THOMAS W. KENT

ONE OF THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED



Following the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, each county in Georgia held an election to elect delegates to a convention at the state capital in Milledgeville. The popular election determined the vote of each county's delegates on the first ballot. Johnson Countians, like many other residents in East Central Georgia, voted against secession from the Union. The people of Johnson County wanted to remain in the Union and work out their differences with the Northern states. The convention voted to secede from the Union in January of 1861.

After Confederate forces in Charleston, South Carolina, fired on Fort Sumter, it was too late to turn back. The war of "brother against brother" was on.  Thomas W. Kent was born in Warren County, Georgia on July 28, 1828. He was a son of Thomas Kent and Martha Kent. Kent moved to Johnson County in the
latter part of the 1850s. Thomas Kent joined the Confederate Army on July 11, 1861.  He was elected 1st Lieutenant of Company F of the 14th Georgia Infantry, "The Johnson Greys." The Greys were assigned to the West Virginia area under the command of Robert E. Lee. Many soldiers of the 14th Georgia became ill with fever and disease in the first fall of the war. Lt. Kent also fell ill, resigned his commission, and returned home to Johnson County. When a new Johnson County company was formed in March of 1862, Kent rejoined the army. Kent was elected Captain of the Battleground Guards of Johnson County, who were designated as Co. H. of the 48th Georgia Infantry. The Guards saw action in the Battles of the Seven Days. Captain Kent was severely wounded in the neck and mistakenly reported dead at Sharpsburg
(Antietam), Maryland on Sept. 17, 1862. His company was heavily involved in the battles near "The Cornfield" and "Bloody Lane." He rejoined the company by December of 1862.

Captain Kent was wounded a second time at Gettysburg, Pa. on July 2, 1863.  His regiment breached Union positions on Cemetery Ridge - going further than any other of Lee's forces. Kent was wounded and left on the field to die. Again, he survived but was captured at Gettysburg on July 7, 1863. Kent, along with
thousands of others, was taken to various prisons in the North. Capt. Kent soon became a part of a group of Confederate officers known as the "Immortal Six Hundred." These officers were moved from place to place and positioned directly in the line of fire of their own men - a practice which was clearly unacceptable by
men of honor. Captain Kent was taken to Fort Delaware Prison. Despite repeated offers by the Confederate Government, President Lincoln ended the exchanges of prisoners of war.

Kent and his comrades were transported by ship from Fort Delaware to Charleston, South Carolina in late August of 1864. While the ship was lying in Port Royal Harbor, Capt. Kent and seven others procured life jackets and jumped ship.  Kent and two others made it to Hilton Head Island and thence to Pinckney Island,
where they were captured by Union forces - only four hundred yards from freedom.

Kent was returned to Morris Island, South Carolina. In November, 1864, the officers were transferred to Fort Pulaski near Savannah, Georgia. Kent and six other officers devised a plan to escape. On Christmas night of 1864, the men began tunneling. The seven men worked in pairs. Their only two tools were an old case knife and a stove poker. They stood in waist deep freezing water. They were starving. The men had to save their rations of one to two ounces of corn meal a day to support them after their escape. In nine weeks, the seven men had tunneled through 336 feet of brick and mortar.

On the last day of February, the tunnel was completed. Captain Kent was the third man to come out. There was a drizzling rain that midnight. When the men got to the door, they found it wouldn't budge. Some sort of weight had been placed on it. They decided to force it open at any cost. Amazingly, the Union guards were not awakened by the noise of barrels falling.

The men made it out, crossed the moat and made it down to the wharf. At the wharf they were discovered by Union sentinels when they were betrayed by one of their own men - again within a few yards of freedom. Shots were fired. No one was hurt. Kent and the others were taken back to the fort and forced to remain in
their wet clothing for five days in a cold, dark cell.

As the war was coming to a close, the Union Army decided that the men should be transferred out of the South. In March, 1865, the prisoners were shipped by boat to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, and then back to Fort Delaware.

Nearly two years after his capture and two and one-half months after the war, Kent was released from Fort Delaware Prison in Delaware on June 12, 1865. Captain Kent returned home to a community devastated by war. There was little money and even less food.

Captain Kent lived a long and productive life after he war. He died on June 20, 1918 and buried in the Kent Cemetery, Johnson County. Beside him is his wife, Martha McWhorter Battle, who died on March 16, 1926. The story of the "Immortal 600" was ignored by historians for over a hundred years. The story of the
"Immortal 600" has recently been chronicled by Muriel P. Jocelyn.

I encourage you to visit Fort Pulaski near Savannah. It is fascinating part of our state and country's past. You can see the places where the prisoners lived in the case mates along the south wall of the fort. Imagine the courage and determination of these men just to survive.