History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880 Volume II Part 84

As commanding officer of this Department I desire to make the following statement concerning the capture of Fort Pillow--a statement supported in a great measure by the evidence of one of your own officers captured at that place.

The version given by you and your government is untrue, and not sustained by the facts to the extent that you indicate.

The garrison was summoned in the usual manner, and its commanding officer a.s.sumed the responsibility of refusing to surrender after having been informed by General Forrest of his ability to take the fort, and of his fears as to what the result would be in case the demand was not complied with.

The a.s.sault was made under a heavy fire, and with considerable loss to the attacking party.

Your colors were never lowered, but retreated from the fort to the cover of the gunboats, with arms in their hands, and constantly using them.

This was true, particularly of your colored troops, who had been firmly convinced by your teachings of the certainty of their slaughter in case of capture. Even under these circ.u.mstances many of your men--white and black--were taken prisoners.

I respectfully refer you to history for numerous cases of indiscriminate slaughter, even under less aggravated circ.u.mstances.

It is generally conceded by all military precedents that where the issue has been fairly presented, and the ability displayed, fearful results are expected to follow a refusal to surrender.

The case under consideration is almost an extreme one.

You had a servile race armed against their masters, and in a country which had been desolated by almost unprecedented outrages.

I a.s.sert that our officers, with all these circ.u.mstances against them, endeavored to prevent the effusion of blood; and, as evidence of this, I refer you to the fact that both white and colored prisoners were taken, and are now in our hands.

As regards the battle of Tishemingo Creek, the statements of your negro witnesses are not to be relied on. In this panic they acted as might have been expected from their previous impressions. I do not think many of them were killed--they are yet wandering over the country, attempting to return to their masters.

With reference to the status of those captured at Tishemingo Creek and Fort Pillow, I will state that, unless otherwise ordered by my government, they will not be regarded as prisoners of war, but will be retained and humanely treated, subject to such future instructions as may be indicated.

Your letter contains many implied threats; these you can of course make, and you are fully ent.i.tled to any satisfaction that you may feel from having made them.

It is my intention, and that also of my subordinates, to conduct this war upon civilized principles, provided you permit us to do so; and I take this occasion to state that we will not shrink from any responsibilities that your actions may force upon us.

We are engaged in a struggle for the protection of our homes and firesides, for the maintenance of our national existence and liberty; we have counted the cost and are prepared to go to any extremes; and although it is far from our wish to fight under the "black flag," still, if you drive us to it, we will accept the issue.

Your troops virtually fought under it at the battle of Tishemingo Creek, and the prisoners taken there state that they went into battle with the impression that they were to receive no quarter, and I suppose with the determination to give none.

I will further remark that if it is raised, so far as your soldiers are concerned, there can be no distinction, for the unfortunate people whom you pretend to be aiding are not considered entirely responsible for their acts, influenced as they are by the superior intellect of their white brothers.

I enclose for your consideration certain papers touching the Fort Pillow affair, which were procured from the writer after the exaggerated statements of your press were seen.

I am, General, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, S. D. LEE, _Lieutenant-General, Commanding_.

ENCLOSURE IN THE FOREGOING.

CAHABA, ALABAMA, May 16, 1864.

I was one of the bearers of the flag of truce, on the part of the United States authorities, at Fort Pillow. A majority of the officers of the garrison doubted whether General Forrest was present, and had the impression that it was a ruse to induce the surrender of the fort. At the second meeting of the flag of truce, General Forrest announced himself as being General Forrest; but the officers who accompanied the flag, being unacquainted with the General, doubted his word, and it was the opinion of the garrison, at the time of the a.s.sault, that General Forrest was not in the vicinity of the fort. The commanding officer refused to surrender. When the final a.s.sault was made, I was captured at my post, inside the works, and have been treated as a prisoner of war.

JOHN T. YOUNG, _Captain, Twenty-fourth Missouri Volunteers_.

F. W. UNDERHILL, _First Lieutenant, Cavalry_.

GENERAL WASHBURN TO GENERAL LEE.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE, } MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, July 3, 1864. }

Lieutenant-General S. D. LEE, _Commanding Department Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana, C. S. A., Meridian, Miss.:_

GENERAL: Your letter of the twenty-eighth ult., in reply to mine of the seventeenth ult., is received.

