Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War Part 30

Question. When did you land at Fort Pillow?

Answer. We got there about 8 o'clock in the morning, and sh.e.l.led there an hour or so. The rebels were occupying the fort in large numbers. By and by the rebels came down with a flag of truce, and I went on sh.o.r.e to see what was wanting. One of the officers of the 6th United States heavy artillery said he did not like to go on sh.o.r.e for fear the rebels would kill him. I went on sh.o.r.e with one of the naval officers and saw General Forrest's adjutant general, Major Anderson. He said if we would recognize the parole of Forrest we might take our wounded on the gunboat; and that was agreed upon. I rode all around the battle-ground, and saw some of our dead half buried, and I saw five negroes burning. I asked Colonel Chalmers, the general's brother, if that was the way he allowed his men to do. He concluded that he could not control his men very well, and thought it was justifiable in regard to negroes; that they did not recognize negroes as soldiers, and he could not control his men. I did not see any white men burning there; if there were any, I did not recognize them as such. Their faces were burned, and some of them were sticking out of the tents and houses with their clothes partly burned. The negroes were lying upon the boards and straw in the tents which had been set on fire. It seemed to me as if the fire could not have been set more than half an hour before. Their flesh was frying off them, and their clothes were burning.

Question. How many did you see in that condition?

Answer. I saw five.

Question. Did they burn the hospital?

Answer. I saw the hospital burning, but I do not know whether they moved the sick out or not before they burned it. I understood the rebels went in where there were some 20 or 30 negroes sick, and hacked them over their heads with sabres and shot them. The negroes had been moved from the heights up on the hill into two large tents by us; but I do not think our men had been moved up there. I went through the hospital tents up there the morning before I started down to Memphis, and saw them full of colored troops. Dr. Fitch told me that he had his hospital flag on every bush around the bottom of the hill. At the commencement of the fight the major had told him to take his instruments and his medicines down under the bluff and stick up flags there, and have the wounded taken down to him. But the doctor said they did not notice his flags at all; that some of his patients were wounded there. He was wounded himself and taken prisoner and paroled.

Question. Did you see them shoot any colored men that morning?

Answer. I saw them shoot one man just before we landed with the flag of truce. An escort of about 20 men rode up to a livery stable and set it on fire. The gunboat fired at them but did not hit them, and they got on their horses and rode off at a trot. There were some paths down the hill, and a man came along down one of them; I saw them halt; the foremost one, an officer I think, pulled out a revolver and shot very deliberately at this man, and then they galloped off in quick time. He did not kill the man, however, for I saw him walking along afterwards. I do not know whether the man was white or black.

Question. Did you hear anything of their nailing men to a building and then burning it?

Answer. Yes, sir; I heard of it. And I heard a lady say that a man was nailed to a building that was burned. She said she was well acquainted with Lieutenant Akerstrom before the fight took place. Some one asked why he was not buried. Some of the rebels said he was a d.a.m.ned conscript that had run away from Forrest. But I never heard Lieutenant Akerstrom say any such thing.

Question. Who was that lady?

Answer. Mrs. Ruffin, the wife of Thomas Ruffin.

Question. Where is she now?

Answer. I think she is at Cairo now. Her husband did not get wounded, but he was sick. I heard an ensign on gunboat 28 invite General Chalmers and some of his aides-de-camp to come on board the gunboat, and I saw Major Anderson and several other confederate officers on the Platte Valley drinking at the bar, and I saw a couple of army officers drinking there with them, and there might have been some naval officers with them too, but I am not certain of that. The clerk of the Platte Valley, General Forrest's adjutant general, Major Anderson, and an ensign of gunboat 28, took the names of the paroles. I did not take the names myself, because I was busily engaged going over the battle-field to find out if any of our men were left alive. I heard a great many rebel soldiers say they did not intend to recognize those black devils as soldiers. They said this to me as I was speaking about the slaughter there. They also expressed the opinion that if we had not been fighting with black troops they would not have hurt us at all; but they did not intend to give any quarter to negroes.

Dr. Stewart Gordon, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. What is your position?

Answer. Acting a.s.sistant surgeon, United States army.

