Immortal Six Hundred



In 1864, the Confederate Army imprisoned 50 Union Army officers as human shields against federal artillery in the city of Charleston, South Carolina, in an attempt to stop Union artillery from firing upon civilians in the city. In retaliation, United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton ordered six hundred captured Confederate officers to be taken to Morris Island, South Carolina, at the entrance to Charleston Harbor and used as human shields for forty-five days in an attempt to silence the Confederate gunners manning Fort Sumter. 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 it was stopped by General Grant who had previously terminated all prisoner of war exchanges and wrote, "In no circumstances will he be allowed to make exchanges of prisoners of war."

Three of the six hundred died from subsistence on starvation rations issued as retaliation for the conditions found by the Union at the prisons in Andersonville, Georgia, and Salisbury, North Carolina.

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 outside of Savannah.

There they were crowded into the fort’s cold, damp casemates. For 42 days, a "retaliation ration" of ten ounces of moldy cornmeal and half a pint 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.

Five later died at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The remaining prisoners were returned to Fort Delaware on March 12, 1865, where another twenty-five died.

A notable escape effort was led by Captain Henry Dickinson of the 2nd Virginia Calvary. On the prisoner's journey to Fort Delaware, Dickinson organized a group of thirteen officers, including Colonel Paul F. DeGournay of the 12th Battalion, Louisiana Artillery and Colonel George Woolfolk, to try to escape from the gunboat. However, the effort failed when the captain of the ship noticed one of the 13 men was missing, leading the prisoners to the brig below the deck of the ship.

The prisoners became known throughout the South for their refusal to take the Oath of Allegiance under adverse circumstances. Southerners have long lauded their refusal as honorable and principled.