_Assault and Capture of the Fort.--“No Quarter.”--Rebel
Atrocities.--Gens. Forrest and Chalmers.--Firing upon Flags of
Truce.--Murder of Men, Women, and Children.--Night after the
Assault.--Buried Alive.--Morning after the Massacre._
Nothing in the history of the Rebellion has equalled in inhumanity and
atrocity the horrid butchery at Fort Pillow, Ky., on the 13th of April,
1864. In no other school than slavery could human beings have been
trained to such readiness for cruelties like these. Accustomed to
brutality and bestiality all their lives, it was easy for them to
perpetrate the atrocities which will startle the civilized foreign
world, as they have awakened the indignation of our own people.
We have gleaned the facts of the fight from authentic sources, and they
may be relied upon as truthful. The rebels, under Forrest, appeared, and
drove in the pickets about sunrise on Tuesday morning. The garrison
of the fort consisted of about two hundred of the Thirteenth Tennessee
Volunteers, and four hundred negro artillery, all under command of
Major Booth: the gunboat “No. 7” was also in the river. The rebels
first attacked the outer forts, and, in several attempts to charge, were
repulsed. They were constantly re-enforced, and extended their lines to
the river on both sides of the fort. The garrison in the two outer forts
was at length overpowered by superior numbers, and about noon evacuated
them, and retired to the fort on the river. Here the fight was
maintained with great obstinacy, and continued till about four, p.m. The
approach to the fort from the rear is over a gentle declivity, cleared,
and fully exposed to a raking fire from two sides of the fort. About
thirty yards from the fort is a deep ravine, running all along the
front, and so steep at the bottom as to be hidden from the fort, and not
commanded by its guns. The rebels charged with great boldness dawn the
declivity, and faced, without blanching, a murderous fire from the guns
and small-arms of the fort, and crowded into the ravine; where they were
sheltered from fire by the steep bank, which had been thus left by some
unaccountable neglect or ignorance. Here the rebels organized for a
final charge upon the fort, after sending a flag of truce with a demand
for surrender, which was refused. The approach from the ravine was up
through a deep, narrow gully, and the steep embankments of the fort. The
last charge was made about four, p.m., by the whole rebel force, and was
successful after a most desperate and gallant defence. The rebel army
was estimated at from two thousand to four thousand, and succeeded by
mere force of numbers. The gunboat had not been idle, but, guided by
signals from the fort, poured upon the rebels a constant stream of shot
and shell. She fired two hundred and sixty shells, and, as testified to
by those who could see, with marvellous precision and with fatal effect.
Major Booth, who was killed near the close of the fight, conducted the
defence with great coolness, skill, and gallantry. His last signal to
the boat was, “We are hard pressed and shall be overpowered.” He refused
to surrender, however, and fought to the last. By the uniform and
voluntary, testimony of the rebel officers, as well as the survivors
of the fight, the negro-artillery regiments fought with the bravery and
coolness of veterans, and served the guns with skill and precision.
They did not falter nor flinch, until, at the last charge, when it
was evident they would be overpowered, they broke, and fled toward the
river: and here commenced the most barbarous and cruel outrages that
ever the fiendishness of rebels has perpetrated during the war.
After the rebels were in undisputed possession of the fort, and the
survivors had surrendered, they commenced the indiscriminate butchery
of all the Federal soldiery. The colored soldiers threw down their
guns, and raised their arms, in token of surrender; but not the least
attention was paid to it. They continued to shoot down all they found. A
number of them, finding no quarter was given, ran over the bluff to the
river, and tried to conceal themselves under the bank and in the bushes,
where they were pursued by the rebel savages, whom they implored to
spare their lives. Their appeals were made in vain; and they were all
shot down in cold blood, and, in full sight of the gunboat, chased and
shot down like dogs. In passing up the bank of the river, fifty dead
might be counted, strewed along. One had crawled into a hollow log, and
was killed in it; another had got over the bank into the river, and had
got on a board that run out into the water. He lay on it on his face,
with his feet in the water. He lay there, when exposed, stark and stiff.
Several had tried to hide in crevices made by the falling bank, and
could not be seen without difficulty; but they were singled out, and
killed. From the best information to be had, the white soldiers were, to
a very considerable extent, treated in the same way. H. W. Harrison, one
of the Thirteenth Tennessee on board, says, that, after the surrender,
he was below the bluff, and one of the rebels presented a pistol to
shoot him. He told him he had surrendered, and requested him not to
fire. He spared him, and directed him to go up the bluff to the fort.
