[BigNate]

I don't generally jump into these North vs South excercises in futility, but I must tell this. A couple of years ago, my wife and I visited Ft. Jefferson off Key West on the Dry Tortugas. There was a large plaque proudly proclaiming how the Union army had finished the Fort using the same slave labor they started with SIX YEARS AFTER THE CIVIL WAR WAS OVER! We read the lines on the plaque out loud several times for many of the Yankee folks who had ridden the boat over with us. How could these wonderful folks, who had freed the slaves do such a horrible thing? Fool those poor slaves into working for 6 more years, as slaves on a project run by a battalion from New York, no less!! well, Irv and Rose were really upset, they and their friends finally determined that the plaque was a set up. Brought here, no doubt by some defeated southerner from Alabama! Of course, I am sure the only reason they ever kept them working in the first place was because "they were so much better off than where they came from".

[Non-Sequitur]

I don't think that the Army was using the same slave labor in 1871 that they started with for two reasons. One, construction on the fort began in 1846 and two, slavery ended in 1865.

[Huck]

My understanding is that Fort Jefferson during and after the war was a prison. I'd like to see that plaque you describe.