Question. Where are you now stationed?

Answer. I have charge of ward N, Mound City general hospital.

Question. Is that the ward in which are the colored men we first examined yesterday?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Have you prepared a statement of the condition of the men in that ward whose testimony we have taken?

Answer. I have it here; it is a brief history of their cases, where they were wounded, how they were wounded, and the condition they are in.--(Appendix to this deposition.)

Question. Were you here in the hospital when those men were brought in?

Answer. I was.

Question. Had you any conversation with them then?

Answer. Yes, sir; with the greater part of them.

Question. Did you hear their testimony yesterday?

Answer. I did.

Question. Did the statements they made to us correspond with the statements they made to you when they were first brought here?

Answer. They did.

Question. So far as you can judge, from your experience as a medical man, are their statements in relation to their injuries corroborated by the appearance of the injuries themselves?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. How many of those men have died since they have been received here?

Answer. Only one in my ward.

Question. How many are there now who you think will not recover?

Answer. I think there are three who will not recover; perhaps more.

_Ward N._--Private Elias Falls, company A, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in arm while fighting, shot in thigh after being prisoner, flesh wound, condition favorable; Private Duncan Harden, company A, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in arm while fighting, arm broke, shot in thigh after being prisoner, flesh wound, favorable; Private Nathan Hunter, company D, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in side and hip after surrender, flesh wound, condition favorable; Sergeant Benjamin Robinson, company D, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in thigh and right leg after surrender, flesh wound, favorable; Private Daniel Tylor, company B, 1st Tennessee artillery, shot in right shoulder, shot in right eye after surrender, destroying sight, unfavorable; Private John Haskins, company B, 1st Tennessee artillery, shot in left arm after surrender, flesh wound, slight, favorable; Private Thomas Adison, company C, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in nose and right eye after surrender, destroying sight, unfavorable; Private Alfred Flake, company A, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in left hand while lying sick in hospital, flesh wound, unfavorable; Private Manuel Nichols, company B, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in left side before, and right arm after surrender, flesh wound, serious, unfavorable; Private Arthur Edmonds, company C, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in head and right arm after surrender, causing fracture of arm, condition favorable; Private Henry Hanks, company A, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in left side after surrender, wound serious, condition unfavorable; Private Charles Key, company D, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in right arm after surrender, fracture of arm, condition favorable; Private Henry Christon, company B, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in back before surrender, wound serious, rather favorable; Private Aaron Fintis, company D, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in both legs after surrender, flesh wound, slight, condition favorable; Private George Shaw, company B, 1st Tennessee artillery, shot in left side of head, shot in right wrist after surrender, not serious, favorable; Private Major William, company B, 1st Tennessee artillery, shot through nose after surrender, not serious, condition favorable; officer's servant William Jerdon, 13th Tennessee cavalry, shot in left ankle, amputation, shot in left arm, fracture of arm after surrender, very unfavorable; Corporal Alexander Naison, company C, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in right side of head after surrender, not serious, favorable; Private Thomas Gadis, company C, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in right hip after surrender, serious, condition unfavorable; Corporal Eli Cothel, company B, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in right leg while fighting, shot in left arm after surrender, flesh wound, favorable; Private Sandy Cole, company D, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in right thigh and arm after surrender, flesh wound, condition favorable; Private Nathan Modley, company D, 1st Alabama artillery, shot in right knee after surrender, injury of joint, condition unfavorable; Private John Holland, company B, 1st Tennessee artillery, shot in right thigh after surrender, flesh wound, condition favorable; Private Robert Hall, company C, 1st Alabama artillery, sabre cut of head and left hand while lying sick in hospital, died.

STEWART GORDON, _Charge of Ward N_.

Dr. William N. McCoy, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. What is your position in the service?

Answer. I am an acting a.s.sistant surgeon, now stationed at Mound City general hospital, in charge of wards L, K, I, and H. Wards L, K, and H have wounded in from Fort Pillow.

Question. Have you prepared a statement of the cases of those of your patients whom we examined here?

Answer. Yes, sir; here is the statement.--(See appendix to this deposition.)