THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED
bombarded. This notice was given that non-combatants might be removed and thus women and children be spared from harm. General Beaureguard, in a communication to General Gillmore, dated August 22, 1863, informed him that the noncombatant population of Charleston would be removed with all possible celerity. That women and children have been since retained by you in a part of the city which has been for many months exposed to fire is a matter decided by your own sense of humanity. I must, however, protest against your action in thus placing defenseless prisoners of war in a position exposed to constant bombardment. It is an indefensible act of cruelty, and can be designed only to prevent the continuance of our fire upon Charleston. That city is a depot of military supplies. It contains not merely arsenals but also foundries and factories for the manufacture of munitions of war. In its shipyards several ironclads have already been completed, while others are still upon the stocks in course of construction. Its wharves and banks of the rivers on both sides of the city are lined with batteries. To destroy these means of continuing the war is, therefore, our object of duty. You seek to defeat this effort, not by means as known to honorable warfare, but by
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