Harrison asked him to go before him, or he would be shot by others; but
he told him to go along. He started, and had not proceeded far before he
met a rebel, who presented his pistol. Harrison begged him not to fire;
but, paying no attention to his request, he fired, and shot him through
the shoulder; and another shot him in the leg. He fell; and, while he
lay unable to move, another came along, and was about to fire again,
when Harrison told him he was badly wounded twice, and implored him not
to fire. He asked Harrison if he had any money. He said he had a little
money, and a watch. The rebel took from him his watch and ninety dollars
in money, and left him. Harrison is, probably, fatally wounded. Several
such cases have been related to me; and I think, to a great extent,
the whites and negroes were indiscriminately murdered. The rebel
Tennesseeans have about the same bitterness against Tennesseeans in the
Federal army, as against the negroes. It was told by a rebel officer
that Gen. Forrest shot one of his men, and cut another with his sabre,
who were shooting down prisoners. It may be so; but he is responsible
for the conduct of his men. Gen. Chalmers stated publicly, while on the
Platte Valley, that, though he did not encourage or countenance his men
in shooting down negro captives, yet it was right and justifiable.
The negro corporal, Jacob Wilson, who was picked up below Fort Pillow,
had a narrow escape. He was down on the river-bank, and, seeing that no
quarter was shown, stepped into the water so that he lay partly under
it. A rebel coming along asked him what was the matter: he said he was
badly wounded; and the rebel, after taking from his pocket all the money
he had, left him. It happened to be near by a flat-boat tied to the
bank, and about three o’clock in the morning. When all was quiet, Wilson
crawled into it, and got three more wounded comrades also into it, and
cut loose. The boat floated out into the channel, and was found ashore
some miles below. The wounded negro soldiers aboard feigned themselves
dead until Union soldiers came along.
The atrocities committed almost exceed belief; and, but for the fact
that so many confirm the stories, we could not credit them. One man,
already badly wounded, asked of a scoundrel who was firing at him, to
spare his life. “No: damn you!” was the reply. “You fight with niggers!”
and forthwith discharged two more balls into him. One negro was made
to assist in digging a pit to bury the dead in, and was himself cast in
among others, and buried. Five are known to have been buried alive: of
these, two dug themselves out, and are now alive, and in the hospital.
Daniel Tyler, of Company B, was shot three times, and struck on the
head, knocking out his eye. After this, he was buried; but, not liking
his quarters, dug out. He laughs over his adventures, and says he is one
of the best “dug-outs” in the world.
Dr. Fitch says he saw twenty white soldiers paraded in line on the bank
of the river; and, when in line, the rebels fired upon and killed
all but one, who ran to the river, and hid under a log, and in that
condition was fired at a number of times, and wounded. He says that
Major Bradford also ran down to the river, and, after he told them that
he had surrendered, more than fifty shots were fired at him. He then
jumped into the river, and swam out a little ways, and whole volleys
were fired at him there without hitting him. He returned to the shore,
and meeting, as the doctor supposes, some officer, was protected; but he
heard frequent threats from the rebels that they would kill him.
“Yesterday afternoon,” says “The Cairo News” of April 16, “we visited
the United-States Hospital at Mound City, and had an interview with the
wounded men from Fort Pillow.
“The Fort-Pillow wounded are doing much better than could be expected
from the terrible nature of their wounds. But one, William Jones, had
died, though Adjutant Bearing and Lieut. John H. Porter cannot possibly
long survive. Of the whole number,--fifty-two,--all except two were cut
or shot after they had surrendered! They all tell the same story of the
rebel barbarities; and listening to a recital of the terrible scenes at
the fort makes one’s blood run cold. They say they were able to keep the
rebels at bay for several hours, notwithstanding the immense disparity
of numbers; and, but for their treachery in creeping up under the walls
of the fort while a truce was pending, would have held out until ‘The
Olive Branch’ arrived with troops, with whose assistance they would have
defeated Chalmers.
“So well were our men protected behind their works, that our loss
was very trifling before the rebels scaled the walls, and obtained
possession. As soon as they saw the Rebels inside the walls, the
Unionists ceased firing, knowing that further resistance was useless;
but the Rebels continued firing, crying out, ‘Shoot them, shoot them!
Show them no quarter!’
“The Unionists, with one or two exceptions, had thrown down their arms
in token of surrender, and therefore could offer no resistance. In vain
they held up their hands, and begged their captors to spare their lives.
