Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War

Columbus, Kentucky, April 24, 1864.

Colonel Wm. H. Lawrence, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. What is your rank and position in the army?

Answer. I am colonel of the 34th New Jersey volunteers.

Question. Where are you stationed now, and how long have you been there stationed?

Answer. I am stationed at Columbus, and have been there since the end of January last.

Question. What do you know with regard to the attack and capture of Fort Pillow?

Answer. All I know about that is, that General Shipley arrived here on the 13th of April. He took me one side, and told me that as he passed Fort Pillow he was hailed from a gunboat, and told that there had been severe fighting there; that he saw a flag of truce at Fort Pillow, and that, after passing the fort a little distance, he saw the American flag hauled down, or the halliards shot away, he did not know which; and he afterward saw a flag, which was not raised higher than a regimental flag, and that he believed Fort Pillow had surrendered. He then offered me two batteries of light artillery, which he said were fully manned and equipped. He repeated this same conversation to General Brayman, as I understand, after arriving at Cairo.

Question. Did he give any reason why he did not undertake to assist the garrison at Fort Pillow?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. From his conversation, did you gather that he was in a condition to render assistance?

Answer. [After a pause.] It struck me as the most remarkable thing in the world that he had not found out positively; had not landed his batteries, and gone to the assistance of Fort Pillow.

Question. Under what circumstances did you understand he was there?

Answer. The steamer on which he was passed by there. I am under the impression that he had also two or three hundred infantry on the steamer.

Dr. Chapman Underwood, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Where do you reside?

Answer. I reside in Tennessee.

Question. Were you at Fort Pillow, or on board a gunboat, during the attack there?

Answer. Yes, sir; I was there.

Question. What was your position?

Answer. I was sent from there, about ten days before that, on detached service, looking after convalescents, and returned on the Saturday evening before the fight on Tuesday morning. I was acting assistant surgeon. The regiment was not full enough to have a surgeon with the regular rank.

Question. Will you state what came within your own observation in connexion with the attack and capture?

Answer. I roomed with Lieutenant Logan, first lieutenant of company C, 13th Tennessee cavalry. About sun-up, I got up as usual. About the time I got up and washed, the pickets ran in and said Forrest was coming to attack the fort. I started up to the fort. Lieutenant Logan knew the feeling the rebels had towards me, and told me to go on the gunboat.

Question. What do you mean by that?

Answer. Well, they had been hunting me – had shot at me frequently. Faulkner's regiment, and a part of another, was raised in the country where I knew all of them. I was a notorious character with them, and always had to leave whenever they came around. The lieutenant advised me to go on board the gunboat for safety, and I did so. The attack came on then, and we fired from the gunboat, I think, some 260 or 270 rounds, and the sharpshooters on the boat were firing, I among the rest. We fought on, I think, until about one or half past one. The rebels had not made much progress by that time. They then came in with a flag of truce, and firing ceased from the fort and gunboat, and all around. They had a conference, I think, of about three-quarters of an hour. They returned with the flag of truce; but in a very short time came back again with it to the fort, and had another interview. During the time the flag of truce was in there, there was no firing done from either side, but we could see from the gunboat up the creek that the rebels were moving up towards the fort. The boat lay about 200 yards from the shore, right opposite the quartermaster's department. By the time the first flag of truce got to the fort, they commenced stealing the quartermaster's stores, and began packing them off up the hill. For an hour and a half, I reckon, there seemed to be above one or two hundred men engaged in it.

Question. This was before the capture of the fort?

Answer. Yes, sir; while under the protection of the flag of truce. When the last flag of truce started back from the fort, in three minutes, or less, the firing opened again, and then they just rushed in all around, from every direction, like a swarm of bees, and overwhelmed everything. The men – white and black – all rushed out of the fort together, threw down their arms, and ran down the hill; but they shot them down like beeves, in every direction. I think I saw about 200 run down next to the water, and some of them into the water, and they shot them until I did not see a man standing.

Question. How many do you think were shot after the capture of the fort, and after they threw down their arms?

