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J. OGDEN MURRAY
Secretary of the 600
(Author)
A STORY OF CRUELTY TO CONFEDERATE
PRISONERS OF WAR
BY
MAJOR J. OGDEN MURRAY
ONE OF THE SIX HUNDRED
ROANOKE, VA.
THE STONE PRINTING AND
MANUFACTURING CO.
1911
Copyright, 1911, by
J. Ogden Murray.
Published, December, 1911.
All Rights Reserved.
Price, $2.00.
DEDICATION
To the dead and living comrades of the Immortal Six Hundred,—Confederate officers, prisoners of war,—who were confined in the stockade on Morris Island, South Carolina, under fire of our own guns shelling that island; and who were subsequently starved on rations of rotten corn meal and onion pickle at Fort Pulaski, Georgia, and Hilton Head, South Carolina, 1864-65, by order of Edwin M. Stanton, United States Secretary of War—to all who remained true unto the end, under the terrible ordeal of fire and starvation, this history is affectionately inscribed with a comrade's love.
J. OGDEN MURRAY.
IN presenting this Second Edition of the history of the Six Hundred Confederate Officers, Prisoners of War, who were placed on Morris Island, S. C, under fire of their own guns shelling that Island in 1864-65, and the wanton cruelty subsequently inflicted upon them by order of the United States Government, it is told without malice. But it is told to refute the slanders made by the pulpits and press of the North that the Confederate Government was inhuman and cruel to Union prisoners of war in Southern prisons.
We shall tell the story truthfully and backed, as the story is, by the official orders and records of the United States Government, we do hope to prove the South was not guilty of the charges made against it. But that the real culprits guilty of inhumanity to prisoners of war, was the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, and his colleagues in Washington City, in 1861-1865. The charges of cruelty, made against President Davis and the Confederate Government to the Union prisoners of war, in Southern prisons, were made by these officials to hide from the people of the North those really guilty of the inhumanity, and shift from their own shoulders, the responsibility of violating the cartel of exchange, which was the cause of all the suffering of Union prisoners of war in Southern prisons. The Confederate authorities did all they could do, to alleviate the lot of the unfortunates that the fate of war threw into their hands. Whatever the Confederate soldier received in the field as ration, was given to the Union prisoners of war, and Mr. Edwin M. Stanton was fully informed, officially and otherwise, of this tact. The charges that the Confederate authorities refused to make exchange of prisoners of war, were made at a time when passion was at fever heat in the North, and the charges were made and circulated to conceal from the people of the North, the real culprits who were responsible for the home sickness, and troubles of the Union prisoners of war confined in the South.
Capt. J. Madison Page, 2d Wisconsin Volunteers, U. S. A., a gallant Union soldier, in his book the "True Andersonville" charges all the discomforts of the Union prisoners of war to Mr. Stanton and the Washington authorities, for violating the exchange cartel; surely this gallant soldier's word will be accepted by the North. Read what Mr. Charles A. Dana says. He was Stanton's Assistant Secretary of War, 1861-65. Read what the commission appointed by the United States Government, to investigate Northern Military prisons say of the conditions they found, and see where the blame of cruelty rests. Read General Grant's request and order to stop exchange and why he wanted exchanges stopped. Read H. W. Halleck's, General, U. S. A., order to stop all exchanges of prisoners of war, and we think this alone should convince those who slander Mr. Davis and the Confederate authorities just where the responsibility rests. It was the inhuman orders to stop exchanges, issued by the Washington authorities that made both Union and Confederate prisoners of war suffer. The Confederate authorities had no say in these orders. Read D. A. M. Clark's, U. S. A., report on Northern Military prisons. Read General J. G. Foster's, U. S. A., authority to place Confederate prisoners of war on Morris Island, S. C, under fire of their own guns shelling that Island. Read what General Scammell, et al, U. S. officers confined in Charleston, S. C, prisoners of war, tell General Foster of their treatment, and the letter is official. And when you read these proofs, honestly say who was guilty of inhumanity to helpless prisoners of war.
