Near Ebenezer Church, which was serving as the McIntosh County Courthouse after United States forces burned Darien in 1863, twenty-six men were captured by U.S. troops on the night of August 3, 1864. These civilians, many of them elderly and unable to serve in the military, were the sole protection of McIntosh County as it was repeatedly plundered by forces from blockade gunboats. After spies informed on the meeting, Federal troops surrounded the church in the dark and opened fire, then captured the men and marched them overland to Blue and Hall Landing near Darien, where they were placed on board ship and taken to northern prisons.