Wikipedia

Immortal Six Hundred: Difference between revisions

Browse history interactively
← Previous edit
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Bluelink 1 book for verifiability.) #IABot (v2.0) (GreenC bot
Remove link to dab page Henry Dickinson using popups
 
(35 intermediate revisions by 18 users not shown)
Line 1:
{{Short description|Event in the American Civil War}}
The '''Immortal Six Hundred''' were 600 [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] officers who were held prisoner by the [[Union Army]] in 1864-65. They were intentionally starved and 46 died as a result. They are known as the "Immortal Six Hundred" because they refused to take an [[oath of allegiance]] to the U.S. under duress.
[[File:Immortal Six Hundred memorial, Fort Pulaski, GA, US.jpg|right|thumb|Monument to the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] "Immortal Six Hundred" at [[Fort Pulaski National Monument]] in [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]]]▼
 
The '''Immortal Six Hundred''' were 600 [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] officers who were held prisoner by the [[Union Army]] in 1864–65.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/fopu/learn/historyculture/the-immortal-six-hundred.htm|title=The Immortal Six Hundred |publisher=[[National Park Service]] |access-date=November 6, 2021}}</ref> In the summer of 1863, the Confederacy passed a resolution stating all captured African-American soldiers and the officers of colored troops would not be returned. The resolution also allowed for any captured officer of colored troops to be executed and any captured African-American soldier be sold into slavery. The resolution caused a breakdown in the exchange of captured soldiers as the Union demanded all soldiers be treated equally. The Immortal Six Hundred were one group of officers who could not be exchanged.
 
==History==
▲[[File:Immortal Six Hundred memorial, Fort Pulaski, GA, US.jpg|right|thumb|Monument to the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] "Immortal Six Hundred" at [[Fort Pulaski National Monument]] in [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]]]
[[File:Fort Pulaski, Georgia, USA Southwest Magazine Sign.JPG|right|thumb|Sign on a room where Confederate soldiers were confined at [[Fort Pulaski]]]]
[[File:Immortal six hundred memorial, back, Fort Pulaski, GA, US.jpg|thumb|Back of the memorial]]
[[File:Immortal 600 highway.jpg|thumb|Highway sign on [[U.S. Route 80 in Georgia|U.S. Route 80]] ]]
 
In June 1864, the [[Confederate States Army|Confederate Army]] imprisoned five generals and forty-five [[Union Army]] officers in the city of [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]], [[South Carolina]], using them as [[human shield]]s in an attempt to stop Union artillery from firing on the city.<ref name="historynet">[http{{Cite web|url=https://www.historynet.com/immortal-600-prisoners-under-fire-at-charleston-harbor-during-the-american-civil-war.htm/3|title=Immortal Historynet600: ImmortalPrisoners 600]Under Fire at Charleston Harbor During the American Civil War|date=June 12, 2006|website=HistoryNet}}</ref> In retaliation, [[United States Secretary of War]] [[Edwin M. Stanton]] ordered fifty captured Confederate officers, of similar ranks, to be taken to [[Morris Island]], South Carolina, at the entrance to Charleston Harbor. The Confederates were landed on Morris Island late in July of that year.
 
The Confederates had originally contended that Charleston should not be shelled. The correspondence between Major General [[John G. Foster]], commanding the Federal [[Department of the South]], and Major General [[Sam Jones (Confederate Army officer)|Samuel Jones]], commanding the Confederate Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, indicates the Confederates subsequently accepted the military nature of Charleston as a target. Soon the correspondence turned to an exchange of these high-ranking prisoners.<ref>Correspondence between Foster and Jones. Source: Official Records, Ser I, Vol.XXXV, Pt.2, 132, 134, 143, and 174-5.</ref>
Line 12 ⟶ 15:
Instructions from the War Department reached Foster in late July, and he coordinated an exchange of the fifty prisoners on July 29. Exchange of the fifty officers actually took place on August 4, 1864.<ref>Correspondence between Foster and Jones. Source: Official Records, Ser I, Vol.XXXV, Pt.2, 198.</ref> However, at that time Jones brought 600 additional prisoners to Charleston, in part to press for a larger prisoner exchange. In retaliation for the treatment of Federal prisoners, Foster asked for a like number of Confederate prisoners to be placed on Morris Island. These men became known in the South as the Immortal Six Hundred.
 
At one point General Foster planned an exchange of the six hundred, but General [[Ulysses S. Grant]] refused, whofollowing hadOrder previously252 terminatedwhich allstated prisoner of warno exchanges duewould tooccur Confederateuntil mistreatmentthe ofConfederacy capturedagreed [[Unitedto Statestreat Coloredboth Troops]],<ref>Forblack example,and sectionwhite 7prisoners of war equally.<ref>{{Citecite web|author=Congress of the Confederate States of America|url=httphttps://deadconfederateswww.nps.comgov/2014ande/04learn/15historyculture/understanding-fort-pillow-fullgrant-and-amplethe-retaliation/prisoner-exchange.htm |title=MayMyth: 1,Grant 1863Stopped [No.the 5.]Prisoner –of JointWar ResolutionExchange on|publisher=[[National thePark SubjectService]] of Retaliation|access-date=MayMarch 128, 18632021 |accessdatedate=OctoberNovember 1327, 20162017 }}</ref> Grant wrote, "In no circumstances will he be allowed to make exchanges of prisoners of war ."<ref>General Grant to Secretary of War Stanton, regarding General Foster's planned exchange of the 600 Confederate officers for 600 Yankee prisoners of war. Source: Official Records, Ser I, Vol.XXXV, Pt.2, 254.</ref>
"It is hard on our men held in Southern prisons not to exchange them, but it is humanity to those left in the ranks to fight our battles. Every man we hold, when released on parole or otherwise, becomes an active soldier against us at once either directly or indirectly. If we commence a system of exchange which liberates all prisoners taken, we will have to fight on until the whole South is exterminated. If we hold those caught they amount to no more than dead men. At this particular time to release all rebel prisoners North would insure Sherman's defeat and would compromise our safety here." – General Ulysses S. Grant, August 18, 1864.
 
