Elmira Prison Camp OnLine Library –

A member of the 16th US Vet. Reserve Corps, Lt. Col. Stephen Moore was stationed at Elmira under Col. Tracy and was assigned there on October 1, 1864. Moore was the camp's executive officer and eventual successor of Major Henry Colt. Moore was the son of a military officer and had served in the 3rd New Jersey before Elmira.

Moore was involved in one of Tracy's more controversial decisions while running the camp, Special Order No. 336: a beef inspection that took place in October, 1864. The order allowed Moore and Major Henry V. Colt to inspect meat in the camp and dispose of it if they did not feel it was fit for use. This was done at a time when beef rations had already been reduced by 20 percent in the camp and the camp store was not allowed to sell meat to the prisoners. Once Moore and Colt had rejected the beef, it was sold to local shops and then to citizens in Elmira. The decision to reject the beef and then to sell it to the town made the order by Tracy (which was approved by General Hoffman in Washington) seem overly vindictive. This decision was again challenged in 1878 when General Alexander S. Diven noted in a letter to the New York Times, that he had remarked to Tracy that the beef being rejected was of "such as I would often have been glad to have had for myself and my command." It was the amount of food in the camp that was a source of contention for Tracy and Moore. While reports from prisoners state that the camp food was not fit, outside sources such as the Elmira Advertiser and Dorothea Dix showed just the opposite.

Moore also took part in an inspection of the camp that was aimed at inspecting and processing prisoners for exchange.

Moore was in charge of the camp at it's closing and reported the final figures of the camp: 2,933 dead in the camp, included 24 civilians who died in the camp, and seven unknown Confederates. A final total of 2,950 included 17 Confederate deaths in Elmira's Union hospital who died after the war.

After the war, Moore retired to Wellsville, NY, managing and owning several summer resorts in New York State's Finger Lakes area.