New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-09-05


munication. The garrison of Fort Pillow was
in the class which came under the
Edenunciation Of this law. 1t was thrice
summoned, under flag of truce, to
surrender, when further resistance was
utterly hopeless. Assurances We're given
by Gen. Forrest himself that all the garrison
should be treated as prisoners of war But
the several summons were repeatedly rejec-
ted The garrison resisted to the last They
continued to fight after the place was success
fully assaulted. The flag, which was the
emblem Of their resistance, continued to fly
aloft. Every call to surrender was responded
to by a shot 1t would have been legitimate,
according to the practice of nations, to have
put every man to the sword. But the law and
the custom were not enforced by the captors,
for large number of prisoners were taken
and still survive and we have authority for
stating that Gen. Forrest still holds the re-
ceipt ofthe proper officer for the prisoners cap
tured. When public law justified the putting
of all to the sword, the killing of none can be
justly charged as murder, nor will the use OF
formidable adjectives change the nature of the
facts We depreeate as much as any the en-
ployment of severity even when it is legiti-
mate. The custom of war in such cases as
Fort Pillow may seem harsh ; but STILL all
nations have pronounced it legitimate, and
Gen Sheridan, instead of charging Gen. For
rest, by necessary inference, with cruelties he
did not commit, should give him credit for
relaxing the rigorous rules which he had a
legitimate right to enforce. l ..
i The affair Of Fort Pillow, then, was not q
massacre" Nor was the suppression of the
Instruction in New Orleans massacre. Gen.
/ Sheridan states in his letter of the 9Th of
August that when the fringe had been going
on for short time, white flag was displayed
the firing ceased and the police rushed into
the building. From the testimonyo of wounded
men and others who were inside the building,
the policemen opened an indiscriminate fire
upon the audience until they had emptied
their revolyers, when they retired, and those
inside barricaded the doors. But Gen, Sheri-
dan fails to report the important fact which
has been mcontrovertibly Established, that
when the white flag was displayed the police
advanced to receive the surrender, but were
driven back by the fire of the insurrectionists
under the white flag they had raised. This is
q vital omission which affects the whole char
acter of the report. Gen. Sheridan also fails
to report that chief of police Adams and
many other policemen, at the risk of their
own lives, carried the chief conspirators safely
through an excited populaee. After stating
that he 'sbeieved" that the affair was 'mur-
der" 'premedicated, he fails to account
for the fact that not member Of the conven-
vention was killed, but that numbersof them,
after melting and aiding their instruments to
kill policemen and citizens, were themselves
saved by the police. The errors Of omission
in Gen. sheridan's reports are as important
as the errors in his statements. sa
But if the matter had been as Gen Sheridan
describes it, and if the affair of Fort Pillow
had been the massacre he asserts, Gen. Sheri-
dan should have been slow to have charged
others with violating the usages Of civilized
| warfare The ashes of Shenandoah are
scarcely yet cold, and the wall Of weeping
matrons and Innocent children has not yet
ceased to Cypress the breeze which sweeps
over the ruins of SO many desolated homes.
There are otherpoints in Gen. Sheridan's
account of the riot which we might possibly
review with profit His vague and unmerited
animadyersions on the press, his charges
against the Judiciary, his erroneous views in
reference to the unjust apprehensions felt by
Northern men, and his strange errors in re-
gard to the sentiments of this community
But it has not been ourobject or our wish to
expose any faults Of Gen Sheridan. The
Communications we have paid such acts of his
administration as we could conscientiously
approve, and our silence in other cases
when we might have been justified
in severe comment, should be a suff-
mented upon his dispatches with the view
simply of defending this community from
what we are compelled to regard as un-
deserved censure on the part of General
Sheridan Our silence might have been CON
strued into an aoquiescenee in the Justice of
those charges In indicating successfully,
as we think we have done, the citizens of New
Orleans, We have sought to avoid giving just
offense to others. We have discussed facts,
and we have given reasons which have led us
to certain conclusions. We have avoided all
imputation Of motives. We have endeayored
to act with an impartial judgment, for being,
Jas we believe, clearly in the right, we have
discarded appeals to passion. #9
We hope that Gen Sheridan, in his future
relations with our people, will do the same.
We think his dispatches have done much I'M
deserved injury to this community. We think
their effeethas been still further to estrange
the feelings Of the lNothern people, and to de-
fer that union Of feeling which every citizen
should endeavor to effect lii his position.
Gen. Sheridan can accomplish great good,
and iseyen yet in his power to heal the
wounds he has inflicted upon the country.
We hope that having sufficiently displayed
the slashing statesman he will now show him
self the sskillful surgeon to heal the wounds
hehas 50 needlessly inflicted. He is new, as
yet in the chair Of state, and the duties of his
position are novel. Let him profit by the ex-
perience of those who have enyinced wisdom in
positions Of responsibility 1t is not every
one that could drive the FURNISHED car Of