Page:Minutes of the Immortal Six Hundred Society 1910.djvu/15

14 No other citizen of Pulaski or Giles county would be missed more and the death of no other would be more sincerely mourned by the people generally. A great and good man has gone to his reward and the entire community is bowed in sorrow. A lovable comrade peace to his ashes. A true 600

Secretary Murray read history of 600 and financial report.

The history of our society, its organization and its membership have for want of time delayed until now. It is proper you should all know this history, my stewardship as your secretary and the results of the work for the betterment and success of our society.

After the surrender of all the Confederate forces and the release of Confederate prisoners of war from the Northern military prisons the 600 officers who were placed on Morris Island, S. C, under fire of our own guns and starved on that ration of ten ounces of rotten cornmeal and pickles at Hilton Head and Fort Pulaski, became separated, going to their respective homes in the different states to begin life anew and dig out as best they could for their loved one a living and build up homes upon the wreck left by the war. Without then little of the glorious past and its impress upon the future, We did not think of our gathering together the 582 true men of the 600 into an organization to perpetuate our glorious record made under trials such as no men were ever called upon to endure.

After most of our comrades had gotten beyond the line of want beyond the struggle for existence, we began to think of the terrible ordeal and some wrote of it. Judge H. H. Cook, of Tennessee, wrote of our tortures. Major W. W, Goldsborough, of Maryland, wrote of the story for a local paper of Baltimore. After many years of struggle and I had passed the danger line of need, it struck me that the record of this band of men, who could endure for principle sake all we did endure, should be preserved as part of Confederate history. It was in conversation, in Washington City, with Col Van H. Manning and Lieut. Crisp, both true men of the Six Hundred. It was suggested by them that I should undertake the work