One of the Few Scenes of Retaliation Stockade for Confederate Prisoners on Morris Island

Many threats of retaliation for the alleged mistreatment of prisoners were made during the war, but the photograph above is the scene of one of the few which were carried out. In 1864, while Sherman was pushing everything before him in Georgia, a number of Union prisoners were sent to Charleston and confined within the city limits, actually under fire of the Union batteries, although the city was still inhabited. In retaliation, six hundred Confederate officers were placed on the steamer Crescent, August 20, 1864, and started for Charleston from Fort Delaware. When they arrived, the stockade built for their prison on Morris Island under fire of the Confederate batteries was not ready, and the prisoners were not landed till September 7th. The food furnished them was identical with that which rumor had it was furnished the prisoners in the city. The Confederates, however, were careful to fire high. The guard in the stockade was as much exposed as the prisoners. The Federal prisoners in the city were finally withdrawn; the stockade was then abandoned, and its inmates sent to Fort Pulaski, Savannah, on October 23, 1864.