It is the principal city of the Elmira, New York, metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses Chemung County.

The city was the site of the Elmira Prison, a prisoner-of-war camp that held over 12,000 captured Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War.

The region of Elmira was inhabited by the Cayuga nation (also known as the Kanawaholla) of the Haudenosaunee prior to European colonization.

[5] During the American Revolutionary War, the Sullivan Expedition of 1779 was mounted by the Continental Army against the four Haudenosaunee nations which had allied with the British.

[6] After the conclusion of the war, the Haudenosaunee and the United States signed a treaty at Elmira in 1791 to settle territorial disputes in the region.

[7] Most of the Cayuga emigrated under pressure from encroaching American settlements with the other nations of the Haudenosaunee to Canada, where they resettled on land provided by the British Crown.

[citation needed] The first European-American settler in Elmira was Abraham Miller, who served as a captain in the Continental Army.

It is said the town was named after tavern owner Nathan Teal's young daughter, but that story has never been confirmed.

The remaining part of the town of Elmira exists still, surrounding the city on the west, north and east.

These railroads and their connections made the city a prime location for an Army training and muster point early in the Civil War.

In 1872 construction began on the Utica, Ithaca and Elmira Railroad, eventually creating a route to Cortland and Syracuse via Horseheads, Breesport and Van Etten.

Towner's history of 1892 [11] and maps from the period indicate the camp occupied a somewhat irregular parallelogram, running about 1,000 feet (300 m) west and approximately the same distance south of a location several hundred feet west of Hoffman Street (Foster Avenue) and Winsor Avenue, bordered on the south by Foster's Pond, on the north bank of the Chemung River.

In the months the site was used as a camp, 12,123 Confederate soldiers were incarcerated; of these, 2,963 died during their stay from a combination of malnutrition, prolonged exposure to brutal winter weather and disease directly attributable to the dismal sanitary conditions on Foster's Pond and lack of medical care.

The camp's dead were prepared for burial and laid to rest by the sexton at Woodlawn National Cemetery, ex-slave John W. Jones.

It opened in 1876 as the Elmira Reformatory, under the direction of Zebulon Brockway, serving offenders aged sixteen to thirty.

Anchor Glass is now wholly owned by the Ardagh Group S.A.[14] CAF-USA Inc[15] has its main U.S. plant in Elmira Heights on the site of the former American Bridge Company.

Hilliard Corporation,[23] established in 1905, has two locations in Elmira and serves the international market in filters, brakes, clutches and starters for a variety of industrial and commercial uses as well as consumer equipment from Polaris and MTD.

[24] Kennedy Valve,[25] located in Elmira since 1905, is one of the world's largest manufacturers of products for waterworks distribution, potable and wastewater treatment, and fire protection system projects.

During the summer of 1972, Hurricane Agnes struck the eastern seaboard of the United States, causing significant damage stretching from Florida into New England.

With a select group of businessmen and city officials attempting to minimize public input, the UDC implemented the "New Elmira Plan".

[32] On July 26, 2012, an EF1 tornado touched down near Cottage Drive off of Route 352 and traveled through Golden Glow and the rest of the city.

New York State Route 13 begins near Lake Ontario and travels through Cortland and Ithaca before ending in Elmira.

New York State Route 352 begins in Elmira at Exit 56 of the Southern Tier Expressway and continues West into Corning.

The Elmira MSA was ranked as the 59th safest place to live out of 344 Metro Areas in 2005 by Morgan Quitno Press.

The Chemung County Transit System operates regularly scheduled fixed route service within the City of Elmira and Village of Horseheads.

It is featured on an Entrance sign erected in 2003 into the city from Exit 56 of the Southern Tier Expressway along with honored Elmirans including (L to R) Brian Williams, Hal Roach, Ernie Davis, Mark Twain, Eileen Collins, John Jones, and Tommy Hilfiger.

[46] On at least two hilltops near the city (mostly on Harris Hill to the northwest) pioneer pilots established the sport of gliding in America.