The Confederate prisoners did not arrive on Morris Island until the first week of September 1864. During the first week of October 1864, Jones (under orders from Lieutenant General [[William J. Hardee]]) removed the Federal prisoners from Charleston. Foster removed the Confederate prisoners from Morris Island only after being informed officially of the Federal prisoners' status. At that time the Immortal 600 were moved to Fort Pulaski.
 
Three of the six hundred died from subsistence on starvation rations issued as retaliation for the conditions found by the Union at the Confederate prisons in [[Andersonville National Historic Site|Andersonville]] in [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] and at [[Salisbury Prison]] in [[North Carolina]].<ref name="i600">{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/fopu/parknews/immortal-600-living-history-event.htm |title=Fort Pulaski National Monument: Immortal 600 Living History Event |publisher=[[National Park Service]] |accessdateaccess-date=April 4, 2009-04-20 |date=2007-02-February 17, 2007 }}</ref>
 
Upon an outbreak of [[yellow fever]] in Charleston, the Union officers were removed from the city limits. In response the Union Army transferred the Immortal Six Hundred to [[Fort Pulaski National Monument|Fort Pulaski]] outside of Savannah.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/fopu/historyculture/the-immortal-six-hundred.htm |title=Fort Pulaski National Monument |publisher=National Park Service |accessdateaccess-date=2008-07-16 }}</ref>
 
There they were crowded into the fort’s cold, damp [[casemate]]s. For 42 days, a "retaliation ration" of {{convert|10|oz}} of moldy [[cornmeal]] and {{convert|1/2|USpt}} of soured onion pickles was the only food issued to the prisoners. The starving men were reduced to supplementing their rations with the occasional rat or stray cat. Thirteen men died there of diseases such as [[dysentery]] and [[scurvy]].▼
[[File:The southeast wall of Fort Pulaski used as a prison during the American Civil War.jpg|thumb|The southeast wall of [[Fort Pulaski National Monument|Fort Pulaski]]]]
▲There they were crowded into the fort’s cold, damp [[casemate]]s. For 42 days, a "retaliation ration" of {{convert|10|oz}} of moldy [[cornmeal]] and {{convert|1/2|USpt}} of soured onion pickles was the only food issued to the prisoners. The starving men were reduced to supplementing their rations with the occasional rat or stray cat. Thirteen men died there of diseases such as [[dysentery]] and [[scurvy]].
 
At Fort Pulaski, the prisoners organized "The Relief Association of Fort Pulaski for Aid and Relief of the Sick and Less Fortunate Prisoners" on December 13, 1864. Col. [[Abram Fulkerson]] of the 63rd Tennessee Infantry Regiment was elected president. Out of their sparse funds, the prisoners collected and expended eleven dollars, according to a report filed by Fulkerson on December 28, 1864.
Line 28 ⟶ 29:
Five more of the Immortal Six Hundred later died at [[Hilton Head Island, South Carolina|Hilton Head Island]], South Carolina. The remaining prisoners were returned to [[Fort Delaware]] on March 12, 1865, where another twenty-five died.<ref name="i600"/>
 
A notable escape effort was led by Captain [[Henry Dickinson]] of the [[2nd Virginia Cavalry]]. On the prisonerprisoners's journey to Fort Delaware, Dickinson organized a group of thirteen officers, including Colonel Paul F. DeGournay of the 12th Battalion, Louisiana Artillery<ref>"Foreigners in the Confederacy" - Ella Lonn. 2002. UNC Press Books.</ref> and Colonel George Woolfolk, to try to escape from the gunboat. However, the effort failed when the captain of the ship, noticing that one of the 13 men was missing, led the prisoners to the brig below the deck of the ship.<ref>"Immortal Captives: The Story of 600 Confederate Officers and the United States Prisoner of War Policy" - Mauriel Joslyn. 2008. Pelican Publishing.</ref>
 
The prisoners became known throughout the South for their refusal to take the [[Loyalty oath#Civil War and Reconstruction|Oath of Allegiance]] under duress.<ref name="i600"/> Pro-ConfederateSoutherner Southernersapologists and those who believe in the [[Lost Cause of the Confederacy|Lost Cause]] have long lauded their refusal as honorable and principled.{{cn|date<ref name=October"i600" 2018}}/>
 
==References==
Line 37 ⟶ 38:
===Further reading===
* ''[[Confederate Veteran]] Magazine'', July 1909, Page 68
*{{cite book |last=Murray |first=Major John Ogden |title=The immortal six hundred: A Story of Cruelty to Confederate Prisoners of War |publisher=The Stone Printing and Manufacturing Company |year=1911 |location=Roanoke, VA |pages= | url=https://archive.org/details/immortalsixhundr01murr }}
* Joslyn, Mauriel Phillips. ''Immortal Captives: The Story of 600 Confederate Officers and the U.S. Prisoner of War Policy.'', White Mane Publishing, 1996.
* Stokes, Karen. ''The Immortal 600: Surviving Civil War Charleston and Savannah'', History Press, 2013.
Line 50 ⟶ 51:
 
[[Category:Confederate States Army soldiers]]
[[Category:American Civil War prisoners of war held by the United States]]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortal_Six_Hundred"