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
Answer. No, sir.
Question. What company did you fight with?
Answer. I went right into the fort and fought there.
Question. Were you a slave or a free man?
Answer. I was a slave.
Question. Where were you raised?
Answer. In old Virginia.
Question. Who was your master?
Answer. Colonel Hardgrove.
Question. Where did you live?
Answer. I lived three miles the other side of Brown's mills.
Question. How long since you lived with him?
Answer. I went home once and staid with him a while, but he got to
cutting up and I came away again.
Question. What did you do before you went into the fight?
Answer. I was cooking for Co. K, of Illinois cavalry; I cooked for that
company nearly two years.
Question. What white officers did you know in our army?
Answer. I knew Captain Meltop and Colonel Ransom; and I cooked at the
hotel at Fort Pillow, and Mr. Nelson kept it. I and Johnny were cooking
together. After they shot me through the hand and head, they beat up all
this part of my head (the side of his head) with the breech of their
guns.
* * * * *
Ransom Anderson, (colored,) Co. B, 6th United States heavy artillery,
sworn and examined.
By Mr. Gooch:
Question. Where were you raised?
Answer. In Mississippi.
Question. Were you a slave?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Where did you enlist?
Answer. At Corinth.
Question. Were you in the fight at Fort Pillow?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Describe what you saw done there.
Answer. Most all the men that were killed on our side were killed after
the fight was over. They called them out and shot them down. Then they
put some in the houses and shut them up, and then burned the houses.
Question. Did you see them burn?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Were any of them alive?
Answer. Yes, sir; they were wounded, and could not walk. They put them
in the houses, and then burned the houses down.
Question. Do you know they were in there?
Answer. Yes, sir; I went and looked in there.
Question. Do you know they were in there when the house was burned?
Answer. Yes, sir; I heard them hallooing there when the houses were
burning.
Question. Are you sure they were wounded men, and not dead, when they
were put in there?
Answer. Yes, sir; they told them they were going to have the doctor see
them, and then put them in there and shut them up, and burned them.
Question. Who set the house on fire?
Answer. I saw a rebel soldier take some grass and lay it by the door,
and set it on fire. The door was pine plank, and it caught easy.
Question. Was the door fastened up?
Answer. Yes, sir; it was barred with one of those wide bolts.
* * * * *
Sergeant W. P. Walker, (white,) sworn and examined:
By Mr. Gooch:
Question. In what capacity did you serve in the army?
Answer. I was a sergeant in the 13th Tennessee cavalry, company D.
Question. Were you at Fort Pillow at the time of the fight there?
Answer. Yes, sir.
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