Steuart, George H., 1828-1903 to McHenry Howard
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02238 Author/Creator: Steuart, George H., 1828-1903 Place Written: Charleston, South Carolina Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 3 August 1864 Pagination: 1 p. : envelope ; 21 x 13 cm. Order a Copy
Writes as a Confederate prisoner of war to a fellow prisoner of war in Delaware. Steuart was imprisoned at Charleston Harbor "Morris Island." "... We are now being exchanged for the officers from Charleston, and expect to be there in an hour or so. Oh, how I regret that you did not come with us - I shall see Ould and endeavor to get you exchanged." Asks Howard to see to the business he requested concerning his family. The envelope is postmarked from Port Royal and addressed to Howard at Fort Delaware, Delaware. Steuart, a brigadier general in the Confederate Army, was captured at Spotsylvania on 12 May 1864. He was one of 600 prisoners of war in Fort Delaware, Delaware selected in August 1864 to move to a prison at Morris Island where they would be exposed to shelling from their own. Moving the prisoners was in retaliation for Confederate refusal to move Union POWs in Charleston even though they were in danger of being hit by fire from Federal forces. Both sides eventually relented, and Federal and Confederate prisoners were removed from the line of fire.
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