Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War Part 49

A true copy.

T. H. HARRIS, _a.s.sistant Adjutant General_.

UNITED STATES STEAMER SILVER CLOUD, _Off Memphis, Tennessee, April 14, 1864_.

SIR: In compliance with your request that I would forward to you a written statement of what I witnessed and learned concerning the treatment of our troops by the rebels at the capture of Fort Pillow by their forces under General Forrest, I have the honor to submit the following report:

Our garrison at Fort Pillow, consisting of some 350 colored troops and 200 of the 13th Tennessee cavalry, refusing to surrender, the place was carried by a.s.sault about 3 p. m. of the 12th instant. I arrived off the fort at 6 a. m. on the morning of the 13th instant. Parties of rebel cavalry were picketed on the hills around the fort, and sh.e.l.ling those away. I made a landing and took on board some twenty of our troops, some of them badly wounded, who had concealed themselves along the bank, and came out when they saw my vessel. Whilst doing so I was fired upon by rebel sharpshooters posted on the hills, and one wounded man limping down to the vessel was shot. About 8 a. m. the enemy sent in a flag of truce, with a proposal from General Forrest that he would put me in possession of the fort and the country around until 5 p. m., for the purpose of burying our dead and removing our wounded, whom he had no means of attending to. I agreed to the terms proposed, and hailing the steamer Platte Valley, which vessel I had convoyed up from Memphis, I brought her alongside, and had the wounded brought down from the fort and battle-field and placed on board of her. Details of rebel soldiers a.s.sisted us in this duty, and some soldiers and citizens on board the Platte Valley volunteered for the same purpose.

We found about seventy wounded men in the fort and around it, and buried, I should think, 150 bodies. All the buildings around the fort, and the tents and huts in the fort, had been burned by the rebels, and among the embers the charred remains of numbers of our soldiers, who had suffered a terrible death in the flames, could be seen.

All the wounded, who had strength enough to speak, agreed that after the fort was taken an indiscriminate slaughter of our troops was carried on by the enemy, with a furious and vindictive savageness which was never equalled by the most merciless of the Indian tribes. Around on every side horrible testimony to the truth of this statement could be seen.

Bodies with gaping wounds, some bayoneted through the eyes, some with skulls beaten through, others with hideous wounds, as if their bowels had been ripped open with Bowie knives, plainly told that but little quarter was shown to our troops, strewn from the fort to the river bank, in the ravines and hollows, behind logs and under the brush, where they had crept for protection from the a.s.sa.s.sins who pursued them. We found bodies bayoneted, beaten, and shot to death, showing how cold-blooded and persistent was the slaughter of our unfortunate troops. Of course, when a work is carried by a.s.sault there will always be more or less blood shed, even when all resistance has ceased; but here there were unmistakable evidences of a ma.s.sacre carried on long after any resistance could have been offered, with a cold-blooded barbarity and perseverance which nothing can palliate.

As near as I can learn, there were about 500 men in the fort when it was stormed. I received about 100 men, (including the wounded and those I took on board before the flag of truce was sent in.) The rebels I learned had few prisoners, so that at least 300 of our troops must have been killed in this affair. I have the honor to forward a list of the wounded officers and men received from the enemy under flag of truce.

I am, general, your obedient servant,

W. FERGUSON, _Acting Master U.S.N., Com'dg U.S. Steamer Silver Cloud_.

Major General HURLBUT, _Commanding 16th Army Corps_.

Headquarters 16th Army Corps, _Memphis, Tennessee, April 24, 1864_.

A true copy.

T. H. HARRIS, _a.s.sistant Adjutant General_.

W. R. McLagan sworn, and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Where were you born?

Answer. In Tennessee.

Question. Where do you now reside?

Answer. St. Paul, Minnesota.

Question. Were you at Fort Pillow on the day of its capture?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. Where were you?

Answer. About sixteen miles off, at Covington.

Question. Have you seen that statement? (showing witness statement appended to this deposition.)

Answer. Yes, sir; I made that statement myself.

Question. It is correct then?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did you yourself see Major Bradford shot?

Answer. I did.

Question. How do you know it was Major Bradford?

Answer. He represented himself to me as a Major Bradford.

Question. Did you have any conversation with him?

Answer. Yes, sir; and while we were marching from Covington to Brownsville I heard them call him Major Bradford. He told me himself that he was Major Bradford, but he did not wish it to be known, as he had enemies there; and it never would have been known but for a detective in the confederate array from Obion county, Tennessee, named Willis Wright, who recognized him as Major Bradford, and told them of it. Wright is a notorious spy and smuggler in Forrest's command. There is no doubt that the man was Major Bradford.

Question. Was there anything said at the time he was shot?

Answer. Nothing more than what I said.

Question. What did he say?

Answer. He simply said that he had fought them honorably and as a brave man, and wished to be treated as a prisoner of war. He was taken prisoner at Fort Pillow, and was then sent to Covington, to the custody of a Colonel Duckworth, commanding the 7th Tennessee rebel cavalry, and from that place he was sent under guard, with about thirty of us conscripts. We arrived at Brownsville on the 13th; we started out on the evening of the 14th instant, about dusk. Previous to our leaving Brownsville, five of the guards were ordered back to Duckworth's headquarters. Those five guards seemed to have received special instructions about something, I don't know what. After marching about five miles from Brownsville, we halted, that is, the two companies of the rebels. These five guards then took Major Bradford out about fifty yards from the road. He seemed to understand what they were going to do with him. He asked for mercy, and said that he had fought them manfully, and wished to be treated as a prisoner of war. Three of the five guards shot him. One shot struck him about in the temple; a second in the left breast, and the third shot went through the thick part of the thigh. He was killed instantly. They left his body lying there. I escaped from the rebels at Jackson. I left on the Friday morning about 2 o'clock, and Sat.u.r.day night about 12 o'clock I came back where the murder was committed, and saw his body there, yet unburied. The moon was s.h.i.+ning brightly, and it seemed to me that the buzzards had eaten his face considerably.

Question. Did you hear them give any reason for shooting Major Bradford?

Answer. Simply that he was a Tennessee traitor, and to them they showed no quarter. They said that he was a Tennessean, and had joined the Yankee army, and they showed them no quarter. I think myself that the order for shooting Major Bradford was given by Colonel Duckworth, for the reasons I have stated.

Question. What was the officer in command at the time he was shot?

Answer. A lieutenant went out with him. He was one of the five guards.

Question. Who commanded the two companies of rebels?

Answer. I do not know who ranked in these two companies. Russell and Lawler commanded the companies. Duckworth, who, I think, gave the order for killing Major Bradford, belongs to Chalmers's command. He is a notorious scoundrel. He never had any reputation, either before the war or afterward.

Question. Did Major Bradford have on his uniform?

Answer. No, sir. He had tried to conceal his ident.i.ty as much as possible, by putting on citizen's clothes, as he said that he had enemies among them, who would kill him if they knew him.

Question. Did you hear any of their officers say anything as to the manner in which they treated our soldiers whom they had captured, and the way in which they intended to treat them?