The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1864-05-11
RICHMOND, WAYNE CO., IND,


FORT PILLOW MASSACRE.
Report of Messrs. Made and Gooch.
Shocking Details----The worst Account,
Confirmed.
The following is an extract from the
! report Of Messrs Wade and Gooch, OF
the War Committee, on the Fort Pillow
massacre:
Your Committee were instructed to in
quire only in reference to the attack,
| capture and massacre at Fort Pillow, but
they have deemed it proper to take some
! testimony in reference tSrthe operations
| of Forrest and his command Immediately
preceding and subsequent to that horrible
transaction. 1t will appear, from testi-
mony thus taken, that the atrocities com
mitted at Fort Pillow were not the result
of passions excited by the heat of con-
fict, but were the result Of policy
deliberately decided upon, and unhesitat-
| ingly announced. Even the uncertainty
of the facts Of these officers and men be-
| longing to colored regiments, who have
| been taken by the rebels has failed to
convince the authorities of our Govern
ment of this fact; the testimony herewith
submitted must convince even the most
skeptical that it is the intention Of the
| rebel authorities not to recognize the
officers and men of our colored regiments
as entitled to the treatment accorded by
all civilized nations to prisoners of war.
The declaration of Forrest and his
officers. both before and after the capture
of Fort Pillow as testified to by such of
our men as have escaped after being taken
by them, contained in the various de-
mands for surrender at Paducah,
Columbus and other places; the renewal
of the massacre the morning after the
capture of Fort Pillow; the statements
made by rebel officers of our gunboats
who received the few survivors at Fort
Pillow; all this proves most conclusively
the policy they have determined to adopt.
It was at Fort Pillow the brutality and
cruelty of the rebels were most fearfully
exhibited.ss
The Committee then detail at length
the taking of the fort, and proceed to say:
Then followed a scene of cruelty and
murder without parallel in civilized war
fare, which needs but the tomahawk and
scalping- knife to exceed the most
atrocious ever comitted by savages. The
rebels commenced an indiscriminate
slaughter, sparing neither age nor sex,
white nor black, soldiers nor ci*ilians.
The officers and men seemed to vie with
each other in the devilish work. Men,
women and children, wherever found.
were deliberately shot down, beaten and
hacked with sabers. Some of the chill
dren. not more than ten years old, were
forced to stand up and face their muir
derers, while being shot. The sick and
wounded were treated without mercy, the
rebels even entering the hospital build
ings and dragging them out to be shot,
or killing them as they lay there unable
to offer the least resistance.
All over the hillside the work Of MUIR
der 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 were shot and their bodies kicked
into the water, many of them living, but
unable to make any exertion to save
themselves from drowning Some of the
rebels stood upon the top of the hill aud
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
they were again prepared to fire. All
around were heard cries of mo quarter.
no quarter xiii the damned niggers''
Shoot them down. All who asked for
mercy were answered by 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 malignity could
devise was omitted by these murderers
One white soldier who was wounded in
the leg so as to be unable to walk was
made to stand up while his tormentors
shot him. Others who were wounded and
unable to stand up, were 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 remon-
strated. Another, mere child, whom an
officer had taken up behind him on his
horse, was seen by Chalmers. who at once
ordered him toget 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 the next morning, while the wounded
were still in them, those only escaping
who were able to get themselves out. or
could prevail on others less injured to
to help them out, and even some of these
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 a tent, face upward, 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 out.
side of the fort, and then the building
set on fire and burned The charred re-
mains of five or six bodies were after
ward found, and all but one body as much
disfgured and consumed by the flames,
IS not to be identified, and the identifica-
ton Of that one is not absolutely certain.
although there can hardly be q doubt it
was the body Of Lieut. Arbertsen. quarter
master ofthe 18th Virginia cavalry, and
native Of Tennessee. These deeds Of
murder and cruelty, closed when night
came on, only to BE- revived the next
morning, when the demons carefully
sought among the dead living about in ali