Men of New York’s "Fighting Sixty-Ninth," Prisoners in Charleston's Castle Pinckney

The prisoners shown in this photograph are members of Colonel Michael Corcoran's Irish Regiment, the Sixty-ninth New York. They were captured at the first battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861. Colonel Corcoran (shown on a previous page) and his men were taken first to Richmond, and then in September to Castle Pinckney in Charleston Harbor. These prisoners have light-heartedly decorated their casemate with a sign reading: "Musical Hall, 444 Broadway." One of their number, nicknamed "Scottie," had been formerly with Christy's minstrels, who played at 444 Broadway, New York, during the war. According to the recollections of Sergeant Joseph F. Burke, of the Cadets, the prisoners and their youthful guards indulged in good-natured banter about the outcome of the war, the prisoners predicting that their friends would soon come to the rescue—that the positions would be reversed, so that they, not the Cadets, would be "on guard." Four terrible years elapsed before their prediction as to the outcome of the war came true.