Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 25.djvu/369

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[From the Richmond. Va.. Times, August 22. 1897.]

IMPRISONED UNDER FIRE.

Six Hundred Gallant Confederate Officers on Morris Island, S. C., in Reach of Confederate Guns.

They were held in Retaliation, and Two of them Relate the Expe- riences of Prison Life Stories of Captain F. C. Barnes and Captain R. E. Frayser.

A list of the officers under fire, as above, including those as well from Maryland, North Carolina, Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, has been given in Vol. XVII, Southern Historical Society Papers, pp. 34-46, but as the list from Virginia herewith is more complete and definitely descriptive, it is meet that it should be printed now.

Further and graphic experience of the " hardships, sufferings and hazards" of the "Six Hundred," is given in the "narrative" of Colonel Abram Fulkerson, of the 63d Tennessee infantry, Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XXII, pp. 127-146. EDITOR.

During the seige of Charleston the powerful Federal guns located on Morris Island could send their shells into the lower part of the city, where their explosion caused great destruction of houses, and danger to the inhabitants of that part of the town. As a means of protecting the residents, Major-General Sam Jones, commanding the Confederate forces in Charleston, notified Major-General J. G. Fos- ter, of the United States army, that he had placed five generals and forty-five field officers of the United States army, " 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."

This letter was sent on the i3th of June, 1864. Forthwith Gen- eral Foster sent a copy of the letter to General Halleck, at Wash- ington, and thereupon he ordered 600 Confederate officers to be taken from Fort Delaware and placed on Morris Island under the fire of the Confederate guns, in retaliation for the act of General Jones.