All we ask is that the truth shall be told. If the truth shows the South or Confederate authorities to have been guilty of cruelty to prisoners of war, then they should be held up to the scorn of the civilized world. We cannot change the Record now, it must stand. And we say without the least fear of contradiction, that the Confederate Government never by order, fed Union prisoner's of war on rotten corn meal and acid pickle, the corn meal ground in 1861, and when fed to the Six Hundred, was filled with bugs and worms. Who was responsible for this cruelty? Let's have the truth and fix the responsibility for this cruelty; that if it was not inflicted by order of the United States Government, she may purge herself of this crime before the world. Let's have the truth that the future historians may be able to place before the world the men guilty of inhumanity to prisoners of war. Find, if it is possible to do so, such an order to feed men on rotten corn meal and acid pickle, in the Records of the Confederate Government, as this order of Stanton, Poster, et al. Read the report of General C. Grover, U. S. A., on condition of the Six Hundred Confederate prisoners of war at Fort Pulaski, Ga.
Savannah, Ga., Feb. 7, 1865.
Asst. Adjt. General.
Headquarters Department of the South:—
My medical director yesterday inspected the condition of the Rebel prisoners confined at Fort Pulaski, and represents that they are in a condition of great suffering and exhaustion for want of sufficient food and clothing; also, that they have scurvy to a considerable extent. He recommends, as a necessary sanitary measure, that they be at once put on full prison rations; and, also, that they be allowed to receive necessary articles of clothing from friends. I would respectfully endorse the surgeon's recommendation, and ask authority to take such steps as may be necessary to relieve actual sickness and suffering.
C. Grover, U. S. A.,
(See War Record, p. 162, Vol. xxxv.)
To-day there is abundant proof to show the most biased mind, that President Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee, did protest against the violation of the cartel of exchange, and did offer, for humanity's sake, to turn over to the United States all the wounded and sick Union prisoners of war held in the South, if the United States would send transports and take them away, and finally, General Robert E. Lee, in humanity's name, said "Come and get all your prisoners of war, we cannot feed them, nor get medicines to keep them in health." All offers to exchange or send for their prisoners were rejected by Mr. Secretary Stanton, in part of the United States Government, and this as every one now knows was the cruelty inflicted on the prisoners of war in the South, and was not inflicted nor sanctioned by the Confederate Government.
There never was a Union soldier, prisoner of war, in the South placed under fire of his own guns by order of any one, and there is not one particle of proof that can show there was, but there is an abundance of proof to show the wanton cruelty of the United States to its prisoners of war, 1864-65, and the above is proof from their own records.
And it is a fact, proven beyond all question of doubt, that notwithstanding the South had no medicines, and could get none, to cure the sick, and keep men in health, that only nine 9) in each one hundred Union prisoners of war died in Southern prisons, while twelve (12) in every hundred Confederate prisoners of war died in the prisons of the North, where medicine and food were abundant to keep men in health. His should be a vindication of the South and her people from the slander of cruelty, and would be, but for the persistent slander of some of the pilpits and press of the North, that make the charges, to keep alive the hatred engendered by the war, which are used for political purposes, by the corrupt politicians who live politically on sectional hate.
We want only the truth, we ask for nothing else. We want to refute the slanders against the South and her people. Jefferson Davis, Peresident of the Confederate States, nor General Robt. E. Lee, were never cruel to any human being. But Secretary of War Stanton and his colleagues in power at Washington, 1861-65, were and they were guilty of all prisoners of war suffering on both sides, by stopping exchanges of prisoners of war.
CONTENTS
Chapter One—History of the incidents leading up to the retaliation measures inflicted upon the six hundred Confederate officers, prisoners of war, with correspondence official between Gen. J. G. Foster, U. S. A., Department of the South, and Gen. Sam. Jones, C. S. A., commanding Charleston, S. C. Violation of cartel, etc., etc. |
13 |
Chapter Two—Fort Delaware. Rumors of exchange. Order to get ready for exchange. Saying good-bye. Packing us on steamship “Crescent City.” |
59 |
Chapter Three—March from old schooner hulk to prison stockade. Hot sub. Men sick forced to move on. Brutal white officers and nigger soldiers. Prison stockade. Water, rations, and shelter. |
96 |
Chapter Four—Hilton Head Prison. |
199 |
Chapter Five—Account of escape from Fort Pulaski. |
233 |
Chapter Six—Diary kept by Capt. A. M. Bedford, 3d Missouri Cavalry, while on Morris Island, S. C., prisoner of war at Hilton Head and Fort Pulaski. |
250 |
| 320 |
| 355 |