St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-09-24
The Fort Pillow Massacre.

The Fort Pillow Massacre.
A rebel brigadier named Chalmers of
Mississippi has been stumping Maine
for the Democrats. A Maine paper has
the following:
''In order that our people may un-
derstand who Chalmers is, we copy the
following abstract from Harper's Picto-
raj History of the War in regard to
what took place at the Fort Pillow
massacre, April IL, 1868:
"The troops composing the garrison,
black and white, threw down their
arms and sought to escape by running
down the steep bluff on the river side,
hiding behind trees, logs, bushes
anything which could afford them COW
er against the maddened fiends which
at that moment the sun shone upon.
No wonder they fled, as it soon clearly
appeared it was not a contest of men
with men, but of men with brutal,
fiendish murderers. The captured fort
and its vicinity became at once hu-
man shambles. Without discrimina-
ton of age or sex, and without mercy,
men, women and children were butch
cred until night put an end to the hoT-
rible tragedy, which was again renewed
on the following morning. Not even
sleep could quench the fiery hate of
Forests men. Even the officers, with
few exceptions, assisted in the bloody
carnival. 1t was exactly three years
to a day since the attack on Fort Sum-
ter had been made, and the same vio-
lence which had melted men to treason
against their government was perhaps
fitly displayed on this anniversary by
the shameless massacre of United States
soldiers at Fort Pillow
And also the following from the re-
port of the committee on the Conduct
of War, in regard to that inhuman, dia-
bolical affair that appalled, the whole
world, from which Chalmers is left in
anything but an enviable position
"Then followed scene of cruelty
and murder without parallel in civil
lzed warfare, which needed but the
tOmahawk and scalping-knife to exceed
the worst atrocities ever committed by
savages. The rebels commenced an in
discriminate slaughter, sparing neither
age nor sex, white nor black, soldier
nor civilian. The officers and men
seemed to vie with each other in the
devilish work men, women, and even
children, wherever found, were deliber-
ately shot down, beaten and hacked
with sabers 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 hospital building and
dragging them ont to be shot, or killing
them as they lay there unable to offer
the least resistance. All over the hill
side the work of murder was going on
numbers of our men were collected to-
gether in lines or groups and deliber-
ately 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 still living but
unable to make any eXertiOns to save
themselves from drowning. All around
were heard cries of No quarter No
quarterr Kill the damned niggers
shoot them down. All who asked for
mercy were answered with the most cru
ell taunts and sneers. Some were spared
for 4 time only to be murdered under
circumstances of greater cruelty. No
cruelty which the most fiendish malig-
nifty could devise was omitted by these
murderers. One white soldier who was
wounded in one 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 were
held up and again shot. One negro,
who had been ordered by rebel officer
to hold his horse was killed by him
when he remOunted: another, mere
child, whom an officer had taken up
behind him on his horse, was seen by
Chalmers, who at once ordered the Of
ficer to put him down and shoot him.
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 escaping who were able
to get themselves out, or who could
prevail on others less injured than
themselves to help them out; and even
some of those thus seeking to escape
the flames were met by those ruffians
and brutally shot down, or had their
brains beaten out. One man was delib-
erately fastened down to the floor of
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
set on fire; another was nailed to the
side of a building outside of the fort.
and then the building set on fire and
burned. The charred remains of five
or six bodies were afterward found, all
but one so much disfigured and con-
sumed by the flames that they could
not be identified
Gentlemen of the Fusion party Keep
Chalmers speaking and we will help
pay the expenses, for, thank Heaven,
the spirit of 1861 has not entirely de-
parted from our people.