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The next meeting of the Richmond County Historical Society will include a presentation on the “Immortal 600,” a group of Confederate prisoners of war.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Feb. 18 at Rockingham City Hall.

Bruce Blackman, finance officer for Richmond Community College, will give the presentation. These Confederate prisoners were used by Union troops as shields when they advanced on Confederate troops. The captured Confederate officers were used as shields for 45 days at the entrance to Charleston Harbor on Morris Island in an attempt to silence Confederate gunners manning Fort Sumpter.

Many of them later died of starvation and disease, say historians. There is a monument to these men at Fort Pulaski National Monument in Savannah, Ga.

In other news, the Historical Society:

• Installed a new exhibit in the Rockingham City Hall display case. The theme of the case is the importance of Hitchcock Creek and Falling Creek to the development of Rockingham and Richmond County.

• Selected new officers in January for the Executive Board, and they are John Stevenson, Olivia Webb, Robbyn Sumpter, Joanne Cadieu and new members Misty Reeder and Miranda Chavis.

• Allowed Jimmy McDonald to be in charge of upgrading the society’s website, including more links with other websites.

• Will work to set up a luncheon for society members to be held at the Historic Hamlet Depot at noon on April 27. The event is limited to 50 people because of space availability.

• Will assist members of the Charlotte Hunt Club, which leases Rankin property on Drowning Creek, with genealogy, lead by May MacCallum. They have been searching for the name of a soldier from Camp Mackall who died on an exercise there. His parachute caught in a tree and he could not free himself. He was later cut down but had died. All that is known is his first name of “George.” Anyone with information on this soldier is asked to get in touch with MacCallum at 910-997-3828. Club members say that the ghost of George can be felt and heard on their overnight hunting trips to that location.

— Staff Writer Dawn M. Kurry can be reached at 910-997-3111, ext. 15, or by email at dkurry@civitasmedia.com.