In June, 1864, fifty Union prisoners of war, all officers, were held in the besieged city of Charleston, South Carolina within range of the Federal guns in an effort to discourage further bombardment of the city. Although they were eventually exchanged for 50 Confederate officers of similar rank, the use of these POWs as human
For the benefit of Gettysburg researchers, the following is a subset of the full list of the “Immortal 600” showing only those who were captured at Gettysburg. For the story of the Immortal 600, see this blog post. ALEXANDER, Capt. William J. Co. A, 37th North Carolina Infantry res. Wilkesboro, North Carolina; captured at Gettysburg,
Most of the approximately 5,000 Confederate prisoners who were captured at Gettysburg, including Brigadier General James J. Archer, were sent to Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island, just south of Wilmington in the middle of the Delaware River. Some of those prisoners would eventually be sent to prisons at Point Lookout (MD), Elmira (NY), or,
Following is the complete list of the “Immortal 600,” a group of Confederate officers in captivity who were held as human shields in the line of friendly fire in Charleston Harbor and then subjected to some of the most inhumane treatment of POWs that was ever documented in the Civil War. (This previous post focused specifically
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