But they were appealing to fiends; and the butchery continued until, out
of near six hundred men who composed the garrison, but two hundred and
thirty remained alive: and of this number, sixty-two were wounded, and
nine died in a few hours after.
“Capt. Bradford, of the First Alabama Cavalry, was an especial object of
rebel hatred, and his death was fully determined upon before the assault
was made. After he had surrendered, he was basely shot; but, having
his revolver still at his side, he emptied it among a crowd of rebels,
bringing three of the scoundrels to the ground. The massacre was
acquiesced in by most of the rebel officers, Chalmers himself expressly
declaring that ‘home-made Yankees and negroes should receive no
quarter.’”
The following is an extract from the Report of the Committee on the
Conduct of the War on the Fort-Pillow Massacre:--
“It will appear from the testimony that was taken, that the atrocities
committed at Fort Pillow were not the results of passion elicited by the
heat of conflict, but were the results of a policy deliberately decided
upon, and unhesitatingly announced. Even if the uncertainty of the
fate of those officers and men belonging to colored regiments, who have
heretofore been taken prisoners by the rebels, has failed to convince
the authorities of our Government of this fact, the testimony herewith
submitted must convince even the most sceptical, that it is the
intention of the rebel authorities not to recognize the officers and men
of our colored regiments as entitled to the treatment accorded by all
civilized nations to prisoners of war.
“The declarations of Forrest and his officers, both before and after
the capture of Fort Pillow, as testified to by such of our men as have
escaped after being taken by him; the threats contained in the various
demands for surrender made at Paducah, Columbus, and other places; the
renewal of the massacre the morning after the capture of Fort Pillow;
the statements made by the rebel officers to the officers of our
gunboats who received the few survivors at Fort Pillow,--all this proves
most conclusively the policy they have determined to adopt.
“It was at Fort Pillow that the brutality and cruelty of the rebels
were most fearfully exhibited. The garrison there, according to the
last returns received at headquarters, amounted to ten officers and five
hundred and thirty-eight enlisted men, of whom two hundred and
sixty-two were colored troops, comprising one battalion of the Sixteenth
United-States Heavy Artillery, formerly the First Alabama Artillery of
colored troops, under the command of Major L. F. Booth; one section of
the Second Light Artillery (colored); and a battalion of the Thirteenth
Tennessee Cavalry (white ), commanded by Major A. F. Bradford. Major
Booth was the ranking officer, and was in command of the fort.
“Immediately after the second flag of truce retired, the rebels made a
rush from the positions they had so treacherously gained, and obtained
possession of the fort, raising the cry of ‘No quarter.’ But little
opportunity was allowed for resistance. Our troops, white and black,
threw down their arms, and sought to escape by running down the steep
bluff near the fort, and secreting themselves behind trees and logs
in the brush, and under the brush; some even jumping into the river,
leaving only their heads above the water. Then followed a scene of
cruelty and murder without parallel in civilized warfare, which needed
but the tomahawk and scalping-knife to exceed the worst atrocities ever
committed by savages.
“The rebels commenced an indiscriminate slaughter, sparing neither age
nor sex, white nor black, soldier nor civilian. The officers and men
seemed to vie with each other in the devilish work. Men, women, and
children, wherever found, were deliberately shot down, beaten, and
hacked with sabres. Some of the children not more than ten years old
were forced to stand up by their murderers while being shot. The sick
and wounded were butchered without mercy; the rebels even entering the
hospital-buildings, and dragging them out to be shot, or killing them
as they lay there unable to offer the least resistance. All over the
hillside the work of murder was going on. Numbers of our men were
collected together in lines or groups, aud deliberately shot. Some were
shot while in the river; while others on the bank were shot, and their
bodies kicked into the water, many of them still living, but unable to
make exertions to save themselves from drowning.
“Some of the rebels stood upon the top of the hill, or a short distance
from its side, and called to our soldiers to come up to them, and, as
they approached, shot them down in cold blood; and, if their guns or
pistols missed fire, forced them to stand there until they were again
prepared to fire. All around were heard cries of ‘No quarter, no
quarter!’ ‘Kill the d----d niggers, shoot them down!7 All who asked
for mercy were answered by the most cruel taunts and sneers. Some were
spared for a time, only to be murdered under circumstances of greater
cruelty.
“No cruelty which the most fiendish malignity could devise was omitted by
these murderers. One white soldier who was wounded in the leg so as to
be unable to walk was made to stand up while his tormentors shot him.
