Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War Part 42

Answer. I could not say. I have been told that there were not over 25 killed and wounded before the fort was captured.

Question. Do you know how many have been killed in all?

Answer. My own crew buried, of those who were left unburied, some 70 or 80. The Platte Valley buried a great many, and the gunboat 28 buried some.

Question. What number do you suppose escaped out of the garrison?

Answer. I have no means of knowing. I have understood that the rebels had 160 prisoners--white men--but I think it is doubtful if they had that many, judging from the number of men we have found.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Where did those men come from whose bodies we have just seen unburied?

Answer. I should judge they came from the hospital. One of them had a cane, showing that he was not a well man, and they had on white s.h.i.+rts--hospital clothing--and, as you saw, one looked thin, very thin, as if he had been sick.

Question. How far are these bodies lying from the hospital?

Answer. I should think about 150 yards.

Question. Would men, escaping from the fort, run in that direction?

Answer. They would be very apt to run in almost any direction; and they would be more likely to run away from the stores that these rebels were robbing.

By the chairman:

Question. From the hospital clothing they had on; from their appearance showing that they had been wounded or sick persons; and from the bruised appearance of their heads, as if they had been killed by having their brains knocked out, do you infer that they were hospital patients that had been murdered there?

Answer. I should. I should be just as positive of that as I should be of anything I had not actually seen.

Question. You take it that they were sick or wounded men endeavoring to escape from the hospital, who were knocked in the head?

Answer. I should say so.

Paymaster William B. Purdy, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. What is your rank, and where have you been stationed, and in what service?

Answer. Acting a.s.sistant paymaster of the navy. I have no regular station or quarters at present; but on the day of the attack on Fort Pillow I was acting as signal officer on the gunboat No. 7.

Question. Will you state what you observed that day, and afterwards, in relation to that affair?

Answer. After our flag was down, I saw the rebels firing on our own men from the fort, and I should say that while the flag of truce was in, before the fort was captured, I could see the rebels concentrating their forces so as to be better able to take the fort.

Question. Do you mean that they took advantage of the flag of truce to place their men in position so as to better attack the fort?

Answer. Yes, sir; I could see them moving down to their new positions, and, as soon as the flag of truce was out, firing commenced from these new positions.

Question. Do you understand such movements to be in accordance with the rules of warfare?

Answer. No, sir; I do not.

Question. Had you any conversation with one of General Chalmers's aids about their conduct here?

Answer. Yes, sir; with one who said he was an aide-de-camp to General Chalmers, and a captain in the 2d Missouri cavalry. He told me that they did not recognize negroes as United States soldiers, but would shoot them, and show them no quarter--neither the negroes nor their officers.

Question. When was this?

Answer. That was the day after the capture of the fort, while the flag of truce was in. He then spoke in relation to the Tennessee loyal troops. He said they did not think much of them; that they were refugees and deserters; and they would not show them much mercy either.

Question. Was this said in defence of their conduct here?

Answer. No, sir; there was not much said about that. He opened the conversation himself.

Question. How many of our men do you suppose were killed here after our flag was down and they had surrendered?

Answer. I have no idea, only from what citizens have told me. They said there were not more than 25 or 30 killed before the place was captured; that all the rest were killed after the capture, and after the flag was down.

Question. Were you on the ground the day after the fight?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did you discover upon the field, or learn from any information derived there, of any act of peculiar barbarity?

Answer. I saw men who had been shot in the face, and I have since seen a body that was burned outside of the fort. The day after the fight I did not go inside the fort at all.

Question. Did you see the remnants of one who had been nailed to a board or plank?

Answer. I did not see that.

Question. Then it was another body that had been burned which you saw?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. It has been said that men were buried alive. Did any such information come to your notice?

Answer. I heard of it, but did not see it.

Question. What was said about it?

Answer. A young man said he saw one in the morning up there who was alive, and he went back a short time afterwards to attend to him, but he was then dead; and I have heard of others who crawled out of their graves, and were taken up on the Platte Valley, but I do not know about them.

Question. Where was this man you found burned?