Stiles/Akin
Sergeant Major
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2016
- Location
- Atlanta, Georgia
IMMORTAL CAPTIVES
2 JANUARY 1865 FORT PULASKI PRISON where Confederate officers were being purposely starved to death by Union General Foster and dying from exposure. It is likely that you NEVER read their story. Here it is.
2 January 1865, Captain Henry Dixon wrote “Our new rations of cornmeal, (sour pickles and 75 loaves of bread went into effect yesterday and a terrible diet it is. That it will kill some is evident. They (Yankees) have plenty of boxes and money letters (mail sent from family) for us but won’t issue them. It is said that this cruel order is Foster’s only. I should hope that a Representative man of no nation would issue such an order. Our sick in the hospital are fed bread and water only. I took up a subscription (collection) for the sick yesterday and received about ten dollars although all of us are very poor.”
LOYALTY
29 December 1864, Fort Pulaski is visited by the Governor of Iowa, William Stone to meet with Lieutenant Junius Hempstead a prisoner and the son of a former Governor. His task, to convince the officer to sign the oath of Allegiance which would free any of the men immediately.
CPT Dixon wrote “still very cold, men coughing terribly, Yanks signaling from the fort. Governor Stone of Iowa arrives. Sent for Lt Hempstead 25th Virginia, and begged him to take the oath.
(Federal Camp Commander) Brown added his persuasions and told him we were to be fed on cornmeal and pickles. Hempstead nobly refused.”
Upon his return to the casemate (prison), LT Hempstead received rousing applause.
HONOR
The Immortals were for a time allowed relief packages from family. These “care packages” contained food and money for the prisoners to use to purchase things from the Sutlers (a vendor that sold to the Union troops) the 1 January order stopped that trading.
On 13 December, the Immortals, seeing that some of their peers were not receiving packages formed the CONFEDERATE RELIEF ASSOCIATION of Fort Pulaski. Its purpose was to take care of those within their ranks who had little or nothing. Their bylaws read:
Whereas it has been suggested that a number of our brother officers confined with us, as prisoners of war at Fort Pulaski are deprived of some absolute necessities of life, by reason their inability to communicate with their homes and friends and
Whereas some of such officers, by reason of diseases incident to prison life, are exposed to much suffering and in danger of neglect if left to the care of individuals and
Whereas, we recognize the binding obligation on us as Confederate Officers to search for and relieve the distress of all worthy officers and soldiers in our common country.”
During June -July 1864 at Camp Sumter, (Andersonville) the “Raiders, ”a band of perhaps 500 Union prisoners beat, robbed and murdered their fellow prisoners. They were brought to justice by a group their fellow prisoners called “the Regulators.” Six “chieftains” were hung after a trial of their peers on 11 July 1864. No relief society for their underprivileged existed.
COURAGE.
2 January 1865 Capt. Dixon wrote “Yesterday I made no memorandum of passing events (NEW YEARS) because it was “the” cold day of the winter, which the Yanks celebrated by refusing to furnish any wood, all day and all night many of us walked to keep up the circulation, or shivered in our scanty covering. On Saturday night, it commenced to turning rapidly cold and on the first morning of the New Year, long icicles were visible and the pump was now frozen up. It continued all day and last night it was still dead cold. Many men slept none and looked haggard and woebegone. Having a moderate share, I slept very badly. How could men endure such a night with only one blanket for two, as a number situated here?
Major Coulter 12th Arkansas Infantry wrote” some of the boys had no blankets and we all slept on bare boards. It was so cold that the boys who had no blankets at all had to walk all night to keep from freezing. The next morning, they would crawl into the bunk someone else had occupied during the night and would sleep that day. It seems to me that I can hear those poor fellows yet-walking, walking up and down on that brick floor.”
2 JANUARY 1865 FORT PULASKI PRISON where Confederate officers were being purposely starved to death by Union General Foster and dying from exposure. It is likely that you NEVER read their story. Here it is.
2 January 1865, Captain Henry Dixon wrote “Our new rations of cornmeal, (sour pickles and 75 loaves of bread went into effect yesterday and a terrible diet it is. That it will kill some is evident. They (Yankees) have plenty of boxes and money letters (mail sent from family) for us but won’t issue them. It is said that this cruel order is Foster’s only. I should hope that a Representative man of no nation would issue such an order. Our sick in the hospital are fed bread and water only. I took up a subscription (collection) for the sick yesterday and received about ten dollars although all of us are very poor.”
LOYALTY
29 December 1864, Fort Pulaski is visited by the Governor of Iowa, William Stone to meet with Lieutenant Junius Hempstead a prisoner and the son of a former Governor. His task, to convince the officer to sign the oath of Allegiance which would free any of the men immediately.
CPT Dixon wrote “still very cold, men coughing terribly, Yanks signaling from the fort. Governor Stone of Iowa arrives. Sent for Lt Hempstead 25th Virginia, and begged him to take the oath.
(Federal Camp Commander) Brown added his persuasions and told him we were to be fed on cornmeal and pickles. Hempstead nobly refused.”
Upon his return to the casemate (prison), LT Hempstead received rousing applause.
HONOR
The Immortals were for a time allowed relief packages from family. These “care packages” contained food and money for the prisoners to use to purchase things from the Sutlers (a vendor that sold to the Union troops) the 1 January order stopped that trading.
On 13 December, the Immortals, seeing that some of their peers were not receiving packages formed the CONFEDERATE RELIEF ASSOCIATION of Fort Pulaski. Its purpose was to take care of those within their ranks who had little or nothing. Their bylaws read:
Whereas it has been suggested that a number of our brother officers confined with us, as prisoners of war at Fort Pulaski are deprived of some absolute necessities of life, by reason their inability to communicate with their homes and friends and
Whereas some of such officers, by reason of diseases incident to prison life, are exposed to much suffering and in danger of neglect if left to the care of individuals and
Whereas, we recognize the binding obligation on us as Confederate Officers to search for and relieve the distress of all worthy officers and soldiers in our common country.”
During June -July 1864 at Camp Sumter, (Andersonville) the “Raiders, ”a band of perhaps 500 Union prisoners beat, robbed and murdered their fellow prisoners. They were brought to justice by a group their fellow prisoners called “the Regulators.” Six “chieftains” were hung after a trial of their peers on 11 July 1864. No relief society for their underprivileged existed.
COURAGE.
2 January 1865 Capt. Dixon wrote “Yesterday I made no memorandum of passing events (NEW YEARS) because it was “the” cold day of the winter, which the Yanks celebrated by refusing to furnish any wood, all day and all night many of us walked to keep up the circulation, or shivered in our scanty covering. On Saturday night, it commenced to turning rapidly cold and on the first morning of the New Year, long icicles were visible and the pump was now frozen up. It continued all day and last night it was still dead cold. Many men slept none and looked haggard and woebegone. Having a moderate share, I slept very badly. How could men endure such a night with only one blanket for two, as a number situated here?
Major Coulter 12th Arkansas Infantry wrote” some of the boys had no blankets and we all slept on bare boards. It was so cold that the boys who had no blankets at all had to walk all night to keep from freezing. The next morning, they would crawl into the bunk someone else had occupied during the night and would sleep that day. It seems to me that I can hear those poor fellows yet-walking, walking up and down on that brick floor.”