor Avenue which at one time was part of the former prison camp.

The group Friends of Elmira Civil War Prison Camp were the ones who finished the project, moving the lumber from Big Flats.

The building will be reassembled and used as a museum/learning center.

--Old Secesh

Variances Sought for Elmira Civil War Prison Building

From the July 17, 2014, Elmira (NY) Star-Gazette by Ray Finger.

Zoning variances to allow the only surviving building at the former prison to be reconstructed are before the Chemung County Planning Board.  The parcel is zoned residential.

It will not be on the exact spot the building formerly was located.

There is speculation the building might have been used as a grainery, pharmacy, death house for storage of bodies (a lot of Confederates died there) until they could be picked up for burial at Woodlawn Cemetery.

--Old Secesh

Pennsylvania Tragic Train Wreck-- Part 2

Telegraph operator Douglas Kent left work at 9:30 AM and was never heard of or seen again amid rumors of being drunk.

Confederate and Union dead were buried quickly in shallow mass graves between the track and the Delaware River.  Confederates were four to a casket which were made from wreckage.  Individual coffins for the 17 Union dead arrived the next day.  A total of 48 Confederates died.

Confederate survivors were taken to Shohola and housed in railroad buildings and some of their injured were housed in local homes.  John and Michael Johnson were taken to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hickock, but died during the night.  The Hickock's decided on giving them a Christian burial and the Johnsons were taken across the Delaware River and buried at the Congregational Church in Barryville, New York.  The graves were unmarked so that the guards would be unable to find them.

The Hickocks were questioned by Union authorities, but never revealed the location.  Eventually, a single stone marker was erected and is still there.

Five Confederates escaped from the wreck and were never recaptured.

On January 11, 1911, soldiers and prisoners were disinterred and taken to the Elmira Woodlawn national Cemetery.  Their graves are marked by a single monument with two bronze plaques: one facing North for the Union soldiers and one facing South for the Confederates.

A little-Known Story of the War.  --Old Secesh

Pennsylvania Tragic Prisoner Train Wreck-- Part 1

From the July 15, 2011, Pocono (Pa) Record "Prisoner train wreck during the Civil War near Shohola recalled as tragedy for both sides" by John Punola.

The Elmira, NY induction center had been converted into a prison for Confederates.

Confederate prisoners captured at the Battle of Cold Harbor, mostly recruits, were sent by train to Jersey City, NJ and transferred to the Erie RR destined for Port Jervis, NY, and a final destination of Elmira.

They arrived at Port Jervis July 15, 1864 on locomotive No. 171, following the West 23 Train as an extra.  The train consisted of a mixture of passenger and freight cars, a locomotive, caboose, a Union guard detail and the prisoners.

They were running along a single track at 20 mph and had warning flags for other trains to give the right of way.  There were sharp curves along the Delaware River.  At Lackawaxen, a station where a branch railroad connected, the telegraph operator, Douglas Kent, noted that West 23 had flags showing that there was a train behind it.

At 2:30 PM, coal train Erie 237 arrived at the junction pulling 50 cars of coal.  Kent mistakenly gave the all clear sign, turned the switch and the coal train headed east.  The prisoner train and 237 collided at King & Fuller's Cut, a blind curve.

A Calamity.  --Old Secesh

Looking Back: 1911

From the March 1st Wilmington (NC) Star News Looking back Column where newspapers from 100 and 50 years ago are examined for news.

Death of a Fort Fisher Veteran

Feb. 28, 1911.

Henry Vines of Newberlin (NC) in Columbus County died at age 68. He was 24 when the war broke out and left his young wife to enlist in Co. G 36th North Carolina Infantry.

he was captured at the Second Battle of Fort Fisher and sent to Elmira Prison in New York where he, along with other Fort Fisher defenders suffered terrible hardships. There, he had both legs amputated at the knees for frostbite.