Answer. Well, I think, from all the information I could gather, there were about 400 men killed after the capture, or 450. I think there were about 500 and odd men killed there. A very great majority of them were killed after the surrender. I do not suppose there were more than 20 men killed before the fort was captured and the men threw down their arms and begged for quarter.

Question. Was there any resistance on the part of our soldiers after the capture of the fort?

Answer. None in the world. They had no chance to make any resistance.

Question. And they did not attempt to make any?

Answer. None that I could discover. There were about 500 black soldiers in all there, and about 200 whites able for duty. There were a great many of them sick and in the hospital.

Question. What happened after that?

Answer. They then got our cannon in the fort, and turned them on us, and we had to steam off up the river a little, knowing that they had got a couple of 10 or 12-pounder Parrott guns. They threw three shells towards us. We steamed off up the river, anchored, and lay there all night. We returned the next morning. We got down near there, and discovered plenty of rebels on the hill, and a gunboat and another boat lying at the shore. We acted pretty cautiously, and held out a signal, and the gunboat answered it, and then we went in. When we got in there, the rebel General Chalmers was on board, and several other officers – majors, captains, orderlies, &c. – and bragged a great deal about their victory, and said it was a matter of no consequence. They hated to have such a fight as that, when they could take no more men than they had there. One of the gunboat officers got into a squabble with them, and said they did not treat the flag of truce right. An officer – a captain, I think – who was going home, came up and said that, "Damn them, he had 18 fights with them, but he would not treat them as prisoners of war after that," and that he intended to go home, and would enlist again. Chalmers said that he would treat him as a prisoner of war, but that they would not treat as prisoners of war the "home-made Yankees," meaning the loyal Tennesseeans. There were some sick men in the hospital, but I was afraid to go on shore after the rebels got there. I merely went on shore, but did not pretend to leave the boat.

Question. Did you see any person shot there the next morning after you returned?

Answer. I heard a gun or a pistol fired up the bank, and soon afterwards a negro woman came in, who was shot through the knee, and said it was done about that time. I heard frequent shooting up where the fort was, but I did not go up to see what was done.

Fort Pillow, Tennessee, April 25, 1864.

Captain James Marshall, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. What is your rank and position in the naval service?

Answer. I am an acting master, commanding the United States steamer New Era, gunboat No. 7.

Question. Where is your boat?

Answer. My boat has been twenty-four hours run from Fort Pillow. Since the attack here, that has been changed. At the time the fort was attacked, I was to make my principal headquarters here.

Question. Were you present with your gunboat at the time Fort Pillow was attacked and captured?

Answer. I was.

Question. Please describe that affair.

