On March 3rd and 4th, the park hosted one of the year’s most unusual living history events – an event that focused on the sacrifices of a special group of Confederate prisoners known as the “Immortal 600.”
Nearly 200 living history volunteers from around the nation helped to recreate one of the darkest chapters in American history. The event was entirely “immersive,” and included starvation diets for the prisoners and rigid military discipline for the guards.
The Immortal 600 prisoners were incarcerated at Fort Pulaski during the fall and winter of 1864-1865. These Confederates, each of them officers, won praise for their steadfastness, refusing to take an oath of allegiance that would have alleviated their suffering. Instead, they endured crowded conditions, diets of moldy cornbread and pickled onions, and a lack of warm clothing, blankets and firewood. Their punishment was retaliation for the harsh conditions suffered by Union prisoners incarcerated at Andersonville. Thirteen of the Confederates perished at Fort Pulaski, and were buried outside the fort.
The event was the largest of its kind at Fort Pulaski since 2000. Afterwards the participants donated more than $800 to the park. The donation will be used to purchase a complete set of implements for a brand new 30-pounder Parrott cannon. The 4,200-pound cannon will be unveiled in April 2007 during the 145th commemoration of the siege and reduction of Fort Pulaski. The cannon will be the largest operational reproduction cannon in the U.S.
