Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-05-12

the
testimony herewith submitted. Those statements were
obtained by them from eyewitnesses sufferers Many
oil them, they examined by your committee were
lying upon beds OF pain and snferng some so feeble that
their lips could with difficulty frame the words by which
they endeavored to convey idea of the crueltes
which had been inflicted them, and which they had
inflicted others tE t u DE- ttt
In reference to the fate Of Msjor bradford who was in
command of the fort when it captured and who had
up to that time received injury, there to be
doubt The general understanding to be that he
bad been brutay murdered the day after he taken
prisoner How many Of troops thus fell victims 10
the magny and barbarity Of Forrest and his followers
cannot yet be definitely asceraned Two officers belong
ing to the garrison absent ut the time Of the capture
and massacre OF the remaining officers but two are
known to be living and they wounded now the hos
pal at Mound City, one of them, Capt Porter, may even
now be dead as the surgeons when your committee
there, expressed hope Of his recovery or the men,
from three hundred to four hundred are known TO have
been killed at Fort Pillow, Of whom at least three hun
dred were murdered in cold blood after the fort was in
possession Of the rebels, and had thrown down
their and ceased to offer resistance or the survv
ors, except the wounded 10 the hospital at Mound City
and the few who succeeded 10 making their escape un-
hurt nothing definite 10 known and BIS feared that
many have been murdered after being taken away from
the fort, - la1, fNI t.t.'at II
When your committee arrived at Memphis TENNESSEE
they found and examined man, Mr. McLaron who had
been conscrpted by of Forests forces but who
with other conscrpts had succeeded 10 making escape
lie tsstes that while two companies Of rebel troops with
Mslor Bradford and many other prisoners were the
march from Brownsville to jackson, Tennessee, Major
Bradford was taken by Eve rebels officer led about
fifty yards from the line OF march, and deliberately muir
dered in view Of all there assembled He fell, killed In
ssnty by three musket balls, while asking that his
life might be spared he had fought them manfuy and
was deserving of better fate The motive for the
der OF Major Bradford to have been the smp fact
that although native OF the South he remained loyal to
his Government The testimony herewith submitted con-
tans many statements made by the rebels that they did
not intend to treat "homenade Yankees they termed
| loyal Southerners, any better than negro troops
There Is one circumstance connected with the events
herein narrated which your committee cannot permit 10
pass unnoticed The testimony herewith submitted dis.
closes this most astounding and shameful fact: On the
morning Of the day succeeding the capture Of Fort Pillow
the gunboat Silver Cloud mo 2a the transport Platte
Valley and the gunboat New Era mol landed at Fort
Pillow under hagouce for the purpose of receiving the
few wounded there and burying the dead While they
were lying there the rebel Cen Chalmers and other re.
bel officers came down TO the landing and some Of them
went on the boats Notwithstanding the evidences Of
bel arocy and barbay with which the eround WAS COW
cred there were OF army officers on board the
Platte Valley 90 lost to every feeling Of decency honor