Immortal Captives : 600 Confederate Officers and US PoW Policy by Joslyn : HC/DJ for Sale

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Immortal Captives : 600 Confederate Officers and US PoW Policy by Joslyn : HC/DJ For Sale

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Immortal Captives : 600 Confederate Officers and US PoW Policy by Joslyn : HC/DJ:
$24.00

IMMORTAL align=\"center\">The Story of Six Hundred Confederate Officers
and the
United States Prisoner of War Policy

1996 - First : Hardcover - Fine, unused / new condition.
New \"old stock\" - book is like new, but DJ has light wear.(purchased from a distributor who was downsizing retail pages, illustrations (maps / portraits) and indexed.

(((Review originally published in the December 2008 issue of CivilWar Times.)))

The horrors faced by Union prisoners of war have been thefocus of several Civil War studies, but fewer books have have been devoted tothe plight of their often-abused and neglected Confederate contemporaries whowere detained in Union prisons.

Immortal Captives, by Mauriel P. Joslyn, tells thechilling story of a chosen group of 600 Rebel POWs who, during the long Unionsiege of Charleston, S.C., were literally used as “human shields” by Federalsoldiers against the counter-bombardent of the Confederate batteries positionednear Morris Island.

The 600 men—all officers—were sequestered in an 11⁄2-acreopen stockade in the flight path of the Rebel batteries. Joslyn judiciouslyexcerpts the officers’ letters and diaries to provide insight into their mentalstate during this tragic episode. Injuries to the prisoners from the actualshelling were apparently minimal, but Joslyn reveals that the officers had muchmore to worry about than “friendly fire” from Rebel batteries.

Along with an ample supply of good photographs, ImmortalCaptives incorporates several appendices that should prove especiallyhelpful to genealogists and researchers. Appendix D is a list of those amongthe “Immortal 600” who died while in captivity, and Appendix F is an alphabeticroster of the prisoners.

Very, very well organized work !
Quoted material is indexed in the margins, so you can follow which men are quoted very easily.
Many portraits, a few maps, and an index.

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In June 1864, the Confederate Army imprisoned five generalsand forty-five Union Army officers in the city of Charleston, South Carolina,using them as human shields in an attempt to stop Union artillery from firingon the city. In retaliation, United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stantonordered fifty captured Confederate officers, of similar ranks, to be taken toMorris Island, South Carolina, at the entrance to Charleston Harbor. TheConfederates were landed on Morris Island late in July of that year.

The Confederates had originally contended that Charlestonshould not be shelled. The correspondence between Major General John G. Foster,commanding the Federal Department of the South, and Major General Samuel Jones,commanding the Confederate Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida,indicates the Confederates subsequently accepted the military nature ofCharleston as a target. Soon the correspondence turned to an exchange of thesehigh-ranking prisoners.

Instructions from the War Department reached Foster in lateJuly, and he coordinated an exchange of the fifty prisoners on July 29.Exchange of the fifty officers actually took place on August 4, 1864. However,at that time Jones brought 600 additional prisoners to Charleston, in part topress for a larger prisoner exchange. In retaliation for the treatment ofFederal prisoners, Foster asked for a like number of Confederate prisoners tobe placed on Morris Island. These men became known in the South as the ImmortalSix Hundred.

At one point General Foster planned an exchange of the sixhundred, but General Ulysses S. Grant, who had previously terminated allprisoner of war exchanges due to Confederate mistreatment of captured UnitedStates Colored Troops, wrote, \"In no circumstances will he be allowed tomake exchanges of prisoners of war .\" \"It is hard on our men held inSouthern prisons not to exchange them, but it is humanity to those left in theranks to fight our battles. Every man we hold, when released on parole orotherwise, becomes an active soldier against us at once either directly orindirectly. If we commence a system of exchange which liberates all prisonerstaken, we will have to fight on until the whole South is exterminated. If wehold those caught they amount to no more than dead men. At this particular timeto release all rebel prisoners North would insure Sherman\'s defeat and wouldcompromise our safety here.\" – General Ulysses S. Grant, August 18, 1864.

The Confederate prisoners did not arrive on Morris Islanduntil the first week of September 1864. During the first week of October 1864,Jones (under orders from Lieutenant General William J. Hardee) removed theFederal prisoners from Charleston. Foster removed the Confederate prisoners fromMorris 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 starvationrations issued as retaliation for the conditions found by the Union at theConfederate prisons in Andersonville in Georgia and at Salisbury Prison inNorth Carolina.

Upon an outbreak of yellow fever in Charleston, the Unionofficers were removed from the city limits. In response the Union Army transferredthe Immortal Six Hundred to Fort Pulaski outside of Savannah.

There they werecrowded into the fort’s cold, damp casemates. For 42 days, a \"retaliationration\" of 10 ounces (280 g) of moldy cornmeal and 1⁄2 US pint (0.24 l;0.42 imp pt) of soured onion pickles was the only food issued to the prisoners.The starving men were reduced to supplementing their rations with theoccasional rat or stray cat. Thirteen men died there of diseases such asdysentery and scurvy.

At Fort Pulaski, the prisoners organized \"The ReliefAssociation of Fort Pulaski for Aid and Relief of the Sick and Less FortunatePrisoners\" on December 13, 1864. Col. Abram Fulkerson of the 63rdTennessee Infantry Regiment was elected president. Out of their sparse funds,the prisoners collected and expended eleven dollars, according to a reportfiled by Fulkerson on December 28, 1864.

Five more of the Immortal Six Hundred later died at HiltonHead Island, South Carolina. The remaining prisoners were returned to FortDelaware on March 12, 1865, where another twenty-five died.

A notable escape effort was led by Captain Henry Dickinsonof the 2nd Virginia Cavalry. 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 GeorgeWoolfolk, to try to escape from the gunboat. However, the effort failed whenthe captain of the ship, noticing that one of the 13 men was missing, led theprisoners to the brig below the deck of the ship.

The prisoners became known throughout the South for theirrefusal to take the Oath of Allegiance under duress. Pro-ConfederateSoutherners have long lauded their refusal as honorable and principled.