THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED. BY MRS. A. A, CAMPBELL, HISTORIAN GENERAL.
A few years ago a certain Daughter of the Confederacy wrote to a high officer and asked for data concerning the Immortal Six Hundred. She was promptly referred to Tennyson's Poems.
I had always supposed this was too good to be true until I made a similar request of a well-known library ina large city and received by return mail a delightful ''Source Book of English Poetry,'' the pages concerning the ''Charge of the Light Brigade"' carefully marked.
It seems to me, therefore, desirable that this year's program for the Children of the Confederacy should teach them something of our own Six Hundred, especially as Southern books go rapidly out of print, and I am informed that not many copies remain of the second edition of Maj. J. Ogden Murray's ''Immortal Six Hundred."
First, let me insist that our six hundred and sixty Confederate officers do not hold their title under a junior patent, for Tennyson uses only one adjective describing the heroes of the Light Brigade, '' Noble Six Hundred.'' The exigences of the meter limited him to two syllables. The moral seems to be that one stirring poem of only six verses can take such a profound hold upon the imagination that the number ''600" automatically suggests Balaklava and the most dramatic incident of the Crimean War. O that Pickett's charge had been commemorated in such deathless words! A few minutes of splendid daring crowned the Light Brigade with fadeless glory; long months of anguish proved the metal of the Condeferate officers.
The story has a preamble which begins in Charleston, in June, 1864. Charleston had been bombarded by the Federal guns for some time, and Gen. Sam Jones, C. S. A.., commanding the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, notifies General Foster, commanding the Federal forces on the coast of North Carolina, that five general officers and forty-five field officers of the United States army, prisoners of war, have been brought to Charleston for safekeeping, and that they will be provided with commodious quarters in a part of the city occupied by noncombatants, the majority of whom are women and children, adding: ''It is proper, however, that I should inform you that it is a part of the city which has been exposed day and night to the fire of your guns.'"' In other words, the Federal officers were placed in what was presumably the most protected portion of the city. To this mild and courteous communication, General Foster replies in substance that General Beauregard had been notified that Charleston was to be bombarded, and that if women and children had been retained in the city exposed to fire, ''it is a matter decided by your own sense of humanity. I must, however, protest against your action in thus placing defenseless prisoners of war in a position exposed to constant bombardment. It is an indefensible act of cruelty and can be designed only to prevent the continuance of our fire upon Charleston. I have forwarded your communication to the President, with the request that he will place in my custody an equal number of prisoners of like grades, to be kept by me in positions exposed to the fire of your guns so long as you continue the course stated in your communication."
General Foster did not forward the letter; he sent a tele- | gram, which did not state the facts, but on the contrary stated that he had been notified by General Jones that five | general officers and forty-five field officers of the United States army had been placed in Charleston to be retained under
fire, and he asks for an equal number of "Rebel" officers of equal rank, that he may place them under fire. The '' Rebel"' officers are immediately gathered at Fort Delaware by General Halleck's order, ''to be treated in precisely the same man" ner as the enemy treats ours—that is, to be placed in a posi"tion where they will be most exposed to the fire of the Rebels. Rebel officers will be treated with the same severity that they treat ours.'' The stage is all set, the Confederate "officers duly placed at Hilton Head to be fired on by the 'Charleston batteries, when, lo! there is objection, emphatic and expressed with convincing fervor. A situation which would have suited Gilbert and Sullivan has arisen. The five general officers and forty-five field officers have not been con'sulted in all these arrangements, and the following protest "against his action appears in the following letter, quoted * verbatim: "Maj. Gen. J. G. Foster, Hilton Head, S. C. "General: The journals this morning inform us, for the first time, that five general officers of the Confederate service have 'arrived at Hilton Head, with a view to their being subjected 'to the same treatment that we are receiving here. We think "it just to ask for these officers every kindness and courtesy: that you can extend to them in acknowledgment of the fact 'that we, at this time, are as pleasantly and comfortably sit'uated as is possible for prisoners of war, receiving from the ~ Confederate authorities every privilege that we could de* sire or expect, nor are we unnecessarily exposed to fire. "Respectfully, General, your obedient servants, H. W. - Wessells, T. Seymour, E. P. Scammon, C. A. Heckman, Alex-ander Shaler, Brig. Genls. United States Volunteers, PrisonNers of War. '
