The Immortal Six Hundred: A Story of Cruelty to Confederate Prisoners of War - Paperback

by John Odgen Murray (Author)

This book chronicles the ordeal of six hundred Confederate officers who were confined by their Yankee captors in the stockade on Morris Island, South Carolina, directly under the fire of Confederate guns, and then were subsequently starved on rations of rotten corn and onion pickle at Fort Pulaski, Georgia and Hilton Head, South Carolina by order of U.S. Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton. The author, a Major in the Confederate Army, was one of the survivors of the group.

Author Biography

John Ogden Murray was born in 1840 in Louisa County, Virginia. Just 21 years of age when the War Between the States began, he served as Captain in the 7th Va. Cav. Reg. and as Lieutenant in Co. A, 11th Va. Cav. Reg., and was among the "Immortal Six Hundred" Confederate officers who were held on Morris Island under fire of their own guns from Fort Sumter, and subsequently starved at Hilton Head and Fort Pulaski prisons. After the war, he struggled to earn a living, writing for various newspapers. He remained in contact with several of his war-time comrades for the remainder of his life, and some of their correspondence is included in this volume. Proceeds from the sale of the book were intended to finance the erection of a monument to the Six Hundred on Morris Island, but funds fell short and the project was never completed. Murray died on June 12, 1921 in Radford, Virginia and was buried in Saint Andrews Cemetery, Roanoke.