The Civil War Prisons Message Board

Answers to quethstios concerning the Immortal 600

Benjamin Drake, Frankfort, Ky., sends data about Kentuckians who were among the "six hundred ;"
Maj. J. Bennet McCreary, afterwards Lieutenant Colonel Eleventh Kentucky Cavalry, lives at Richmond, Ky. He has been Governor of the State, served several terms in the United States Congress, and is one of the most prominent men in Kentucky.
Capt. Thomas C. Eastin returned to his home in Fayette County after the war, was elected sheriff, and died a few years ago.
Capt. R. D. Logan died at his home in Boyle County recently, respected and loved by all who knew him.
Capt. M. D. Logan, whose name does not appear in the list, was one of the "six hundred." He obtained a special exchange at Fort Pulaski, and was afterwards lieutenant colonel of the Third Kentucky Cavalry. He died at his home in Boyle County, Ky. a short while ago. He was a brother to Capt. Bob Logan, and descended from the famous pioneer Logan.
First Lieutenant W. P. Crow died soon after the war. He was a true soldier.
Lieutenant Ben S. Drake lives at Lexington, Ky., and takes great interest in everything pertaining to the great war.
First Lieutenant Isham Fox died a few years ago at his home in Madison County, Ky. He was a good soldier and citizen.
First Lieutenant Hansan Moles was killed by a bushwhacker soon after the war.
Second Lieutenant A. B. Chinn lives at Lexington, Ky., and is a successful and respected merchant.
Second Lieutenant W. F. Leathers died several years ago at the Confederate Soldiers' Home in Missouri. He was probably the oldest man among the "six hundred," and no truer, braver man ever existed.
Second Lieutenant D. N. Prewett lives near Danville, in Boyle County, Ky. He has always been true
to the Southern cause.
Second Lieutenant Frank P. Peak Byrne's Battery, resided in Chicot County, Ark. He was captured near Buffington Island, died, and was buried on Morris' Island. His name is not in the published list. No braver soldier, no truer friend, no purer Christian gave his life for the South. He was one of the best of all
the six hundred heroes.

