THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED
non-combatants—women and children—are housed." On June 16, 1864, Maj.-Gen. J. G. Foster replied to General Jones's letter as follows:
Headquarters Department of the South.
- Hilton Head, S. G, June 16, 1864.
Maj.-Gen. Samuel Jones,
- Commanding Confederate Forces, Department
- South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
- Commanding Confederate Forces, Department
General:
I have to acknowledge the receipt this day of your communication of the 13th instant, informing me that five generals and forty-five field officers of the United States Army—prisoners of war—have been sent to Charleston for safe keeping; that they have been turned over by you to Brigadier-General Ripley with instructions to see that they are provided with quarters in a part of the city occupied by non-combatants, the majority of which latter, you state, are women and children. You add that you deem it proper to inform me that it is a part of the city which has been for many months exposed to the fire of our guns.
Many months since Major-General Gillmore, U. S. A., notified General Beaureguard, then commanding at Charleston, that the city would be
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