History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880 Volume II Part 46

"GENERAL: I have the honor to inclose a slip cut from the Richmond 'Examiner,' February eighth, 1864. It is styled 'The Advance on Newbern,' and appears to have been extracted from the Petersburg 'Register,' a paper published in the city where your headquarters are located.

"Your attention is particularly invited to that paragraph which states 'that Colonel Shaw was shot dead by a negro soldier from the other side of the river, which he was spanning with a pontoon bridge, and that the negro was watched, followed, taken, and hanged after the action at Thomasville.

"'THE ADVANCE ON NEWBERN.--The Petersburg "Register" gives the following additional facts of the advance on Newbern: Our army, according to the report of pa.s.sengers arriving from Weldon, has fallen back to a point sixteen miles west of Newbern. The reason a.s.signed for this retrograde movement was that Newbern could not be taken by us without a loss on our part which would find no equivalent in its capture, as the place was stronger than we had antic.i.p.ated. Yet, in spite of this, we are sure that the expedition will result in good to our cause. Our forces are in a situation to get large supplies from a country still abundant, to prevent raids on points westward, and keep tories in check, and hang them when caught.

"'From a private, who was one of the guard that brought the batch of prisoners through, we learn that Colonel Shaw was shot dead by a negro soldier from the other side of the river, which he was spanning with a pontoon bridge. The negro was watched, followed, taken, and hanged after the action at Thomasville. It is stated that when our troops entered Thomasville, a number of the enemy took shelter in the houses and fired upon them. The Yankees were ordered to surrender, but refused, whereupon our men set fire to the houses, and their occupants got, bodily, a taste in this world of the flames eternal.'

"The Government of the United States has wisely seen fit to enlist many thousand colored citizens to aid in putting down the rebellion, and has placed them on the same footing in all respects as her white troops.

"Believing that this atrocity has been perpetrated without your knowledge, and that you will take prompt steps to disavow this violation of the usages of war, and to bring the offenders to justice, I shall refrain from executing a rebel soldier until I learn your action in the premises.

"I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"JOHN J. PECK, "_Major-General_."

REPLY OF GENERAL PICKETT.

"HEADQUARTERS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF NORTH } "CAROLINA, PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA, February 16, 1864. }

"Major-General JOHN J. PECK, U. S. A., _Commanding at Newbern_:

"GENERAL: Your communication of the eleventh of February is received. I have the honor to state in reply, that the paragraph from a newspaper inclosed therein, is not only without foundation in fact, but so ridiculous that I should scarcely have supposed it worthy of consideration; but I would respectfully inform you that had I caught _any negro_, who had killed either officer, soldier, or citizen of the Confederate States, I should have caused him to be immediately executed.

"To your threat expressed in the following extract from your communication, namely: 'Believing that this atrocity has been perpetrated without your knowledge, and that you will take prompt steps to disavow this violation of the usages of war, and to bring the offenders to justice, I shall refrain from executing a rebel soldier until I learn of your action in the premises,' I have merely to say that I have in my hands and subject to my orders, captured in the recent operations in this department, some four hundred and fifty officers and men of the United States army, and for every man you hang I will hang ten of the United States army.

"I am, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"J. E. PICKETT, "_Major-General Commanding_."[113]

As already indicated, some of the Southern journals did not endorse the extreme hards.h.i.+ps and cruelties to which the rebels subjected the captured Colored men. During the month of July, 1863, quite a number of Colored soldiers had fallen into the hands of the enemy on Morris and James islands. The rebels did not only refuse to exchange them as prisoners of war, but treated them most cruelly.

On this very important subject, in reply to some strictures of the Charleston "Mercury" (made under _misapprehension_), the Chief of Staff of General Beauregard addressed to that journal the following letter:

"HEADQUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF S. C., GA., AND FLA., } "CHARLESTON, S. C., August 12, 1863. }

"Colonel R. B. RHETT, Jr., _Editor of_ 'Mercury':

"In the 'Mercury' of this date you appear to have written under a misapprehension of the facts connected with the present _status_ of the negroes captured in arms on Morris and James Islands, which permit me to state as follows:

"The Proclamation of the President, dated December twenty-fourth, 1862, directed that all negro slaves captured in arms should be at once delivered over to the executive authorities of the respective States to which they belong, to be dealt with according to the laws of said States.

"An informal application was made by the State authorities for the negroes captured in this vicinity; but as none of them, it appeared, had been slaves of citizens of South Carolina, they were not turned over to the civil authority, for at the moment there was no official information at these headquarters of the Act of Congress by which 'all negroes and mulattoes, who shall be engaged in war, or be taken in arms against the confederate States, or shall give aid or comfort to the enemies of the confederate States,' were directed to be turned over to the authorities of 'State or States in which they shall be captured, to be dealt with according to the present or future laws of such State or States.'

"On the twenty-first of July, however, the Commanding General telegraphed to the Secretary of War for instructions as to the disposition to be made of the negroes captured on Morris and James Islands, and on the twenty-second received a reply that they must be turned over to the State authorities, by virtue of the joint resolutions of Congress in question.

"Accordingly, on the twenty-ninth July, as soon as a copy of the resolution or act was received, his Excellency Governor Bonham was informed that the negroes captured were held subject to his orders, to be dealt with according to the laws of South Carolina.

"On the same day (twenty-ninth July) Governor Bonham requested that they should be retained in military custody until he could make arrangements to dispose of them; and in that custody they still remain, awaiting the orders of the State authorities.

