[59]
Where the first Federal prisoners were sent—young South Carolinians at drill Again the reader penetrates inside the Confederate lines in war-time, gazing here at the grim prison barriers of Castle Pinckney, in Charleston Harbor, where some of the Union prisoners captured at the first battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, had been sent. The thick stone walls frown down upon the boys of the Charleston Zouave Cadets, assigned to guard these prisoners. Here they are drilling within the prison under the command of Lieutenants E. John White (in front at the right) and B. M. Walpole, just behind him. The cadet kneeling upon the extreme right is Sergeant (later Captain) Joseph F. Burke. The responsibility was a heavy one, but the ‘Cadets’ were a well-drilled body of youngsters and proved quite equal to their duties. This was early in the war before there were brigadier-generals scarcely of age, and youth had been found not to preclude soldierly qualities. No escapes from this fortress have been chronicled. |