Sworn and subscribed to before me this 25th day of April, 1864.
WM. STANLEY,
_Lieutenant and Assistant Provost Marshal_.
A true copy.
_C. B. SMITH, Lieutenant and A. D. C._
* * * * *
MOUND CITY, _April 18, 1864_.
_Statement of William F. Mays, company B, 13th Tennessee cavalry._
I was at Fort Pillow on the 12th of April, 1864, and engaged in the
fight there. The pickets were driven in about six o'clock a. m., when
skirmishers were thrown out to ascertain the position and number of the
enemy. The contraband camp was then discovered to be on fire, and the
firing of small-arms was heard in the same direction. The skirmishing
lasted about one hour, when our skirmishers were gradually drawn back
towards the fort on the bluff. They then attacked the fort. Two assaults
were made by them, and both repulsed. This was about eleven or twelve
o'clock a. m., when a flag of truce was sent in, demanding a surrender.
While the flag was being received and the firing suspended, the enemy
were moving their forces into position, and occupied one position which
they had been fighting to obtain all day, but had not been able to gain,
except under the protection of a flag of truce. It was from this
position they made their heaviest assault, it being impossible to bring
our artillery to bear upon them.
Question. Do you believe they could have taken the fort or that
particular position had they not done so under cover of the flag of
truce?
Answer. I do not. They had been kept from it for six hours.
Question. What further took place? Go on with your statement.
Answer. In about five minutes after the disappearance of the flag of
truce, a general assault was made upon our works from every direction.
They were kept at bay for some time, when the negroes gave way upon the
left and ran down the bluff, leaving an opening through which the rebels
entered and immediately commenced an indiscriminate slaughter of both
white and black. We all threw down our arms and gave tokens of
surrender, asking for quarter. (I was wounded in the right shoulder and
muscle of the back, and knocked down before I threw down my gun.) But no
quarter was given. Voices were heard upon all sides, crying, "Give them
no quarter; kill them; kill them; it is General Forrest's orders." I saw
four white men and at least twenty-five negroes shot while begging for
mercy; and I saw one negro dragged from a hollow log within ten feet of
where I lay, and as one rebel held him by the foot another shot him.
These were all soldiers. There were also two negro women and three
little children standing within twenty-five steps from me, when a rebel
stepped up to them and said, "Yes, God damn you, you thought you were
free, did you," and shot them all. They all fell but one child, when he
knocked it in the head with the breech of his gun. They then disappeared
in the direction of the landing, following up the fugitives, firing at
them wherever seen. They came back in about three-quarters of an hour,
shooting and robbing the dead of their money and clothes. I saw a man
with a canteen upon him and a pistol in his hand. I ventured to ask him
for a drink of water. He turned around, saying, "Yes, God damn you, I
will give you a drink of water," and shot at my head three different
times, covering my face up with dust, and then turned from me, no doubt
thinking he had killed me, remarking, "God damn you, it's too late to
pray now," then went on with his pilfering. I lay there until dark,
feigning death, when a rebel officer came along, drawing his sabre and
ordered me to get up, threatening to run his sabre into me if I did not,
saying I had to march ten miles that night. I succeeded in getting up
and got among a small squad he had already gathered up, but stole away
from them during the night, and got among the dead, feigning death for
fear of being murdered. The next morning the gunboat came up and
commenced shelling them out, when I crawled out from among the dead, and
with a piece of paper motioning to the boat, she came up and I crawled
on board.
his
WM. F. + MAYS.
mark.
Sworn and subscribed to before me this 27th day of April, 1864.
WM. STANLEY,
_Lieutenant and Assistant Provost Marshal_.
A true copy.