Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1864-05-12
Report Of the Committee on. the
Fort Pillow Massacre.

relate principally TO the rebel barDdritles
practiced on the defenceless soldiers after
surrender Of the fort. One would hardly
think that civilized men in enlightened
America could be found 50 lost to hu
manity as to be guilty Of the atrocities here
brought to light by Congressional Con-
mittee. The report is signed by Benjamin
Z. Wade, OF Ohio, and d. ". Gooch, Of
Massachusetts.
Then followed a scene of cruelty and
murder without parallel in civilized war
fare, which needed but the tomahawk and
scalping knife to exceed the worst atroci-
ties ever committed by savages. The rebels
commenced an indiscfiminate slaughter,
sparing neither age or sex, white or black
soldiers, or civilians The officers and men
seemed to vie with each other in their dew
iliah work. Men, women and children,
wherever found, were deliberately shot
down, beaten, ard hacked with sabres
Some of the children. not more than ten
years old, were forced 20 stand up and face
their murderers while being shot Tho
sick and wounded were butchered without
inercy, the rebels even entering the hosplt-
al buildings and dragging them out to be
spot, or killing them as they lay there, un-
able to offer the least resistance. All over
the hillside the work of murder was going
on. Numbers of our men were collected
together in lines or groups, and deliberately
shot Some were shot while in the river,
while others on the bank We're shot and
their bodies rolled into the water, many of
them still living, but unable to make exer-
tons to save themselves from drowning
Some of the rebels stood upon the top Of
the hill, or a short distance from its side,
and called to our soldiers to come up to
them, and as they approached, shot them
down in cold blood and if their guns or
pistols missed, forced them to stand until
they were again prepared to fire. All
around were heard cries Of No quarter,
No quarter Kill the damned niggers,
Shoot them down. All who asked for
mercy were answered by the most cruel
taunts and sneers. Some were spared for a
time, only to be murdered under circum-
stances Of greater barbarity.
No cruelty which the most fiendish ma
Lightly could devise was omitted by these
D.
wounded in the leg 50 as to be unable to
walk, was made to stand while his tor
mentors shot him. Others who were wound
ed and unable to stand up, We're held up
and again shot. One negro who had been
ordered by a rebel officer to hold his horse,
was killed by him when he demonstrated.
Another, a mere child, whom an officer had
taken up behind him on his horse, was seen
by Chalmers, who at once ordered him to
pat him down and shoot him which was
done. The huts and tents in which many
Of the wounded had sought shelter, were
set on fire, both that night and next morn
ing, while the wounded were still in them
those only escaping who were able to get
themselves out, or who could prevail on
others less injured to help the.a cut; ana
even some Of those thus seeking to escape
the flames were met by these ruffians and
shot down, Or had their brains beaten out
One man was deliberately fastened down to
the floor Of tent, face upwards, by means
OF nails driven through his clothing and
into the boards under him, so that he could
not possibly escape, and then the tent was
set on fire. Another was nailed to the side
OF building outside Of the fort, and then
the building set on fire and burned The
charrcd remains Of five or six bodies were
afterwards found, all but one 50 much dis
figured and consumed by the flames that
they could not be identified, and the identi-
fcation of that one is not absolutely GER
tain, although there can hardly be doubt
that it was the body Of Lieut.. Aberson
Quartermaster of the 18th Virginia Cav
airy, and native of Tennessee.
These deeds of murder and cruelty closed
when night came on, only to be renewed the
next morning, when the demons carefully
sought among the dead lying about in all di-
rections for any other wounded yet alive,
and those they found were deliberately shot
Scores Of the dead and wounded were found
there, the day of the massacre, by the men
from some of our gunboats, who were per-
mitted to 90 on shore and collect the wound
ed and bury the dead The rebels them
selves had made a pretence of burying a
great many of their Victims but they had
merely thrown them into the bitches about
the fort, or the little holows and ravines on
the ill-side, covering them partly with
earth Portions of heads, and faces, hands
and feet, were found protruding in every
direction, and even when your committee
visited the spot, two weeks afterwards, al
though parties of men had been sent on
shore from time to time to bury the bodies
unburied, aud re-bury the others, and were
even then engaged in the same work, we
found the evidences of this murder and
cruelty still most plainly evident. We
saw the bodies still unburied, at some dis
lance from the fort, of some sick men who
had been met fleeing from the hospital, and
beaten down and bruatly murdered, and
their bodies left where they fell.
Many other instances of equally atrocious
cruelty might be enumerated, but your
committee feel compelled to refrain from
giving here more of the Notwithstanding de-
tails, and refer to the statements contained
in the volaminous testimony herewith sub
mitted. These 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 tell their
story.
But two officers are known to be living,
and they are wounded. One Of them, Capt.
Porter, may even now be dead No hope
was entertained of his recovery OF the