Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War: Fort Pillow Massacre. Returned Prisoners.United States. Congress. Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War
History
Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War: Fort Pillow Massacre. Returned Prisoners.
United States. Congress. Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War
Fort Pillow, Battle of, Tenn., 1864; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
Although your committee were instructed to inquire only in reference to
the attack, capture, and massacre of Fort Pillow, they have deemed it
proper to take some testimony in reference to the operations of Forrest
and his command immediately preceding and subsequent to that horrible
transaction. It will appear, from the testimony thus taken, that the
atrocities committed at Fort Pillow were not the result of passions
excited 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 skeptical 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.
The first operation of any importance was the attack upon Union city,
Tennessee, by a portion of Forrest's command. The attack was made on the
24th of March. The post was occupied by a force of about 500 men under
Colonel Hawkins, of the 7th Tennessee Union cavalry. The attacking force
was superior in numbers, but was repulsed several times by our forces.
For the particulars of the attack, and the circumstances attending the
surrender, your committee would refer to the testimony herewith
submitted. They would state, however, that it would appear from the
testimony that the surrender was opposed by nearly if not quite all the
officers of Colonel Hawkins's command. Your committee think that the
circumstances connected with the surrender are such that they demand the
most searching investigation by the military authorities, as, at the
time of the surrender, but one man on our side had been injured.
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