Remembering Charleston the Immortal 600 (SC)
Palmetto Past & Present: Heroism, Human Shields And The Immortal 600
Palmetto Past & Present: Heroism, Human Shields And The Immortal 600
It’s a question as old as mankind itself: where does civilized warfare end and outright cruelty begin? The line separating the two is narrow and frequently blurred, often making it difficult to distinguish.
Exactly 161 years ago this summer, a case study for this dilemma unfolded here in South Carolina. And it revealed the very best—and the very worst—of human nature. This is the story of the Immortal 600.
The “Holy City” of Charleston is forever linked to the tragedy that was the War Between the States. The convention that made South Carolina the first state to secede from the Union gathered there in December 1860. Barely 100 days later, the bloody conflict began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861.
For these reasons, the city held deep significance to the people of the North. A letter in my collection, written by a young Federal soldier in 1863, succinctly summed up the bitterness.
“I want to see Charleston, South Carolina, in ashes before the war ends, for I think that place ought to suffer for its folly,” he wrote.
Strategically speaking, Charleston was also a major Southern seaport. It welcomed the blockade runners whose cargoes of guns, ammunition and other materiel helped keep Confederate troops supplied. Little wonder, then, the North placed such a high premium on its capture.
Throughout the summer of 1863, Federal forces conducted a kind of island-hopping campaign, first capturing Folly Island, which was…