Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1864-05-13

but unable to make any exertion to save them
selves from downing. Some Of the rebels
stood upon the top of the hill and short dis
tance 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 there until
they were again prepared to fire. All around
were heard cries of"No quarter no quarter!"
"Kill the damned niggersp "Shoot them
down." All who asked for mercy were an
swered by the most cruel taunts and sneers.
Some were spared for a time only, to be muir
dered under circumstances OF greater barbara
~. No cruelty which the most fendish ma
lignity could devise was omitted by these mur-
derers. One white soldier who was wounded
in the leg so as to be unable to walk was made
to stand up while his tOrmenters shot him
Others who were wounded and unable to stand
up, were held up aud again shot. One negro
who had been ordered by rebel officer to
hold his horse, was killed by him when he re-
monstrated. Another, mere child, whom an
officer had taken up behind him on his horse,
was seen by Chalmers. who at once ordered
him to put him down and shoot him, which
was done. The Euts and tents, in which many
of the wounded sought shelter, we're burned
while they were in them, hose only escaping
who were able to get themselves out, or could
prevail on others less injured to help them out,
and even some of these thus seeking to escape
the flames, were met by these rufiaus and shot
down, or had their brains beaten out.
One man was deliberately fastened down to
the floor of a tent, face upward, by means Of
nails driven through his clothing and into the
boards under him, so that he could not escape.
and then the tent was set on fire. Another
was nailed to building outside the fort, and
then the building set on fire and burned. The
| charred remains of 5 or bodies were after
ward found, and all but one body SO much dis
figured and consumed by the flames az not to
be identified, and the identification of that one
is not absolutely certain, although there can
hardly be doubt but it was the body of Lieut..
Arbertsen, qdartermasIer of the 18th Virginia
| Cavalry, and a native of Tennessee. These
deeds of murder and cruelty ceased when night
came on, only to be revived the next morning,
when the demons carefully sought among the
dead lying about in every direction, for
any other wounded who were yet alive, and
those they found were deliberately shot
| Scores of the dead and wounded were found
there the day after the massacre, by the men
! from some of our guuboats, who were per-
mitted to go on shore and collect the wound-
ed and bury the dead. The rebels them.
selves had made pretense of burying
| great many of their victims, but they had
merely thrown them into the trenches and
bitches about the fort, or the little hollows
and ravines on the hillside, covering them
partially with earth. Portions of heads and
| faces, hands and leet, we're found prOtrud-
ing iu every direction, and we're, when your
committee visited the spot two weeks after
/ ward. Although parties Of men had been
! sent on shore from time to time, to bury the
bodies unburied and rebury the others, and
were even then engaged ia the same work,
we found the evidences OF this murder and
cruelty still most painfully evident. We saw
the bodies still unburied, at some distance
| from the fort, of the sick who had been met
fleeing from the hospital, and beaten down
and brutally murdered, and their bodies left
where they had fallen. Many other instances
of equally atrocious cruelty might be enurner-
ated but your Committee feel compelled to
refrain from giving here more Of the heart
sickening details, and refer to the statements
contained by the voluminous testimony here
with submitted. Those statements were OBJ.
tanned from them by eye witnesses and sufE-
erers Many of them, as they we're examined
by your committee, were lying upon beds O!
pain aud 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, Captain Porter
NAV even now be dead, no hopes were enter
tanned OF his recovery. OF the men, from 300
10 400 are known to have been killed at Fort
! Pillow, Of whom al least 800 were murdered
| in cold blood, and after the fort was in pos
session of he rebels, and our men had thrown
! down their arms and ceased to offer resistance
When your committee reached Memphis,
they found and examined a man, Mr.. Nc;
Lagan, who had been conscripted by some of
Forests forces, but with other conscrpts
had succeeded in making his escape. He tes-
tilted that while two companies of rebels,
with Major Bradford and many other prison.
ers. were on their march from Brownsville to
Jacksons, Tenn, Major Bradford was taken
! by five rebels, Zone an offcer) led about fifty
yards from the line of march, and deliberately
murdered in view of all there assembled. He
| fell instantly killed by the musket balls, even
while asking that his life might be spared, as
be had fought them manlully. and was deserv-
ing OF d better fate. The motive for this
murder seems to have been that, although u
native of the South, he remained loyal to his
Government. The testimony, herewith sub
mitted, contains many statements made by the
rebels, that they did not treat home made
Yankees, as they termed loyal Southerners
any better than negro troops.
There is one circumstance connected with
the events here narrated, which your commit
tee cannot permit to pass unnotioed. The
testimony herewith transmitted, discloses the
most astounding and shameful fact, that on the
morning of the day succeeding the capture of
Fort Pillow, the gunhoat Silver Cloud, the
transport Platte Valley, and the gungboat
| New Era landed at Fort Pillow under q flag
Of truce. While they were lying there the
rebel Gen Chalmer aud other rebel officers
came down to the landing, and some Of them
went on the boats. Notwithstanding the ev-
idencees of the rebels, atrocity and barbarian
ity with which the ground was covered, there
we're some of our officers on board the Platte
Valley so silent to every feeling Of deeency,
honor and sell-respect, as to make themselves
disgraceiully conspicuous in bestOWing civili-
ties and attentions upon the rebel officers, even
while boasling of the murders they had there
committed. Your committee were unable to