STORY OF THE SIX HUNDRED, BY HENRY HOWE COOK.
(Fourth and Last Part.)
Since I began to write this story I have been asked why the six hundred were put under fire on Morris Island off Charleston and why we were starved in such a cruel manner. In this last part I will, perhaps, be able to give some of the reasons assigned for this cruel treatment. I will also in this part of my story substantiate many things that I have heretofore stated by the testimony of others.
On the 13th of June, 1864, Maj.-Gen. Sam Jones—commanding the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, with headquarters at Charleston—addressed a letter to Maj.-Gen. J. G. Foster, commanding United States forces on the coast of South Carolina, of which the following is a copy:
"General: Five generals and forty-five field officers — of the United States army, all of them prisoners of war, have been sent to this city for safe-keeping. They — have been turned over to Brig-Gen. Ripley, commanding the First Military District of this department, who will see that they are provided with commodious quarters in a part of the city occupied by non-combatants, ~ the majority of whom are women and children. It is proper that I should inform you that it is a part of the — city which has been for many months exposed day and night to the fire of your guns."
Gen. Foster wrote to Gen. Halleck, on receipt of this letter, enclosing a copy of it, which resulted in an or- — der sending six hundred Confederate officers, who were prisoners of war at Fort Delaware, to be placed under fire on Morris Island. I think it was on the — 2oth of August, 1864, that the six hundred Confederate officers were selected and placed aboard the ship ~ "Crescent" at Fort Delaware, and it was sent under the warship "Eutah" as a convoy. About four o'clock on the morning of the third day out we were ordered on deck to assist in getting the ship afloat. She was aground near Cape Romain, off the South Carolina coast.
I have heretofore given a detailed statement of what took place up to the time we were landed on Morris Island, and I have also stated rather fully of how we were treated upon Morris' Island. Our daily meals there were as follows: In the morning we were given two moldy crackers and two ounces of boiled pickled ~ meat. About four o'clock in the afternoon we were given two moldy crackers and a gill of bean soup This was our daily ration. Col. W. W. Goldsboro who wrote an article on this subject several years ago, makes this statement: "... When he brought around the first of our two daily meals, which consist ed of two moldy crackers, two ounces of salt meat, and a gill of bean soup." This statement of Co Goldsboro perhaps needs some explanation. I think my account is correct. The gill of bean soup and two moldy crackers were given at four o'clock in the after. noon. Two moldy crackers and two ounces of pickle meat were given in the morning about seven or eigh' o'clock.
T have previously made a full statement of how we were fed at Fort Pulaski, but my statement, as I nov remember, is not strictly correct. For more that forty days at Fort Pulaski we received as a daily mea
one pint, or about ten ounces, of corn-meal and one pickle. The corn-meal was near three years old. We could not eat the pickle at all. Hence the rotten cornmeal was the whole ration. In my previous statement, in addition to this, I put in one-fourth pound of bread. This is not correct. I got the one-fourth pound of bread mixed up with the mode of feeding at a previous time.
Col. Fulkerson, of the Sixty-Third Regiment, gives a very correct account of this matter in his written statement, which I here quote:
"Fort Pulaski formed a portion of Gen. Gilmore's department, but was under the immediate command _ of Col. Brown, of New York, and was garrisoned by i his regiment of infantry, which had seen service in the field. Col. Brown was not only an accomplished and
man. Soon after our arrival he visited the fort and made a personal inspection of our quarters, and told us that he intended to make that prison the best one in the United States; that some of his regiment had been prisoners in the South, and were treated with kindness, and that others, including himself, might be captured, and in that event he would hope to receive the consideration at the hands of the Confederates that he intended to show us. He ordered full army rations to be issued, made requisition on the department quartermaster for blankets for the prisoners, and not only permitted but urged the prisoners to write to their friends in the North for money and clothing, the latter especially. Col. Brown's kindness was highly appreciated, and the prisoners became cheerful and contented, or as well contented as prisoners of war could well be. But to our great disappointment and to the regret of Col. Brown himself, we were allowed to enjoy his hospitality and kindness but a short time. Some escaped prisoners from the Confederate prison at Andersonville came through the lines into Gen. Gilmore's department and reported to him that for more than a month before they escaped the prisoners at Andersonville had nothing issued to them but corn-meal and sorghum, which had caused much suffering and sickness among the prisoners. The unfortunate six hundred having been selected and sent to Gen. Gilmore for retaliatory purposes, an order was issued to place them upon like rations, and the privilege of receiving money, clothing, or provisions from Northern sympathizers was withdrawn. After this sweeping order was put in force we understood that the blankets ordered by Col. Brown and quantities of clothing and other articles for the prisoners were received at the fort, but were never delivered; and we were compelled to pass the winter in the damp and cold brick-floored and brick-lined casemates, with no bedclothing except the private blankets before mentioned, and without cloth'ing except the scanty supply brought with us. Col. Brown explained the situation to us, and expressed regret that the order was peremptory, and that he was powerless and without authority to modify it. The allowance of corn-meal was ten ounces to the man per day; and, as sorghum could not be obtained within the Federal lines, it was suggested in some quarters that iy pickle be substituted. This suggestion was opted, so that our rations consisted of ten ounces of orn-meal, with acid, blood-thinning pickle. The ef'the pickle was to thin the blood, so its use was *kly abandoned by the prisoners. Still it was is-
humane officer, but was a kind and courteous gentle- -
