Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-05-06
The Fort Pillow NIassacre--.The
Report Of the Committee on the
Conduct of the War.

| WASHINGTON, May 5.-The followong is
an extract from the report of the commit
| tee on the Conduct of the War: Although
your committee were instructed to inquire
only in reference to the attack, capture and
| massacre at Fort Pillow, they have deemed
! it proper to take some testimony i'm refer
ence to the operations of Forrest and his
command Immediately preceding and sub
sequent to the horrible transaction. 1t will
appear from testimony thus taken that the
atrocities committed at Fort Pillow were
not the result of passion, excited by the
heat of conflict but were the result of
policy deliberately decided upon and un-
hesitatingly announced. Even if the un-
certainty of the fate Of those officers and
men belonging to colored regiments, who
have heretofore been taken by the rebels,
has failed to convince the authorities of our
Government 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 Off
GERS and men of our colored soldiers as en-
titled to the treatment accorded by all civil
lied nations to prisoners of war.
The declaration of Forrest and his officers
both before and after the capture of Fort
Pillow, as testified to be such of our men as
have escaped. after being taken by him, the
threats contained in the various demands
for surrender made at Paducah, Columbus
and other places, the renewal of the massa-
ere the morning after the capture of Fort
Pillow, the statements made by rebel Of
flcers to the officers of our gunboats who
received the few survivors at Fort Pillow
all this proves most cohclusively the policy
they have determined to adopt. 1t was at
Fort Pillow the brutality and cruelty of
hole fill 4.
The committee then detail at length the
taking of the fort and then proceed to say:
"Then followed scene of cruelty and muir
der without parallel in civilized warfare,
which need but the tOmahawk and scalping
knife to exceed the worst atrocities ever
committed by savages. The rebels CON-
menced an indiscriminate slaughter, spar
ing neither age nor sex, white or black.
soldiers or civilians. The officers and men
seemed to vie with each other in the devil
ish work. Men, women and children,
wherever found, were deliberately shot
clown, beaten and hacked with sabres. Some
of the children, not more than ten years
old, were forced to stand up and face their
murderers while being shot.
The sick and wounded were butchered
without mercy, the rebels even entering
the hospitals and dragging them out TO be
SnOC, OF kllllng Cnem as tney lay Cnere un-
able to offer the least resistance. All over
the hill side 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 were shot and their bod
les kicked into the water, many of them
alive, but unable to make exertions to save
themselves from drowning. Some of the
rebels stood upon the top of the hill, or
short distance from Its side, and called to
our soldiers to come up to them, and as they
approached shot them down i'm cold blood,
and II their guns or pistols missed, forced
them to stand there until they were again
prepared to fire. ~
All around were heard cries of s'no GUAR
ter no quarter! Kill the damned niggers
Shoot them down" AL who asked tor