"Respectfully, your obedient servant, "THOMAS JORDAN, "_Chief of Staff._"

The Proclamation of Jefferson Davis, referred to in the second paragraph of Mr. Jordan's letter, had declared Gen. Butler "a felon, an outlaw, and an enemy of mankind." It recited his hanging of Mumford; the neglect of the Federal Government to explain or disapprove the act; the imprisonment of non-combatants; Butler's woman order; his sequestration of estates in Western Louisiana; and the inciting to insurrection and arming of slaves. Mr. Davis directed any Confederate officer who should capture Gen. Butler to hang him immediately and without trial. Mr. Davis's proclamation is given here, as history is bound to hold him personally responsible for the cruelties practised upon Negro soldiers captured by the rebels from that time till the close of the war.

"First. That all commissioned officers in the command of said Benjamin F. Butler be declared not ent.i.tled to be considered as soldiers engaged in honorable warfare, but as robbers and criminals, deserving death; and that they and each of them be, whenever captured, reserved for execution.

"Second. That the private soldiers and non-commissioned officers in the army of said Butler be considered as only the instruments used for the commission of crimes perpetrated by his orders, and not as free agents; that they, therefore, be treated, when captured as prisoners of war, with kindness and humanity, and be sent home on the usual parole that they will in no manner aid or serve the United States in any capacity during the continuance of this war, unless duly exchanged.

"Third. That all negro slaves captured in arms be at once delivered over to the executive authorities of the respective States to which they belong, to be dealt with according to the laws of said States.

"Fourth. That the like orders be executed in all cases with respect to all commissioned officers of the United States, when found serving in company with said slaves in insurrection against the authorities of the different States of this Confederacy.

"[Signed and sealed at Richmond, Dec. 23, 1862.]

"JEFFERSON DAVIS."

The ghastly horrors of Fort Pillow stand alone in the wide field of war cruelties. The affair demands great fort.i.tude in the historian who would truthfully give a narrative of such b.l.o.o.d.y, sickening detail.

On the 18th of April, 1864, Gen. N. B. Forrest, commanding a corps of Confederate cavalry, appeared before Fort Pillow, situated about forty miles above Memphis, Tennessee, and demanded its surrender. It was held by Major L. F. Booth, with a garrison of 557 men, 262 of whom were Colored soldiers of the 6th U. S. Heavy Artillery; the other troops were white, under Major Bradford of the 13th Tennessee Cavalry.

The garrison was mounted with six guns. From before sunrise until nine A.M. the Union troops had held an outer line of intrenchments; but upon the death of Major Booth Major Bradford retired his force into the fort. It was situated upon a high bluff on the Mississippi River, flanked by two ravines with sheer declivities and partially timbered.

The gun-boat "New Era" was to have cooperated with the fort, but on account of the extreme height of the bluff, was unable to do much. The fighting continued until about two o'clock in the afternoon, when the firing slackened on both sides to allow the guns to cool off. The "New Era," nearly out of sh.e.l.l, backed into the river to clean her guns.

During this lull Gen. Forrest sent a flag of truce demanding the unconditional surrender of the fort. A consultation of the Federal officers was held, and a request made for twenty minutes to consult the officers of the gun-boat. Gen. Forrest refused to grant this, saying that he only demanded the surrender of the fort and not the gun-boat. He demanded an immediate surrender, which was promptly declined by Major Bradford. During the time these negotiations were going on, Forrest's men were stealing horses, plundering the buildings in front of the fort, and closing in upon the fort through the ravines, which was unsoldierly and cowardly to say the least. Upon receiving the refusal of Major Booth to capitulate, Forrest gave a signal and his troops made a frantic charge upon the fort. It was received gallantly and resisted stubbornly, but there was no use of fighting. In ten minutes the enemy, a.s.saulting the fort in the centre, and striking it on the flanks, swept in. The Federal troops surrendered; but an indiscriminate ma.s.sacre followed. Men were shot down in their tracks; pinioned to the ground with bayonet and sabre.

Some were clubbed to death while dying of wounds; others were made to get down upon their knees, in which condition they were shot to death.

Some were burned alive, having been fastened into the buildings, while still others were nailed against the houses, tortured, and then burned to a crisp. A little Colored boy only eight years old was lifted to the horse of a rebel who intended taking him along with him, when Gen. Forrest meeting the soldier ordered him to put the child down and shoot him. The soldier remonstrated, but the stern and cruel order was repeated, emphasized with an oath, and backed with a threat that endangered the soldier's life, so he put the child on the ground and shot him dead! From three o'clock in the afternoon until the merciful darkness came and threw the sable wings of night over the carnival of death, the slaughter continued. The stars looked down in pity upon the dead--ah! they were beyond the barbarous touch of the rebel fiends--and the dying; and the angels found a spectacle worthy of their tears. And when the morning looked down upon the battle-field, it was not to find it peaceful in death and the human hyenas gone.

Alas! those who had survived the wounds of the day before were set upon again and brained or shot to death.

The Committee on the Conduct and Expenditures of the War gave this "Horrible Ma.s.sacre" an investigation. They examined such of the Union soldiers as escaped from death at Fort Pillow and were sent to the Mound City Hospital, Illinois. The following extracts from the testimony given before the Committee, the Hons. Ben. F. Wade and D. W.

Gooch, give something of an idea of this the most cruel and inhuman affair in the history of the civilized world.

Manuel Nichols (Colored), private. Company B, Sixth United States Heavy Artillery, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Were you in the late fight at Fort Pillow?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Q. Were you wounded there?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. When?

A. I was wounded once about a half an hour before we gave up.

Q. Did they do any thing to you after you surrendered?