DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE, DISTRICT OF MEMPHIS.
Deposition of John Nelson in relation to the capture of Fort Pillow.
Evidence Department,Provost Marshal's Office.
John Nelson, being duly sworn, deposeth and saith:
At the time of the attack on and capture of Fort Pillow, April 12, 1864, I kept a hotel within the lines at Fort Pillow, and a short distance from the works. Soon after the alarm was given that an attack on the fort was imminent, I entered the works and tendered my services to Major Booth, commanding. The attack began in the morning at about 5-1/2 o'clock, and about one o'clock p. m. a flag of truce approached. During the parley which ensued, and while the firing ceased on both sides, the rebels kept crowding up to the works on the side near Cold creek, and also approached nearer on the south side, thereby gaining advantages pending the conference under the flag of truce. As soon as the flag of truce was withdrawn the attack began, and about five minutes after it began the rebels entered the fort. Our troops were soon overpowered, and broke and fled. A large number of the soldiers, black and white, and also a few citizens, myself among the number, rushed down the bluff towards the river. I concealed myself as well as I could in a position where I could distinctly see all that passed below the bluff, for a considerable distance up and down the river.
A large number, at least one hundred, were hemmed in near the river bank by bodies of the rebels coming from both north and south. Most all of those thus hemmed in were without arms. I saw many soldiers, both white and black, throw up their arms in token of surrender, and call out that they had surrendered. The rebels would reply, "God damn you, why didn't you surrender before?" and shot them down like dogs.
The rebels commenced an indiscriminate slaughter. Many colored soldierssprang into the river and tried to escape by swimming, but these were invariably shot dead.
A short distance from me, and within view, a number of our wounded had been placed, and near where Major Booth's body lay; and a small red flag indicated that at that place our wounded were placed. The rebels, however as they passed these wounded men, fired right into them and struck them with the buts of their muskets.
The cries for mercy and groans which arose from the poor fellows were heartrending.
Thinking that if I should be discovered, I would be killed, I emerged from my hiding place, and, approaching the nearest rebel, I told him I was a citizen. He said, "You are in bad company, G—d d——n you; out with your greenbacks, or I'll shoot you." I gave him all the money I had, and under his convoy I went up into the fort again.
When I re-entered the fort there was still some shooting going on. I heard a rebel officer tell a soldier not to kill any more of those negroes. He said that they would all be killed, any way, when they were tried.
JOHN NELSON.
Mr. Nelson further states:
After I entered the fort, and after the United States flag had been taken down, the rebels held it up in their hands in the presence of their officers, and thus gave the rebels outside a chance to still continue their slaughter, and I did not notice that any rebel officer forbade the holding of it up. I also further state, to the best of my knowledge and information, that there were not less than three hundred and sixty negroes killed and two hundred whites.
This I give to the best of my knowledge and belief.
JOHN NELSON.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 2d day of May, A. D. 1864.
J. D. LLOYD,Captain 11th Infantry, Mo. Vols., andAss'nt Provost Marshal, Dist. of Memphis.
Statement of Frank Hogan, corporal in company A, 6th United States heavy artillery, (colored.)
I, Frank Hogan, a corporal in company A, of the 6th United States heavy artillery, (colored,) would, on oath, state the following: That I was in the battle fought at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, on the (12th) twelfth day of April, A. D. (1864,) one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and that I was taken prisoner by the enemy, and I saw Captain Carson, and heard some of the enemy ask him if he belonged to a nigger regiment. He told them he did. They asked him how he came here. He told them he was detailed there. Then they told him they would give him a detail, and immediately shot him dead, after being a prisoner without arms. I also saw two lieutenants, whose names I did not know, but who belonged to the (13th) Thirteenth Tennessee cavalry, shot down after having been taken prisoners. I also saw them kill three sick men that were lying helpless in their tents.
I saw them make our men (colored) pull the artillery, whipping them at the same time in the most shameful manner.
I also saw them bury one of our men alive, being only wounded. I heardColonel McCullough, Confederate States army, ask his adjutant how many men were killed and wounded. The adjutant told him he had a list of three hundred, and that all the reports were not in yet. Colonel McCullough was commanding a brigade. I also heard a captain, Confederate States army, tell Colonel McCullough, Confederate States army, that ten men were killed out of his own company.
hisFRANK x HOGAN.mark.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 30th day of April, 1864, at Fort Pickering, Memphis, Tennessee.
MALCOM F. SMITH,First Lieutenant and Adjutant 6th U. S. Heavy Artillery, (colored.)
A true copy.