The discourtesy which you profess to discover in my letter I utterly disclaim. Having already discussed at length, in a correspondence with Major-General Forrest, the Fort Pillow ma.s.sacre, as well as the policy to be pursued in regard to colored troops, I do not regard it necessary to say more on those subjects. As you state that you fully approve of the letter sent by General Forrest to me, in answer to mine of the seventeenth ult., I am forced to presume that you fully approve of his action at Fort Pillow.

Your arguments in support of that action confirm such presumption. You state that the "version given by me and my government is not true, and not sustained by the facts to the extent I indicate." You furnish a statement of a certain Captain Young, who was captured at Fort Pillow, and is now a prisoner in your hands. How far the statement of a prisoner under duress and in the position of Captain Young should go to disprove the sworn testimony of the hundred eye-witnesses who had ample opportunity of seeing and knowing, I am willing that others shall judge.

In relying, as you do, upon this certificate of Captain Young, you confess that all better resources are at an end.

You are welcome to all the relief that that certificate is calculated to give you. Does he say that our soldiers were not inhumanly treated? No. Does he say that he was in a position to see in case they had been mistreated? No. He simply says that "he saw no ill-treatment of their wounded." If he was in a position to see and know what took place, it was easy for him to say so.

I yesterday sent to Major-General Forrest a copy of the report of the Congressional Investigating Committee, and I hope it may fall into your hands. You will find there the record of inhuman atrocities, to find a parallel for which you will search the page of history in vain. Men--white men and black men--were crucified and burned; others were hunted by bloodhounds; while others, in their anguish, were made the sport of men more cruel than the dogs by which they were hunted.

I have also sent to my government copies of General Forrest's reports, together with the certificate of Captain Young.

The record in the case is plainly made up, and I leave it. You justify and approve it, and appeal to history for precedents.

As I have said, history furnishes no parallel. True, there are instances where, after a long and protracted resistance, resulting in heavy loss to the a.s.sailing party, the garrison has been put to the sword, but I know of no such instance that did not bring dishonor upon the commander that ordered or suffered it.

There is no Englishman that would not gladly forget Badajos, nor a Frenchman that exults when Jaffa or the Caves of Dahra and Shelas are spoken of. The ma.s.sacre of Glencoe, which the world has read of with horror, for nearly two hundred years, pales into insignificance before the truthful recital of Fort Pillow.

The desperate defence of the Alamo was the excuse for the slaughter of its brave survivors after its surrender, yet that act was received with just execration, and we are told by the historian that it led more than anything else to the independence of Texas.

At the battle of San Jacinto the Texans rushed into action with the war-cry, "Remember the Alamo," and carried all before them.

You will seek in vain for consultation in history, pursue the inquiry as far as you may.

Your desire to s.h.i.+ft the responsibility of the Fort Pillow ma.s.sacre, or to find excuses for it, is not strange. But the responsibility still remains where it belongs, and there it will remain.

In my last letter to General Forrest I stated that the treatment which Federal soldiers received would be their guide hereafter, and that if you give no quarter you need expect none. If you observe the rules of civilized warfare I shall rejoice at it, as no one can regret more than myself a resort to such measures as the laws of war justify towards an enemy that gives no quarter.

Your remark that our colored soldiers "will not be regarded as prisoners of war, but will be retained and humanely treated,"

indicating that you consider them as of more worth and importance than your own soldiers who are now in our hands, is certainly very complimentary to the colored troops, though but a tardy acknowledgment of their bravery and devotion as soldiers; but such fair words can neither do justice to the colored soldiers who were butchered at Fort Pillow after they had surrendered to their victors, nor relieve yourself, General Forrest, and the troops serving under you, from the fearful responsibility now resting upon you for those wanton and unparalleled barbarities.

I concur in your remarks that if the black flag is once raised, there can be no distinction so far as our soldiers are concerned.

No distinction in this regard as to color is known to the laws of war, and you may rest a.s.sured that the outrages we complain of are felt by our white soldiers, no less than by our black ones, as insults to their common banner, the flag of the United States.

I will close by a reference to your statement that many of our colored soldiers "are yet wandering over the country attempting to return to their masters." If this remark is intended for a joke, it is acknowledged as a good one; but, if stated as a fact, permit me to correct your misapprehensions by informing you that most of them have returned to their respective commands, their search for their late "masters" having proved bootless; and I think I do not exaggerate in a.s.suring you that there is not a colored soldier here who does not prefer the fate of his comrades at Fort Pillow to being returned to his "master."

I remain, General, Yours, very respectfully, C. C. WASHBURN, _Major-General_.