Answer. At six o'clock, on the morning of the 12th of April, Major Booth sent me word that the rebels were advancing on us. I immediately got the ship cleared for action. I gave the men their breakfasts. I had no idea that there would be a fight. I thought it would merely be a little skirmish. I went out into the stream. Major Booth and myself had previously established signals, by which he could indicate certain points where he would want me to use my guns. He first signalled me to commence firing up what we call No. 1 ravine, just below the quartermaster's department, and I commenced firing there. Then he signalled me to fire up Coal Creek ravine No. 3, and I then moved up there. Before I left down here at ravine No. 1 the rebel sharpshooters were firing at me rapidly. I came along up, and the women and children, some sick negroes, and boys, were standing around a great barge. I told them to get into the barge if they wanted to save themselves, and when I came down again I would take them out of danger. They went in, and I towed them up and landed them above Coal Creek, where the rebel sharpshooters commenced firing at them. The next time I moved up Coal Creek ravine I told them to go on up to a house, as the rebels were firing upon them. The trees and bushes around them there probably prevented them from being hit. On knowing that they were fired at much, I kept a steady fire up to about one o'clock. At that time the fire had ceased or slackened, and everything seemed to be quieting down, and I thought, perhaps, they were waiting to get a little rest. My men were very tired, not having had anything to eat since morning, and the officers nothing at all. I ran over on the bar to clean out my guns and refresh my men. We had fired 282 rounds of shell, shrapnell, and canister, and my guns were getting foul. While we were lying on the bar a flag of truce came in – the first one. It was, I should judge, about half past six o'clock. While the flag of truce was in, some of the officers came to me and told me the rebels were robbing the quartermaster's department. I went out on the deck and saw them doing so. Some of the officers said that we should go in and fire upon them; that we could slay them very nicely. I remarked to them that that was not civilized warfare; that two wrongs did not make a right; and that if the rebels should take the fort afterwards they would say that they would be justified in doing anything they pleased, because I had fired on them while the flag of truce was in, although they were thus violating that flag of truce themselves. They were also moving their forces down this hill, and were going up the ravine. When I saw that, I got under way, and stood off for the fort again, intending to stop it. I had only seventy-five rounds of ammunition left, but I told the boys that we would use that at any rate. The flag of truce started and went out, and I do not think it had been out more than five minutes when the assault was made. Major Bradford signalled to me that we were whipped. We had agreed on a signal that, if they had to leave the fort, they would drop down under the bank, and I was to give the rebels canister. I was lying up above here, but the rebels turned the guns in the fort on us – I think all of them – and a Parrott shot was fired but went over us. I had to leave, because, if I came down here, the channel would force me to go around the point, and then, with the guns in the fort, they would sink me. Had I been below here at the time, I think I could have routed them out; but part of our own men were in the fort at the same time, and I should have killed them as well as the rebels. The rebels kept firing on our men for at least twenty minutes after our flag was down. We said to one another that they could be giving no quarter. We could see the men fall, as they were shot, under the bank. I could not see whether they had arms or not. I was fearful that they might hail in a steamboat from below, capture her, put on 400 or 500 men, and come after me. I wanted to get down so as to give warning, and I did send word to Memphis to have all steamboats stopped for the present. The next morning the gunboat 28 and the transport Platte Valley came up.

Question. When did you go ashore after the fort had been captured?

Answer. I went ashore the next morning, about ten o'clock, under a flag of truce, with a party of men and an officer, to gather up the wounded and bury the dead. I found men lying in the tents and in the fort, whose bodies were burning. There were two there that I saw that day that had been burned.

Question. What was the appearance of the remains? What do you infer from what you saw?

Answer. I supposed that they had been just set on fire there. There was no necessity for burning the bodies there with the buildings, because, if they had chosen, they could have dragged the bodies out. There was so little wood about any of those tents that I can hardly understand how the bodies could have been burned as they were.

Question. Were the tents burned around the bodies?

Answer. Yes, sir. On the 14th of April (the second day after the capture) I came up again. I had a lot of refugees on board, and as I came around I hoisted a white flag, intending to come in and see if there were any wounded or unburied bodies here. When I landed here, I saw, I should judge, at least fifty cavalry over on Flower island, and while I was lying here with a white flag they set fire to an empty coal barge I had towed over there. I put the refugees on the shore, took down the white flag, and started after them, and commenced shelling them, and the gunboats 34 and 15 and the despatch boat Volunteer came down and opened on them. We did not see the rebels then, but saw where they were setting wood piles on fire, and we followed them clear round and drove them off. At this time I received information that the body of Lieutenant Akerstrom had been burned; that it was he who was burned in the house. Some of the refugees told me this, and also that they had taken him out and buried him. There was also one negro who had been thrown in a hole and buried alive. We took him out, but he lived only a few minutes afterwards. After we had followed these rebels around to the head of Island 30, I came back to the fort, landed, and took on board the refugees I had put on shore. The next morning the three gunboats landed here, and we sent out pickets, and then sent men around to look up the dead. We found a number there not buried, besides one man whose body was so burnt that we had to take a shovel to take up his remains.

Question. Was he burned where there was a tent or a building?

Answer. Where there was a building.

Question. Do you know whether there were any wounded men burned in those buildings?