J. H. ODLIN,Captain and Assistant Adjutant General.
Statement of Wilbur H. Gaylord, first sergeant, company B, 6th United States heavy artillery, (colored.)
Fort Pickering, Tennessee,April 28, 1864.
I was in the battle fought at Fort Pillow on the 12th day of April, A. D. 1864. The engagement commenced about six and a half o'clock a. m. I was stationed about twenty rods outside the fort with twenty men in a southeast direction, (this was about six and a half o'clock a. m.,) with orders from Major S. F. Booth to hold the position as long as possible without being captured. I staid there with the men about one hour. While there the rebels came within thirty rods and tried to steal horses. They got two horses, and at the same time stuck a rebel flag on the fortifications. While I held this position the white men on my right (13th Tennessee cavalry) retreated to the fort. About ten minutes after this I went with my men to the fort. While going into the fort I saw Lieutenant Barr, 13th Tennessee cavalry, shot down by my side. He was shot through the head. He fell outside the fortifications, about six feet. Ten minutes after getting into the fort Major S. F. Booth was shot at porthole No. 2, while standing directly in the rear of the gun; was shot directly through the heart; expired instantly. I carried him to the bank of the river. As soon as I returned Captain Epeneter, company A, was wounded in the head while standing at porthole No. 4. He immediately went to the hospital, which was below the river bank—about half way down, I should think. Ten men were killed before a flag of truce came in, which was about twelve o'clock m. Five men, who were all dressed alike, came with the flag from the rebels, and Major Bradford, of 13th Tennessee cavalry, who had now assumed command, asked one hour to consider; on the conclusion of which, he returned a decided refusal. The fire on both sides now commenced, and was kept up about half an hour with great fury, when the rebels charged over the works. (I should have said that General Forrest came with the flag.) The enemy was checked and held for a few minutes. As soon as they were fairly on the works, I was wounded with a musket ball through the right ankle. I should think that two hundred rebels passed over the works, and passed by me while I lay there, when one rebel noticed that I was alive, shot at me again and missed me. I told him I was wounded, and that I would surrender, when a Texan ranger stepped upand took me prisoner. Just at this time I saw them shoot down three black men, who were begging for their life, and who had surrendered. The rebels now helped me through porthole No. 4. The ranger who took me captured a colored soldier, whom he sent with me. He also sent a guard. They took me to picket post No. 2. There I was put into an ambulance and taken to a farm-house with one of their dead, who was a chaplain. There I was made to lie out doors all night on account of the houses being filled with their wounded. I bandaged my own wound with my drawers, and a colored man brought water and sat by me so that I could keep my foot wet. Next morning Colonel McCullough came there and sent a squad of men, having pressed all the conveyances he could find to take away his own wounded. Not finding sufficient, nor having negroes enough, they made stretchers from blankets. They could not carry me, and so left me at the farm-house; the man's name was Stone. He got me into the house and into bed. He and his wife were very kind to me. While Colonel McCullough was there he told me Memphis, Tennessee, was probably in the hands of the rebels. The rear guard of the rebels left there Wednesday about 5 o'clock p. m. The rebels took a young man whose father lived near here, and who had been wounded in the fight, to the woods, and shot three more shots into his back and into his head, and left him until Friday morning, when the citizens took him in. They brought him to the house where I was, and then carried us both to Fort Pillow in an old cart that they fixed up for the occasion, in hopes of getting us on board of a gunboat.
Upon our arrival there a gunboat lay on the opposite bank, but we could not hail her. We laid on the bank. They took the young man back to a house, three-fourths of a mile, but I would not go back. I laid there until a gunboat, the Silver Cloud, took me off, about 2 o'clock a. m., Saturday. They treated me with the utmost kindness on board the boat.
WILBUR H. GAYLORD,1st Sergeant, Co. B, 6th U.S. Heavy Artillery, 1st Battalion, (colored.)
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 30th day of April, 1864, at Fort Pickering, Memphis, Tennessee.
MALCOM F. SMITH,1st Lieutenant and Adjutant 6th U.S. Heavy Artillery, (colored.)
A true copy.
J. H. ODLIN,Captain and A. A. G.
Statement of James Lewis, private, company C, 6th United States heavy artillery, (colored.)