The happy sequel was the exchange of the Federal officers?and the Confederate officers at Hilton Head. After this in® cident was closed, to the satisfaction of all parties (except " General Foster), the story of the Six Hundred begins. There " were six hundred Federal officers, prisoners of war, sent from * Macon to Charleston in the hope that they would be ex© changed for Confederate prisoners of war of equalrank. The " specific order dealing with the exchange of prisoners is found 'in the following telegram to the Secretary of War:
i" Mr. Stanton: Please inform Maj. Gen. J. E. Foster that in! no circumstances will he be allowed to make exchange of prisoners of war. Exchanges simply reénforce the enemy at 'once, while we do not get the benefit of those received for » two or three months and lose the majority entirely. I tele? graph this from just hearing 500 or 600 prisoners had been ~sent to Major General Foster. j "U.S. Grant, Lieut Gen." > Meanwhile, at Fort Delaware, on the Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River, there were 1,500 Confederate officers, 'iprisoners of war. Their quarters were fairly comfortable, "and they were given two meals per day, not the kind that would tempt the dying anchorite to return to life, but nutritious, as prison fare goes. Throughout the fort floated "vague rumors, ''grape,'' in prison slang, that there would be "an exchange of prisoners. Who were to be the fortunate 4 ones? On the afternoon of August 7, 1864, the prisoners were! ordered to fall in line and answer to their names as they would > be called for exchange. The six hundred who were chosen + were exuberant, and three days later they embarked on the "small steamship Crescent City, with 300 guards and several gunboats to chaperone the party. One good thrill relieved the frightful seasickness and suffering in the hold where the 'prisoners were huddled. The Crescent City ran aground. 1 The gunboats had disappeared. A few bold spirits under the "lead of Col. Van Manning demanded the surrender of the
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ship. While the terms were being arranged, the gunboats came in sight, and the plan was defeated.: Four officers managed to escape during the voyage, one being concealed by the stewardess, a faithful negro woman, until the ship returned to New York.
When the Crescent City reached Charleston Harbor the flag of truce boats could be seen, but there was no exchange of prisoners, and the destination of the Confederate officers was Morris Island, under the fire of the Charleston batteries, where a stockade had been built inclosing about two acres of ground for their prison. The guns of Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie, and Johnson Island constantly fired on the Federal batteries flanking the stockade, and the monitors, batteries, and fleet replied. Many weeks of hardship, wretched food, sickness, and death ensued, all aggravated by the humiliation of being guarded by a negro regiment. The next move was to Fort Pulaski, on Cockspur Island, at the mouth of the Savannah River, under the guard of a white regiment, the 127th New York, with a humane colonel, anxious to treat the prisoners kindly, and distressed at the meager rations allowed them.
A bleak Christmas day was spent at Fort Pulaski. There were four inches of snow on the parade ground, very little fire, scant cover, and many sick from scurvy. Cats and dogs had confidingly entered the prison bounds, but soon it was discovered that the tracks did not lead out again. Finally only one cat remained, the sleek and pampered pet of the colonel's wife. Out of regard for her his life was spared. As for the rats! Never was there a Grimalkin in La Fontaine's Fables who could equal them in catching the elusive rodent! The prisoners formed among themselves a Relief Association, and each evening before taps they sang the songs of Dixie. On Christmas Eve, 1864; Major Murray accidentally discovered a trap door under his bunk. The result was a plan to escape. It was thwarted by the treachery or cowardice of one of the party just as the sentinel was about to be seized and a boat secured to take them across the river. On March 4 all the prisoners at Fort Pulaski were marched on board ship and taken back to Fort Delaware. Many had succumbed to the terrible privations of the winter, and the rest were emaciated wrecks. Arriving at Fort Delaware, they found many old comrades, whose condition compared most favorably with the remnant of the Immortal Six Hundred.
A pleasing contrast to the dark colors in which most of this picture is painted was the kindness and sympathy of the two New York regiments which guarded the prisoners, the 127th at Fort Pulaski, the 157th from Fort Pulaski to Fort Delaware.
Such, briefly summarized, are the leading facts related in the valuable book of Major Murray, who last year rejoined his comrades who had entered the rest eternal. There are complete rosters by States of all the officers, and fourteen States were represented. A majority of them were captured at Spotsylvania Courthouse, May 12, 1864.
At the reunion of Confederate Veterans ''The Immortal Six Hundred" occupied a unique place; and when they gather at Richmond next June, although the survivors are few in number, they will receive a welcome which will assure them that their courage and fortitude are among the proudest memories of the War between the States.
"But we have fallen on evil times indeed,
When public faith is but the common shame, And private morals held an idiot's creed,
And old world honesty an empty name."