Answer. I do not. All I know about that is what I was told by Lieutenant Leming, who said that while he was lying here wounded, he heard some of the soldiers say that there were some wounded negroes in those buildings, who said, "You are trying to get this gunboat back to shell us, are you, God damn you," and then shot them down. I went to Memphis, and then had to go to Cairo. I was then ordered to patrol the river from here (Fort Pillow) to Memphis. I started down on my first trip on Friday morning last. I arrived at Memphis on Friday afternoon. I mentioned there the manner in which our men had been buried here by the rebels, and said that I thought humanity dictated that they should be taken up and buried as they ought to be. The general ordered some men to be detailed, with rations, to come up here and rebury them properly. They have come here, and have been engaged in that work since they came up.

Question. How many have you already found?

Answer. We have found already fifty-two white men and four officers, besides a great many colored men.

Question. Had the blacks and whites been buried together indiscriminately?

Answer. We have not found it so exactly; we have found them in the same trench, but the white men mostly at one end, and the black men at the other; but they were all pitched in in any way – some on their faces, some on their sides, some on their backs.

Question. Did you hear anything said about giving quarter or not giving, quarter on that occasion?

Answer. No, sir; but our paymaster here could tell you what he heard some of their officers say.

Question. Do you know anything about the transport Platte Valley being here?

Answer. She was lying alongside the gunboat 28 here when I came down the day after the fight, and came alongside of her.

Question. Do you know anything about any of our officers showing civilities to the rebel officers after all these atrocities?

Answer. I saw nothing of that kind but one lieutenant, who went up around with them on the hill. Who he was I do not know, but I recollect noticing his stripe.

Question. Did he belong to the navy or army?

Answer. He belonged to the army. I saw the rebel General Chalmers but once. When I came down here that morning I was the ranking officer; but the captain of gunboat 28 had commenced negotiations with the flag of truce, and I told him to go on with it. I met those men in the cabin of the 28 on business. I was not on board the Platte Valley but once, except that I crossed over her bow once or twice. I was not on her where I could see anything of this kind going on.

Question. How many of our men do you suppose were killed after they had surrendered?

Answer. I could not say. I have been told that there were not over 25 killed and wounded before the fort was captured.

Question. Do you know how many have been killed in all?

Answer. My own crew buried, of those who were left unburied, some 70 or 80. The Platte Valley buried a great many, and the gunboat 28 buried some.

Question. What number do you suppose escaped out of the garrison?

Answer. I have no means of knowing. I have understood that the rebels had 160 prisoners – white men – but I think it is doubtful if they had that many, judging from the number of men we have found.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Where did those men come from whose bodies we have just seen unburied?

Answer. I should judge they came from the hospital. One of them had a cane, showing that he was not a well man, and they had on white shirts – hospital clothing – and, as you saw, one looked thin, very thin, as if he had been sick.

Question. How far are these bodies lying from the hospital?

Answer. I should think about 150 yards.

Question. Would men, escaping from the fort, run in that direction?

Answer. They would be very apt to run in almost any direction; and they would be more likely to run away from the stores that these rebels were robbing.

By the chairman:

Question. From the hospital clothing they had on; from their appearance showing that they had been wounded or sick persons; and from the bruised appearance of their heads, as if they had been killed by having their brains knocked out, do you infer that they were hospital patients that had been murdered there?

Answer. I should. I should be just as positive of that as I should be of anything I had not actually seen.

Question. You take it that they were sick or wounded men endeavoring to escape from the hospital, who were knocked in the head?

Answer. I should say so.

Paymaster William B. Purdy, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. What is your rank, and where have you been stationed, and in what service?

Answer. Acting assistant paymaster of the navy. I have no regular station or quarters at present; but on the day of the attack on Fort Pillow I was acting as signal officer on the gunboat No. 7.

Question. Will you state what you observed that day, and afterwards, in relation to that affair?

Answer. After our flag was down, I saw the rebels firing on our own men from the fort, and I should say that while the flag of truce was in, before the fort was captured, I could see the rebels concentrating their forces so as to be better able to take the fort.

Question. Do you mean that they took advantage of the flag of truce to place their men in position so as to better attack the fort?