I, James Lewis, private, company C, 6th United States heavy artillery, (colored,) would, on oath, state the following: I was in the battle fought at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, on the 12th day of April, A. D. 1864. The engagement commenced early in the morning and lasted until three o'clock p. m. same day, at which time the enemy carried the fort. The United States troops took refuge under the bank of the river. The officers all being killed or wounded, the men raised the white flag and surrendered, but the rebels kept on firing until most all the men were shot down. I was wounded and knocked down with the but of a musket and left for dead, after being robbed, and they cut the buttons off my jacket. I saw two women shot by the river bank and their bodies thrown into the river after the place was taken. I saw Frank Meek,company B, 6th United States heavy artillery, (colored,) shot after he had surrendered.
hisJAMES + LEWIS.mark.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 30th day of April, 1864, at Fort Pickering, Memphis, Tennessee.
MALCOM F. SMITH,1st Lieutenant and Adjutant 6th U. S. Heavy Artillery, (colored.)
A true copy.
J. H. ODLIN,Captain and A. A. G.
[This evidence was received after the regular edition was printed.]
P. S. Since the report of the committee was prepared for the press, the following letter from the surgeon in charge of the returned prisoners was received by the chairman of the committee:
West's Buildings Hospital,Baltimore, Md., May 24, 1864.
Dear Sir: I have the honor to enclose the photograph of John Breinig, with the desired information written upon it. I am very sorry your committee could not have seen these cases when first received. No one, from these pictures, can form a true estimate of their condition then. Not one in ten was able to stand alone; some of them so covered and eaten by vermin that they nearly resembled cases of small-pox, and so emaciated that they werereallyliving skeletons, and hardlythat, as the result shows, forty out of one hundred and four having died up to this date.
If there has been anything so horrible, so fiendish, as this wholesale starvation, in the history of this satanic rebellion, I have failed to note it. Better the massacres at Lawrence, Fort Pillow, and Plymouth than to be thus starved to death by inches, through long and weary months. I wish I had possessed the power to compel all the northern sympathizers with this rebellion to come in and look upon the work of thechivalroussons of thehospitableand sunny south when these skeletons were first received here. A rebel colonel, a prisoner here, who stood with sad face looking on as they were received, finally shook his head and walked away, apparently ashamed that he held any relations to men who could be guilty of such deeds.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
A. CHAPEL.
Hon.B. F. Wade,Chairman of Committee on the Conduct of the War, Senate U. S.
U. S. GENERAL HOSPITAL, DIV. No. 1,ANNAPOLIS, MD.Private FRANCIS W. BEEDLE,Company M, 8th Michigan Cavalry,Was admitted per Steamer New York, from Richmond, Va., May 2, 1864. Died May 3, 1864, from effects of treatment while in the hands of the enemy.
WEST'S BUILDING HOSPITAL,BALTIMORE, MD.Private JOHN BREINIG,Company G, 4th Kentucky Cavalry,Admitted April 18, 1864. Improved a little for two weeks, then gradually failed and died on the 12th instant.
U.S. GENERAL HOSPITAL, DIV. No. 1,ANNAPOLIS, MD.Private JOHN Q. ROSE,Company C, 8th Kentucky Volunteers,Admitted per Steamer New York, from Richmond, Va., May 2, 1864. Died May 4, 1864, from effects of treatment while in the hands of the enemy.
U. S. GENERAL HOSPITAL, DIV. No. 1,ANNAPOLIS, MD.Private L. H. PARHAM,Company B, 3d West Tennessee Cavalry,Admitted per Steamer New York, from Richmond, Va., May 2, 1864. Died May 10, 1864, from effects of treatment while in the hands of the enemy.
WEST'S BUILDING HOSPITAL,BALTIMORE, MD.Private GEORGE H. WIBLE,Company F, 9th Maryland Volunteers,Was admitted from Flag-of-truce boat April 18, 1864. Is slowly improving.
WEST'S BUILDING HOSPITAL,BALTIMORE, MD.Private EDWARD CUNNINGHAM,Company F, 7th Ohio Cavalry,Was admitted from Flag-of-truce boat April 18, 1864. Very little change in his condition since received.
WEST'S BUILDING HOSPITAL,BALTIMORE, MD.Private LEWIS KLEIN,Company A, 14th New York Cavalry,Admitted from Steamer New York, from Richmond, Va. April 18, 1864. Is improving nicely.
WEST'S BUILDING HOSPITAL,BALTIMORE, MD.Private CHARLES R. WOODWORTH,Company G, 8th Michigan Cavalry,Was admitted from Flag-of-truce boat April 18, 1864. Has improved very much since received.
Transcriber's Notes:Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Text uses varying spelling on the following: Tennessean and Tennesseean, gulley and gully, Paw Paw and Pawpaw, hill-side and hillside.Remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text willappear.
Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Text uses varying spelling on the following: Tennessean and Tennesseean, gulley and gully, Paw Paw and Pawpaw, hill-side and hillside.
Remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text willappear.