Others who were wounded, and unable to stand up, were held up and again
shot. One negro who had been ordered by a rebel officer to hold his
horse was killed by him when he remonstrated; another, a mere child,
whom an officer had taken up behind him on his horse, was seen by Gen.
Chalmers, who at once ordered him to put him down and shoot him, which
was done.
“The huts and tents in which many of the wounded sought shelter were set
on fire, both on that night and the next morning, while the wounded were
still in them; those only escaping who were able to get themselves out,
or who could prevail on others less injured to help them out: and some
of these thus seeking to escape the flames were met by these ruffians,
and brutally shot down, or had their brains beaten out. One man was
deliberately fastened down to the floor of a tent, face upwards, by
means of nails driven through his clothing and into the boards under
him, so that he could not possibly escape; and then the tent was set on
fire. Another was nailed to the sides of a building outside of the fort,
and then the building was set on fire and burned. The charred remains of
five or six bodies were afterwards found, all but one so much disfigured
and consumed by the flames, that they could not be identified; and the
identification of that one is not absolutely certain, although there
can hardly be a doubt that it was the body of Lieut. Albertson,
Quartermaster of the Thirteenth Virginia Cavalry, and a native
of Tennessee. Several witnesses who saw the remains, and who were
personally acquainted with him while living here, testified it to be
their firm belief that it was his body that was thus treated.
“These deeds of murder and cruelty closed when night came on, only to
be renewed the next morning, when the demons carefully sought among the
dead lying about in all directions for any other wounded yet alive; and
those they found were deliberately shot. Scores of the dead and wounded
were found there the day after the massacre by the men from some of our
gunboats, who were permitted to go on shore, and collect the wounded,
and bury the dead.
“The rebels themselves had made a pretence of burying a great many of
their victims; but they had merely thrown them, without the least regard
to care or decency, in the trenches and ditches about the fort, or
little hollows and ravines on the hillside, covering them but partially
with earth. Portions of heads and faces were found protruding through
the earth in every direction; and even when your Committee visited the
spot, two weeks afterwards, although parties of men had been sent on
shore from time to time to bury the bodies unburied, and re-bury the
others, and were even then engaged in the same work, we found the
evidences of the murder and cruelty still most painfully apparent.
“We saw bodies still unburied, at some distance from the fort, of some
sick men who had been met fleeing from the hospital, and beaten down and
brutally murdered, and their bodies left where they had fallen. We
could still see the faces and hands and feet of men, white and black,
protruding out of the ground, whose graves had not been reached by those
engaged in re-interring the victims of the massacre; and, although
a great deal of rain had fallen within the preceding two weeks, the
ground, more especially on the side and at the foot of the bluff where
most of the murders had been committed, was still discolored by the
blood of our brave but unfortunate soldiers; and the logs and trees
showed but too plainly the evidences of the atrocities perpetrated.
“Many other instances of equally, atrocious cruelty might be mentioned;
but your Committee feel compelled to refrain from giving here more of
the heart-sickening details, and refer to the statements contained
in the voluminous testimony herewith submitted. These statements were
obtained by them from eye-witnesses and sufferers. Many of them as
they were examined by your Committee were lying upon beds of pain and
suffering; some so feeble that their lips could with difficulty frame
the words by which they endeavored to convey some idea of the cruelties
which had been inflicted on them, and which they had seen inflicted on
others.”
When the murderers returned, the day after the capture, to renew
their fiendish work upon the wounded and dying, they found a young and
beautiful mulatto woman searching among the dead for the body of
her husband. She was the daughter of a wealthy and influential rebel
residing at Columbus. With her husband, this woman was living near the
fort when our forces occupied it, and joined the Union men to assist in
holding the place. Going from body to body with all the earnestness with
which love could inspire an affectionate heart, she at last found the
object of her search. He was not dead; but both legs were broken. The
wife had succeeded in getting him out from among the piles of dead, and
was bathing his face, and giving him water to drink from a pool near by,
which had been replenished by the rain that fell a few hours before. At
this moment she was seen by the murderous band; and the cry was at once
raised, “Kill the wench, kill her!” The next moment the sharp crack of
a musket was heard, and the angel of mercy fell a corpse on the body
of her wounded husband, who was soon after knocked in the head by the
butt-end of the same weapon. Though these revolting murders were done
under the immediate eye of Gen. Chalmers, the whole was planned and
carried out by Gen. Forrest whose inhumanity has never been surpassed in
the history of civilized or even barbarous warfare.