Answer. Yes, sir; I could see them moving down to their new positions, and, as soon as the flag of truce was out, firing commenced from these new positions.

Question. Do you understand such movements to be in accordance with the rules of warfare?

Answer. No, sir; I do not.

Question. Had you any conversation with one of General Chalmers's aids about their conduct here?

Answer. Yes, sir; with one who said he was an aide-de-camp to General Chalmers, and a captain in the 2d Missouri cavalry. He told me that they did not recognize negroes as United States soldiers, but would shoot them, and show them no quarter – neither the negroes nor their officers.

Question. When was this?

Answer. That was the day after the capture of the fort, while the flag of truce was in. He then spoke in relation to the Tennessee loyal troops. He said they did not think much of them; that they were refugees and deserters; and they would not show them much mercy either.

Question. Was this said in defence of their conduct here?

Answer. No, sir; there was not much said about that. He opened the conversation himself.

Question. How many of our men do you suppose were killed here after our flag was down and they had surrendered?

Answer. I have no idea, only from what citizens have told me. They said there were not more than 25 or 30 killed before the place was captured; that all the rest were killed after the capture, and after the flag was down.

Question. Were you on the ground the day after the fight?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did you discover upon the field, or learn from any information derived there, of any act of peculiar barbarity?

Answer. I saw men who had been shot in the face, and I have since seen a body that was burned outside of the fort. The day after the fight I did not go inside the fort at all.

Question. Did you see the remnants of one who had been nailed to a board or plank?

Answer. I did not see that.

Question. Then it was another body that had been burned which you saw?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. It has been said that men were buried alive. Did any such information come to your notice?

Answer. I heard of it, but did not see it.

Question. What was said about it?

Answer. A young man said he saw one in the morning up there who was alive, and he went back a short time afterwards to attend to him, but he was then dead; and I have heard of others who crawled out of their graves, and were taken up on the Platte Valley, but I do not know about them.

Question. Where was this man you found burned?

Answer. He was inside of a tent.

Question. Do you suppose him to have been burned with the tent?

Answer. Yes, sir. I took him to be a white man, because he was in the quarters where the white men were.

Question. So far as you could observe, was any discrimination made between white and black men, as to giving no quarter?

Answer. I should think not, from all I could see, because they were firing from the top of a hill down the bluff on all who had gone down there to escape.

Question. Did you notice how these men had been buried by the rebels?

Answer. I saw officers and white men and black men thrown into the trenches – pitched in in any way, some across, some lengthways, some on their faces, &c. When I first saw them, I noticed a great many with their hands or feet sticking out.

Question. Have you lately discovered any that are still unburied?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did you see the three there to-day that were lying unburied?

Answer. No, sir; I heard about them, but did not go to see them.

Eli A. Bangs, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. Do you belong to the navy or the army?

Answer. To the navy.

Question. In what capacity?

Answer. Acting master's mate for the New Era gunboat.

Question. Were you here on the day of the fight at Fort Pillow?

Answer. I was.

Question. Tell us what you observed in regard to the battle, and what followed.

Answer. I did not observe much of the first part of the engagement, because I was stationed below, in a division, with the guns; but after we hauled out into the stream I saw the flag of truce come in, and then I saw our colors come down at the fort, and saw our men running down the bank, the rebels following them and shooting them after they had surrendered.

Question. What number do you suppose the rebels killed after they had surrendered?

Answer. I could not say, only from what I saw the next day when I went ashore.

Question. You were there the next day?

Answer. Yes, sir; we came in under a flag of truce.

Question. What did you see?

Answer. Captain Marshall sent me out with a detail of men to collect the wounded and bury the dead. We buried some 70 or 80 bodies, 11 white men and one white woman.

Question. Did you bury any officers?

Answer. No, sir; I buried none of them. They were buried by the rebels.

Question. Did you observe how the dead had been buried by the rebels?

Answer. Yes, sir; I saw those in the trench. Some had just been thrown in the trench at the end of the fort – white and black together – and a little dirt thrown over them; some had their hands or feet or face out. I should judge there were probably 100 bodies there. They had apparently thrown them in miscellaneously, and thrown a little dirt over them, not covering them up completely.

