Eli S.
Glover
Pvt. Co. F 1st Regiment Alabama Calvary
My great-great-grandfather
Eli S.Glover joined the 27th Alabama Volunteers August 21, 1863 in Henry County, Al. and then transferred to Co. F 1st Regiment Alabama Cavalry. Eli was captured at Fort Morgan, Alabama on August 23, 1864. He was took to New Orleans, La. and was put aboard a ship bound for New York City on Sept. 27, 1864. When he arrived in New York City he was put aboard a train for Elmira "Hellmira", NY. He was received at Elmira "Hellmira" on Oct. 8, 1864. Eli died in Elmira "Hellmira" on Feb. 16, 1865, and the report says he died from Chronic Bronchitis and his belongings were buried with him. He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery at Elmira "Hellmira" grave number 2215, records at the National Archives indicated that he was in grave number 2220 but the cemetery said the correct grave site is 2215. The cemetery is now a National Cemetery. It is written upon the paper in the log book that Eli S. Glover died of Chronic Bronchitis, the truth is the prisoners of Elmira "Hellmira" were starved, poisoned, deprived of proper medical treatment and murdered. Click here to go to prison conditions
1st Alabama Artillery Battalion
The 1st Alabama Artillery Battalion, Companies
"A"-"F", was recruited in Mobile, Montgomery, Selma, and Eufaula, part
of the "Army of Alabama," and it was organized about the 1st of February 1861,
at Fort Morgan. In the spring, the command was transferred to the Confederate government
as "regulars". Stationed at Fort Morgan and its dependencies, the battalion
attained a high degree of discipline, insomuch that Union Gen'l Granger pronounced it the
most perfect body of either army. Detachments of it manned the heavy artillery at Forts
Gaines and Powell and rendered effective service. During the terrific bombardment of Fort
Morgan, August, 1864, the battalion, "moved by no weak fears," handled the guns
until they were all knocked out of position, losing 150 k and w of about 500 engaged. The
men were taken to Elmira, New York, where fully half died of smallpox (officers were taken
to Fort Warren.) A small detachment, not captured, continued the fight at Spanish Fort and
Fort Blakely. A small number moved to Choctaw Bluff in March 1865 and were included in the
surrender of the Dept. of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana.
Field and staff officers: Lt. Cols. Robert C. Forsyth (Mobile; resigned); James T. Gee
(Dallas; captured, Fort Morgan); Majors S. S. Tucker (Vermont; died in service); James T.
Gee (promoted); J. M. Cary (Barbour; captured, Fort Morgan).
Armaments: Co. "A", two 6-lb. Smoothbores (on 31 Oct 1861)
Elmira "Hellmira" Prison
Almost 25 percent of the 12,123 Confederate soldiers who entered the 40 acre prisoner of war camp at Elmira, N. Y. died. This death rate was more than double the average death rate in other Northern prison camps, and only 2 percent less than the death rare at infamous Southern prison at Andersonville, Ga. The deaths at Elmira were caused by diseases brought on by terrible living conditions and starvation, conditions deliberately caused by the vindictive U. S. commissary-general of prisons, Col. William Hoffman. The conditions were inexcusable; the North had more than enough food and materials for its armies, population, and prisoners.
A stockade was built around an unused Union army training camp to create Elmira "Hellmira" Prison in June 1864. The prison contained 35 barracks and was intended to house as many as 5,000 prisoners. On July 6 the first 400 arrived, and by the end of the month there were more than 4,400 prisoners, with more on the way. By the end of August almost 10,000 men were confined there, many of them sleeping in the open in tattered clothes and without blankets.
On August 18, in retaliation for the conditions in Southern prison camps, Colonel Hoffman ordered that rations for the prisoners be reduced to bread and water. The over crowded conditions ensured that any disease introduced to the malnourished population would spread rapidly. Without meat and vegetables, the prisoners quickly succumbed to scurvy, with 1, 870 cased reported by September 11. The scurvy was followed by an epidemic of diarrhea, then pneumonia and smallpox. By the end of the year, 1,264 prisoners had died, and survivors had nicknamed the prison "Hellmira". The winter was bitterly cold, but when Southern families sent clothes for the prisoners, Hoffman would allow only items that were gray to be distributed. Clothes in other color were burned while the sons and husbands for whom they were intended literally froze to death. By the end of the war, 2,973 Elmira prisoners had died.
Before resigning to avoid court martial for his criminal treatment of sick prisoners, the chief surgeon at Elmira was overheard to boast that he had killed more Rebs than any Union soldier.
The Elmira Article was written by Stephen T. Foster
There is no movie of the war crimes committed at Elmira, only those of us, that our grandfathers, uncles and cousins, died at the hands of criminals in Northern POW camps have risen to speak out and let the stilled voices of "Hellmira" be heard.
Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand and the sound of a voice that's still
Photo of Prisoners made to wear barrel's at Elmira Prison as punishment..
Photo from The National Archives, Washington, DC
To learn more about the murder, starvation and other war crimes that our Southron soldiers were subjected to just click on the links below.
Elmira Prison Camp OnLine Library National Cemetery System, Dept of Veterans Affairs
Elmira living history Civil War Prison Elmira Civil War Prisons
Civil War Prison Point Lookout The Civil War Center Prison Links
Historical info is from the Civil War Center a must site for all researchers
Newton J. Glover
Confederate Page
Nathan O'Neal Glover
