Where Northern Officers Stayed

In June 1864 Confederate authorities converted Patrick O’Connor’s house on Broad Street into a prison for Union officers. A recent arrival was Union Brig. Gen. Truman Seymour, who had been captured in the battle of the Wilderness, May 6, in Virginia. Confederates hoped that the confinement of Northern officers within the effective range of their artillery firing from Morris Island would deter the Yankees from shelling the city. They were wrong. Undaunted, Federals brought 600 Southern POWs and placed them in a stockade on Morris, where they would be subjected to Confederate cannon fire. Sgt. Augustine Smythe of the Confederate Signal Corps was not happy with the comfortable quarters being accorded the enemy officers. On June 27, 1864, Gus wrote his mother: The Yankee prisoners are in Mr. Conner’s house at the corner of Broad & Rutledge Sts. It is a splendid house & a delightful situation. They have a large yard & empty lot to walk in & the other day the Govt. sent round & had gas fixtures put up so that they might have light all at the expense of the Confederacy…. They seem perfectly contented with their situation & well they may be for they are much better off than in camp….

This is the caption as printed in 100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Charleston in the War. It has not yet been through this site’s research and fact-checking pass.