Col. John L. Cartwell, Wilmington, N. C., was a private in Company H, Palmetto Regiment, South Carolina Volunteers, in the Mexican war. In 1861 he was exempt from military service by reason of his being clerk of the Confederate States Court for the district of Cape Fear, and also as a magistrate, but was in active service from April, 1861, until June, 1865. During this time he served respectively as captain of a company of brigade guards, captain of Company F, Third North Carolina Infantry, colonel of Fifty-First North Carolina Infantry. He is the compiler of the list of six hundred officers sent from Fort Delaware August 20, 1864, put under fire in Charleston Harbor, and sent from there to Fort Pulaski, Savannah River. Ga., and starved at both places in "retaliation," so called. All the lists of the six hundred were originally obtained from his made at the time. Forty of the six hundred were not under fire, but were in the hospital at Beaufort, S. C. Col. Cartwell was one of the founders of the first organization of veterans of the civil war, the "Association of Officers of the Third North Carolina Infantry." The association has been in continuous existence to the present time. Of late years the enlisted men have been eligible for membership, and the word "officers" has, by vote been dropped from the title. Col. Cartwell now resides at Wilmington, N. C.
Mr. W. N. Cameron, President of the Coleman (Tex.) National Bank, writes that he was one of the six hundred officers about whom much is to be published in the next issue, and that he read Judge Cook's article in the VETERAN with much interest.
Lieut. J. L. Greer, of Company D, Fourth Georgia Regiment of volunteers, one of the officers confined in Charleston, was wounded in side and arm and taken prisoner at Spottsylvania Courthouse, Va., May 10, 1864; was first taken to Point Lookout prison, then to Fort Delaware, and from there to Charleston with the other Confederate officers. While suffering with his wound, he was sent with thirty-five sick and wounded to Beaufort Island, and was exchanged in December. After the surrender he returned home, and afterwards went to Texas. His address is McKinney.
George M. Albright, second lieutenant Company F, Sixth North Carolina Regiment, was born February 14, 1840, and enlisted in May, 1865. He :was in the first battle of Manassas; was wounded at Fredericksburg December 13, 1862, from which wound he was disabled for several months. He was captured at Rappahannock Station November 7, 1863, and was sent to Johnson's Island, where he remained until March, 1864; he was then moved to Point Lookout, Md. Later he was sent to Fort Delaware, and in August, 1864, was placed with comrades on board the old ship Crescent, and was confined with them in the hold of the vessel for eighteen days. On Morris' Island they were placed in a stockade within range of Confederate batteries. After six weeks, during which time he suffered all kinds of indignities at the hands of negro guards, he was removed to Fort Pulaski. Here the treatment was worse than at any other place. In November he was sent to Fort Delaware, where he remained until the close of the war. He now lives at Lebanon, Tenn.
F. C. Barnes, Chase City, Va., writes of his interest in the list of the six hundred officers, and adds: "I was lieutenant of Company G, Fifty-Sixth Virginia Regiment, Garnett's Brigade, Pickett's Division; was cap- tured July 3, 1863."
Comrade T. D. Crawford, Ocala, Fla.: "My rank was first lieutenant of Company B, Twenty-Sixth Georgia Regiment, Gordon's Brigade. At the time of my capture I had made application for transfer to the navy. The transfer was not made because of the loss of our seaports."
Capt. Samuel J. Parham, of North Carolina, was born August 3, IS«. He was a son of Asa Parham, of Granville County, four of whose sons were in the Confederate army. Capt. Parham entered service at the beginning of the war, and except while in prison or on parole, was actively engaged until its close. His
comrades have reported of him many deeds of daring; and valor. He was captured at Rappahannock Station, Va., November 7, 1863. In 1866 he married Miss Maria L Southerland, of Mobile, Ala., who, with one daughter and five sons, survives him. He was an accomplished gentleman, a thorough and energetic busi- ness man, and for several years was mayor of Henderson, N. C. He died March 3, 1880, true to his con- victions of constitutional liberty, and loyal to the great principle for which the South contended: sovereignty of the States.
W. C. Nutt, captain of Company A, Fifty-Third Georgia Regiment, writes: "November 29, 1863, I was severely wounded while charging the fort at Knoxville, Tenn., and was taken prisoner and kept at the field hospital until able to walk to Knoxville, where I was confined in the county jail to await transportation. 1 was then removed to Nashville, where I was in the penitentiary for a short time; then to Fort Delaware; then South with the six hundred for seven months' torture; finally was sent back to Fort Delaware, where 1 was released in June, 1865. I now live in Orlando, Fla."
Lieut. G. S. Cobb, Swepsonville, N. C., makes a correction: "I was captured June 26, at South Annex Bridge, and fired the first shot. I was in command of eleven men, and had orders to hold the bridge at all hazards; we held it until reenforcements arrived, and never did surrender. No men in the service were more gallant."
Lieut. W. J. Boswell, Company B, Fifty-Fifth Georgia Regiment, was in Charleston Harbor, one of the six hundred. He was taken as prisoner from Fort Delaware, and he never recovered from ill health brought on by the severity of that trip. He related that they killed, during confinement in the harbor, thirty pet cats belonging to the Federal officers, and ate them to avoid starvation."
Benjamin D. Merchant, Manassas, Va., sends information about two of the six hundred who were with him on Morris' Island: "First Lieut. James H. Childs, Fourth Virginia Cavalry, died at his residence near Warrenton, Va., July 19, 1878. First Lieut. S. M. Dent, Fifth Virginia Cavalry, died in Alexandria, Va., January 30, 1893."
Comrade W. B. Allen, Greensboro, N. C., writes of his capture and experiences as one of the six hundred: "We were taken from the field by train to Washington, where we were kept in the old capitol, and while there we were visited by Belle Boyd. The men were sent to Point Lookout, and the officers to Johnson’s Island. We were kept at the latter place until ordered by the doctor to the hospital at Point Lookout; from there we were taken to Fort Delaware, and thence to Charleston Harbor. Here we were kept under fire for forty days. Once during that time we were placed on a transport while truce was being held, and firing began rapidly. Great excitement followed receipt of news of the fall of Atlanta and of Fort Pillow. On leaving Charleston Harbor we were taken to Fort Pulaski, where the "retaliation" consisted of low diet and brutal treatment. The experiences here were terrible, and I have understood that one hundred and fifty out of six hundred died in three months. We were taken to Fortress Monroe (for the second time) to be exchanged as sick and wounded, but instead we were taken back to Fort Delaware. We were paroled June 13, 1865."
Capt. W. H. Day, Raleigh, N. C., sends correction of list, stating that he was captured at Spottsylvania May 12, 1864.
First Lieut. Benjamin L. Brown, Blakely, Ga., states: "I was sent from Fort Delaware in a squad of three hundred, landed on Morris' Island September 7, 1864, and remained there under range of guns for forty days; was then carried to Fort Pulaski, where rations were scant and poor. Thirty-two of our party died from disease while there."

