2012 Meeting Programs

January 5th Program Details
Featured Speaker: Joey Dickerson

The Granville County Genealogical Society 1746, Inc. starts off the new year by having one our more active members speak to us on January 5, 2012 at our regular monthly meeting.  Joey Dickerson will discuss the Immortal 600 Soldiers.

On August 20, 1864, a chosen group of 600 Confederate officer prisoners of war were transferred from their internment at Fort Delaware Prison, to a federally occupied Hilton Head, S.C. The purpose of this move was to place these men into a cramped stockade in front of Union artillery positions, to literally use these prisoners as human shields from the bombarding of the Confederate artillery of Charleston Harbor.  The 600 prisoners were landed on Morris Island, at the mouth of Charleston Harbor.  There they remained , in an open 1-1/2 acre pen, under the shelling of friendly artillery fire.  On October 21, after 45 days under fire, the weakened survivors were removed to Fort Pulaski.  Here they were crowded into cold, damp casements of the fort.  On November 19, an attempt to relieve overcrowding was made by sending 197 of the men back to Hilton Head.  For 42 days, thirteen men died at Fort Pulaski, and five died at Hilton Head.  “Retaliation rations” , of 10 ounces of moldy cornmeal and soured onion pickles, was the only food issued to the prisoners.

The remaining prisoners to survive were returned to Fort Delaware on March 12, 1865, where an additional twenty-five died.  The Immortal Six - Hundred became famous throughout the South for their adherence to principal, refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance under such adverse circumstances.

Please join Joey and the other GCGS members for this interesting presentation on January 5, 2012 at 6:30 P.M. in the conference room at the Richard H, Thornton Library on Main Street in Oxford.  The society meetings are open to the public and visitors are always encouraged to attend. 

All GCGS meetings are open to the public and guests are cordially invited to attend.

 

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Questions or comments send to: GCGS.office@gmail.com