His family had not heard from him in months at the war's closing and had given him up for dead when fellow Fort Fisher veteran Edward Wells spotted him in Wilmington and he was reunited with his family in Newberlin (which is in the Delco area).

The area is now called New Berlin and is a short distance northwest of Wilmington.

One More Fisher Vet. --Old B-Runner

New Fort Fisher Book-- Part 3

Continued from November 10th.

Conditions at Elmira were horrible. Of 12,000 Confederates incarcerated there, 2,000 died. Of the 1,100 from Fort Fisher, 518 died, many buried in the Woodlawn National Cemetery.

Triebe said he was inspired by reading a letter home from captured Private Benjamin Kinlaw that was reprinted in a January 1865 Wilmington Daily News. He wanted to know if Kinlaw made it home. Unfortunately, the Bladen County farmer of the 3rd NC Artillery did not, dying of chronic diarrhea on April 16, 1865, just days after Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

Many a Tarheel soldier died of this as well as pneumonia, smallpox (or variola as it was often called in the records), measles, "periocarditis" and "remittant fever."

The book was compiled mostly from diaries and letters.

Richard Triebe argues that Elmira was used as a "retaliatory camp" because of the horrible conditions at Confederate prisons. The death rates at Elmira were twice that of most other Union camps. Point Lookout, Maryland had a 6.8% death rate.

One excellent source that Triebe provides is his list of the Confederate prisoners at Elmira including their name, rank, age if known, hometown, occupation if known, unit and ultimate fate.

Some were exchanged and most took the Oath of Allegiance after the Confederate surrender.

The book can be ordered through Amazon or in local bookstores

Looks Like a Good One. --Old B-Runner

New Fort Fisher Book-- Part 2

What is really good about this book is that it follows the lives of Confederate soldiers captured at Fort Fisher. There are lots of accounts of the battles and now, even books. I can think of three involved with the fort since Gragg's work in the 1980s. At one time, I had thought about writing a book on it, but now I don't have to, which, because of my paltry writing abilities is a good thing.

Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, I stockpiled information for the book project and have about ten notebooks of material, which I may put in this blog in the future.

But, here, is a book of a different sort.

And, if nothing else, with all the Confederate bashing leveled at Andersonville and other southern prisons, it is good to show that northern ones weren't any better and I have to believe they could have been as the north wasn't suffering from lack of supplies like the south.

And, there is always "Hellmira"'s western annex at Chicago's Camp Douglas, or "Eighty Acres of Hell" as it was called.

Remember, the Winners get to Write the History Books. --Old B-Runner

New Fort Fisher Book-- Part 1

From the November 9th Wilmington (NC) Star-News Bookmarks column by Ben Steelman.

Author Richard H. Triebe has a new book out dealing with Confederate prisoners captured at the Battle of Fort Fisher January 15, 1865 titles "Fort Fisher to Elmira: The Fateful Journey of 518 Confederate Soldiers" by Coastal Books, paperback available on Amazon and soon local bookstores for $24.99.

He is also author of the Civil War novel"On a Rising Tide" and the pirate fiction "Port Royal."

The new book is based on what happened to 1,100 Confederate soldiers who, after capture, were shipped to Elmira prison camp in Elmira, New York, a camp that earned the nickname "Hellmira" from the inmates for the horrible conditions and treatment they received.

The town of Elmira was mostly a pastoral community in the 1800s. Mark twain made his home there after the war and wrote many of his best works from the place. His beloved wife Olivia was from there.

Elmira was originally built for Union soldiers in transit and the barracks were inadequate and poorly built. The buildings provided little protection from the winter of '64-'65 which turned out to be one of the coldest on record.

The prison camp opened in the summer of 1864 and soon became severely overcrowded reaching a peak of 12,000. And the prisoners in the barracks had it much better off than the ones housed in tents. To make matters worse, on St. Patrick's Day 1865, the Chemnung River flooded, depositing two feet of water in the tents and barracks.

More to Come. --Old B-Runner