J. G. Brown, Front Royal, Va., sends this correction: "I was in the Forty-Ninth Regiment, Virginia Infantry; time of my capture, May 30, 1864."
Gilbert P.Highley was descended from English ancestors, who settled in Connecticut about two hundred years ago; the only son of G. H. and Martha Highley, and was born in East Granby, Conn., in 1823. He came South in 1848 and settled in Lumberton, N. C., where he was married in 1850 to Miss Ann Eliza Norment. When the war came on he warmly espoused the cause of his adopted country, and enlisted as a private in Company F, Fifty-First Regiment, North Carolina troops. He served as first lieutenant of this company until his capture at Cold Harbor, Va., in 1864. The last fourteen months of the war he spent in prison, most of the time in Fort Delaware, and was one of the six hundred placed under fire of Confederate guns in Charleston Harbor. He was refused exchange because he was a Northern man by birth, but on this account was treated with marked courtesy. He was a brave soldier, true to his adopted home and her cause, and willingly shared the hardships of war. After the war he returned to Lumberton, where he resided until his death, in 1896.
Albert Newton Leatherwood, residence Fort Humbree, Clay County, N. C.; enlisted and was commissioned second lieutenant in Company E, Thirty-Ninth Infantry, November 6, 1861; wounded December 31, 1862, at Murfreesboro; promoted and commissioned first lieutenant August 10, 1863 j captured in Clay County, N. C., February 19; 1864.
J. L. Haynes, first lieutenant Company I, Fourteenth Alabama, Gen. Perin's Brigade former residence near Lineville, Ala. present address, Van Alstyne, Tex.
Lieut. C. D. Covington, Company B. Forty-Fifth Tennessee Regiment, Col. Searcy commanding; enlisted at Lebanon, Tenn., in the fall of 1861 served in the Army of Tennessee, and was captured near Lebanon while recruiting for the army early in 1863 was sent to Murfreesboro, then to Louisville and in turn to Camp Chase, Fort Delaware, Johnson's Island, Point Lookout, Maryland, back to Fort Delaware, Hilton Head, and then to Charleston, where he was confined with the "six hundred." He writes that he had terrible experiences there, fearing death from starvation more than from guns or disease. Their guards were negroes, who were very brutal in their treatment. He was taken from Charleston Harbor to a point near Savannah, and was afterwards exchanged at Richmond. He now lives near Lebanon, Tenn.
First Lieut. A. J. Armstrong, Forty-Sixth Alabama Infantry, who was in Charleston Harbor with the six hundred, now lives at Balkum, Ala.
Miss Susan B. Hines, Milton, N. C., writes: "I received the names of Confederate officers directed to my brother, Capt. S. H. Hines. He was exchanged and reached home in June, 1865. He was in the mercantile business in Danville, Va., and later lived in Richmond until his death, on Christmas morning, 1870, at the burning of Spotswood Hotel, while endeavoring to rescue a friend from the flames."
Capt. C. Irvine Lewis, Kanawha Rangers, Eighth Virginia Calvary, is one of the survivors of the six hundred. He has been a practicing physician at Ganley Bridge, W. Va., ever since the war.
Comrade J. W. Matthews, Alvon, W. Va., writes: I was mustered into the service of the Confederate States May 18, 1861, at Grafton, Va. (now West Virginia), and served as a private until November, 1862, when I was elected lieutenant. I held this position until my regiment was captured, May 5, 1864, at Wilderness, Va. I was never absent from duty on account of sickness or wounds, although I had my sword shot out of my hand in the charge on Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg. I was promoted to captain after that battle. When captured I weighed 100 pounds, and after the torture on Morris' Island my weight was 100. I was not sick, but starved.
The Cumberland Presbyterian: "In the columns of the VETERAN from month to month, the war, without its bitterness and blood, is lived over again. The future historian of the civil war will find its files a mine of information."
John L. Ward, 100 North Cherry Street, Nashville, Tenn., wants information as to what company and regiment Capt. W. B. Ward belonged. It is known that he was a cavalryman in Gen. Longstreet's Corps.

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Answers to quethstios concerning the Immortal 600
Col. William Andy IRVINE
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