Question. Did you see or hear anything there that led you to believe that any had been buried before they were dead?

Answer. I did not see any myself, but I understand from a number of others that they had seen it, and had dug one out of the trench who was still alive.

Question. Did you see any peculiar marks of barbarity, as inflicted upon the dead?

Answer. I saw none that I noticed, except in the case of one black man that I took up off a tent floor. He lay on his back, with his arms stretched out. Part of his arms were burned off, and his legs were burned nearly to a crisp. His stomach was bare. The clothes had either been torn off, or burned off. In order to take away the remains, I slipped some pieces of board under him, and when we took him up the boards of the tent came up with him; and we then observed that nails had been driven through his clothes and his cartridge-box, so as to fasten him down to the floor. His face was not burned, but was very much distorted, as if he had died in great pain. Several others noticed the nails through his clothes which fastened him down.

Question. Do you think there can be any doubt about his having been nailed to the boards?

Answer. I think not, from the fact that the boards came up with the remains as we raised them up; and we then saw the nails sticking through his clothes, and into the boards.

Question. Did you notice any other bodies that had been burned?

Answer. Yes, sir; I buried four that had been burned.

Question. What was the appearance of them?

Answer. I did not notice any particular appearance about them, except that they had been burned.

Question. How came they to be burned?

Answer. They were in the tents, inside of the fort, which had been burned. I am certain that there were four that lay where the tent had been burned, for there were the remains of the boards under them, which had not been fully burned. Those that were burned in the fort were black men.

Charles Hicks, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. Were you on the ground after the battle of Fort Pillow?

Answer. Yes, sir; the day after the battle.

Question. What did you see there?

Answer. A great many dead men.

Question. Did you see any man there that had been nailed down to a board and burned?

Answer. Yes, sir; I saw the nails through his clothes after he was taken up.

Question. In what position did he lie?

Answer. On his back. There were nails through his clothes and through the cartridge-box.

Question. So that it fastened him to the boards in such a way that he could not get up, even if he had been alive?

Answer. Yes, sir, in just that way.

Question. When you tried to take him up you raised the boards with him?

Answer. Yes, sir.

A. H. Hook, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. Did you see the man that Charles Hicks has just spoken of?

Answer. Yes, sir; I saw him. His body was partly burned, and I saw the nails through his clothes, and into the floor of the tent.

Question. The tent had been burned?

Answer. Yes, sir; there were three or four bodies burned there, but this man in particular was nailed down.

George Mantell, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. Were you on the ground at Fort Pillow at the time that these men, who have just testified, spoke of?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. You have heard their testimony?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Do you agree with them?

Answer. Yes, sir; I saw the same.

Sergeant Henry F. Weaver, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. To what company and regiment do you belong?

Answer. To company C, 6th United States heavy artillery, colored. I am a sergeant.

Question. You were here at Fort Pillow at the time of the fight?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. State briefly what you saw, particularly after the capture.

Answer. The rebels charged after the flag of truce, the Tennessee cavalry broke, and was followed down the hill by the colored soldiers. They all appeared to go about the same time, as near as I could tell in the excitement of the battle. I came down the hill to the river and jumped into the water, and hid myself between the bank and the coal barge. They were shooting the negroes over my head all the time, and they were falling off into the water. The firing ceased a little, and I began to get out. I saw one of the rebels and told him I would surrender. He said, "We do not shoot white men." I went up to him and he ordered me away; he kept on shooting the negroes. There were six or eight around there, and he and another one shot them all down. I went up about a rod further and met another rebel, who robbed me of watch, money, and everything else, and then he left me. I went on to the quartermaster's building below here, and was taken by another rebel and taken up into the town. He went into a store and I went in with him. He went to pillaging. I slipped on some citizen's clothing, and it was not long before I saw that they did not know who I was. I staid with them until the sun was about an hour high, and then I went away. I walked off just as if I had a right to go.