sued to us day by day in kegs, which were not opened. The corn-meal was furnished us in barrels, delivered in the casemates. The barrel-heads showed, the place and date of manufacture of the meal, and were marked thus, 'Corn-meal, kiln-dried, 1861, from Mills,' etc. Thus the meal upon which we were forced to subsist was four years old, kiln-dried, and full of worms. To understand the insufficiency of ten ounces of wormy meal to sustain life and health it is only necessary to state that the regular army ration issued to soldiers consists of one and a quarter pounds of meal or one pound of flour, three-fourths of a pound of bacon or one and a quarter pounds of fresh beef, with coffee and vegetables. As might have been expected, and doubtless was intended, great suffering among the prisoners ensued. One of the effects of insufficient and unhealthy food was scurvy, with which large numbers became diseased and many died; and I am satisfied that quite a number died from actual starvation. The prisoners cooked their own bread, and for this purpose tin pans of the size of an ordinary pie-pan were furnished and a cooking-stove to every alternate casemate. Each casemate furnished a detail of cooks. I remember, on one occasion, an inspecting physician from some other post in the department was brought into the prison by some of the officers of the fort, and, observing the pans of bread upon the stove, remarked to the officers accompanying him, 'Why, is it possible that you feed your prisoners on pies?' evidently mistaking our wormy corn-cakes for pies. One day a prisoner picked from his ration a dozen or more of the larger-sized worms, and was in the act of throwing them through a port-hole into the moat when he was stopped by a passing friend, who remarked: 'My friend, if you take the worms out of your meal you will starve, as the meal without the worms has no nutriment in it." He immediately raked the worms back into the meal. The fort was garrisoned from the beginning of the war by different detachments of troops. The prisoners' quarters were separated from the case-
mates occupied by the soldiers of the garrison by a kind'
of gate made of heavy iron bars. The soldiers of the garrison had a great number of cats; indeed, every soldier seemed to have his pet. The cats had free access to our quarters through the iron grating, and, being gentle and friendly disposed, they were given a warm reception by the prisoners.' Not a great while after we were put on retaliation rations some enterprising or half-starved prisoners conceived the happy idea of testing cat flesh as an article of food. The experiment proved a success, and thereafter the cats rapidly disappeared. The cats were generally captured, killed, and dressed during the night. The soldiers were at a loss to know what had become of their pets, but they soon discovered the skins floating in the moat, and this led to the discovery that the prisoners were killing them for food."
We are sure there is not a darker page in the history of the war than the treatment of the six hundred prisoners at Morris Island and at Fort Pulaski. It is the darkest blot upon the civilization of the American people. It will be the duty of the future historian to ascertain all of the facts and to place the responsibility where it properly belongs. Who was responsible for the murder of so many of the unfortunate six hundred?
The question of prison life has not been thoroughly investigated nor understood by the people of the Uni-
ted States. I fully believe that a full investigation of this matter would show that the Confederate Government did alJ that could possibly be done for the wellbeing of Federal soldiers in the hands of Confederates; but I believe that the truth, when fully known, will reveal the fact that the Federal Government was criminally negligent in her treatment of Confederate soldiers, and in many respects were guilty of wilful, intentional cruelty. Out of 270,000 Federal prisoners in Confederate hands, 22,000 died; while out of the 220,000 Confederate prisoners in lederal hands, over 26,000 died. The ratio is this: More than twelve per cent of the Confederates in Federal hands died, and less than nine per cent of the Federals in Confederate hands died. These figures tell the whole story, or, at least, a sufficiency of the story to prove the assertions which I have heretofore made. It is evident that Federal soldiers in Confederate hands were better treated than Confederate prisoners in Federal hands; and this, too, in the face of the fact that the Confederates had neither clothing, provisions, nor medicines in sufficient quantities to supply even her armies in the field. Who was responsible for the bad treatment of prisoners and for
the loss of over forty-eight thousand Americans in
prison?
On July 24, 1863, Alexander H. Stephens, armed with full power to treat upon this subject, and with power to make any kind of an arrangement with reference to the exchange of prisoners for the better treatment of prisoners, requested to be permitted to go to Washington City on this subject. His request was refused. « Gideon Well, Secretary of the Navy, wrote that the request of Mr. Stephens was inadmissable.
On July 24, 1864, Robert Ould, Confederate agent of exchange, requested that all prisoners on each side should be attended by a proper number of their own surgeons, and that these surgeons should receive and distribute all contributions that might be sent to the prisoners and make all necessary reports, not only of their own acts, but of any matters relating to the welfare of prisoners. This request was not noticed.,
The Federal Government broke the cartel for the exchange of prisoners, refused to receive and hear Alexander H. Stephens, and refused to reply to the note of Robert Ould.
In August, 1864, the Confederate Government made two more propositions. This time the Federal prisoners also made earnest appeal to their government. The last proposition made by the Confederate Government was made some time in August, 1864, which was to the effect that the Federal Government might send and get all of her sick and wounded prisoners without paying anything for them in exchange. This the Federal Government paid no attention to until about the 12th or 13th of December, 1864, when she sent ships to Charleston and Savannah, and did receive some of her sick and wounded, and some few sick and wounded Confederates were about this time exchanged. Now bear in mind that the most cruel and inhuman treatment at Pulaski was in January and February, 1865.
How will the historian ever be able to justify or excuse the treatment received by the six hundred? I speak of this in sorrow, and not in anger, for we are all American citizens, and are all proud of our civilization; but will not the future historian be compelled to record the fact that we were not as civilized as we
pretended to be? Will he not also be compelled to record the fact that the Southern people were guilty of no intentional, wanton cruel acts of barbarity?
I do not wish to make invidious comparisons, but I do believe that when all of the facts are known the verdict will be that the South conducted the war with more chivalry, with more humanity, and with more Christian forbearance and zeal than was displayed by our Northern brethren—that is, in fine, that we were a more civilized and Christianized people than were our Northern brethren.