The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-10-07
Revamping nm Old Story.

South not equal to the demand, has
lately gone back upon the so-called
massacre at Fort Pillow during the
late war, and republishes what it calls
the "sworn testimony" taken before
o subcommittee of the Committee on
the Conduct of the War, and which
seems to have been got up OF this
time more rs an electioneering docu-
ment, intended to influence popular
passions, than as an accurate record
of events. Whether the testimony
taken before the committee was reli-
able of not, the spirit pervading it
and the purpose for which it was
used, were quite as merciless and
murderous as the acts attributed to
Gen. Forrest or his men. The same
may be said of the style in which the
Chronicle treats the subject now, and,
indeed, every subject in which the
South is concerned. The moral re-
sponsibility for the invention and cir
culation of false and infammatory
reports against individuals and COM
munities, the natural result of which
is to produce violence and bloodshed,
can scarcely be less than that for ac-
tual murder, and most of the men
engaged in it have all the elements
of character necessary for such q
crime, except the physical hardihood.
The Chronicle revives the stories of
fugitives from Fort Pillow being shot
after they surrendered, and of ne
groes not only being shot, but burned
alive, adding that Major Anderson,
Forests Assistant Adjutant- General,
said they did not consider colored
men as soldiers. but as property, and
as such, being used by the enemy,
they had destroyed them. The ''sworn
testimony" on which the Chronicle
parades these old stories, cannot be
considered as conclusive, in view of
the fact that of late years false swear
ing has become the familiar process
of getting at those who incur the
vengeance of the faction of which the
Chronicle is q mouth-piece. "Sworn
testimony" indeed! Shade of Conover!
Is any one simple enough now not
to understand the exact value of an
oath when political object is to be
secured thereby, or ignorant enough
not to know that perjury has become
q regular profession, whose members
practice in any court against rebels
and copper-heads, whenever they are
offered an adequate retainer? It may
have been that during the engage
ment at Fort Pillow, men were killed
by individual soldiers without wait
ing for their surrender, as has often
happened on both sides in the battles
of the late war, rs in other wars.
The explanation which Gen. Forrest
himself gives, is reported, says the
Baltimore Sun, by correspondent of
the Cincinnati Commercial, in which
he states that he had learned, while
at various points in West Tennessee,
from what he still believes to have
been reliable sources, that the Fort
Pillow garrison had pillaged the
whole country, and under the pretext
OF looking for rebel arms had insult
ed women, abused old men, and in
severa, instances had committed the
most brutal outrages npon highly
respectable women. Many of these
persons so abused, robbed and in
suited, were near relatives and friends
OF the tennessee troops under For
rests command. These men posi-
lively refused to leave Tennessee,
unless he would first take and destroy
Fort Pillow. In addition to this, a
delegation of citizens from Jackson
waited upon him and made the same
request
General Forrest thinks that citizens
who were in his command, and whose
families had been outraged by mem
bers of the Tennessee garrison. did
shoot them down without WAITING
for their surrender. 6nrino ho