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
Many other instances of equally atrocious cruelty might be enumerated,
but your committee feel compelled to refrain from giving here more of
the heart-sickening details, and refer to the statements contained in
the voluminous testimony herewith submitted. Those statements were
obtained by them from eye-witnesses and sufferers; many of them, as they
were examined by your committee, were lying upon beds of pain and
suffering, some so feeble that their lips could with difficulty frame
the words by which they endeavored to convey some idea of the cruelties
which had been inflicted on them, and which they had seen inflicted on
others.
How many of our troops thus fell victims to the malignity and barbarity
of Forrest and his followers cannot yet be definitely ascertained. Two
officers belonging to the garrison were absent at the time of the
capture and massacre. Of the remaining officers but two are known to be
living, and they are wounded and now in the hospital at Mound City. One
of them, Captain Potter, may even now be dead, as the surgeons, when
your committee were there, expressed no hope of his recovery. Of the
men, from 300 to 400 are known to have been killed at Fort Pillow, of
whom, at least, 300 were murdered in cold blood after the post was in
possession of the rebels, and our men had thrown down their arms and
ceased to offer resistance. Of the survivors, except the wounded in the
hospital at Mound City, and the few who succeeded in making their escape
unhurt, nothing definite is known; and it is to be feared that many have
been murdered after being taken away from the fort.
In reference to the fate of Major Bradford, who was in command of the
fort when it was captured, and who had up to that time received no
injury, there seems to be no doubt. The general understanding everywhere
seemed to be that he had been brutally murdered the day after he was
taken prisoner.
There is some discrepancy in the testimony, but your committee do not
see how the one who professed to have been an eye-witness of his death
could have been mistaken. There may be some uncertainty in regard to his
fate.
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