Item contributed by Massachusetts Historical Society
While this photograph’s title suggests it depicts the Stockade on Folly Island, text at the bottom of the image states, “Stockade on Morris Island where Rebel Prisoners were confined.”
At this stockade, the 54th joined other regiments in guarding Confederate Prisoners held here. Captain Luis Emilio provides an account of the regiment’s guard duty here and describes the location of the stockade: “September 1, several hundred Confederate officers, sent to be confined under fire in retaliation for a similar hardship suffered by our officers in Charleston, arrived off Morris Island… An enclosed camp was made for them just north of Wagner, in full view of the enemy and exposed to his fire.”1
This photograph is included in Captain Luis Emilio’s collection of photographs related to the regiment, now at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
1. Luis F. Emilio, A Brave Black Regiment: History of The Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1863-1865 (Boston: The Boston Book Company, 1864), 222.
About item:
Photograph, circa 1863-1864, 6.2 cm x 5.5 cm.
From the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment photographs.
Photo. 72.89.
