Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War Part 57

Question. You say there were 580 men, you think, in the fort?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. How many do you suppose escaped?

Answer. Well, I know there were not more than 100 as they marched out there surrounded by the other troops, and I would not think there were fifty of them. There were live darkeys in Cairo hospitals who were buried alive. Two of them have died since they got there.

Question. Did you see any of these men buried alive?

Answer. No, I did not; but they are facts that can easily be proved by the darkeys--the darkeys themselves--and those who saw it done, and saw the quartermaster burned, too.

EDWARD B. BENTON.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 22d April, 1864.

ISAAC J. DODGE, _Lieutenant and a.s.sist. Paymaster General, Department of Missouri_.

In consequence of some portions of the evidence of General Brayman and Colonel Lawrence, which, unexplained, might impeach the good conduct of General Shepley, Mr. Gooch, of the sub-committee, telegraphed to General Shepley, giving him the substance of the testimony relating to himself, and asking him to forward to the committee any explanation he might deem necessary in writing. The following communication was received from General Shepley, and the testimony of Captain Thornton, an officer of his staff, was taken. The sub-committee deemed the explanation therein contained to be entirely satisfactory, and directed that the following communication and testimony be incorporated with the testimony in relation to Fort Pillow.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NORFOLK AND PORTSMOUTH, _Norfolk, Virginia, May 7, 1864_.

SIR: I have the honor respectfully to forward by Captain C. C. G.

Thornton, 12th Maine volunteers, now acting on my staff, a statement in reply to the communication I had the honor to receive by telegraph.

Captain Thornton was on the Olive Branch, and is subject to examination by the committee.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant,

G. F. SHEPLEY, _Brigadier General, Commanding_.

Hon. D. W. GOOCH, _Of Committee on Conduct of the War_.

HEADQUARTERS NORFOLK AND PORTSMOUTH, _Norfolk, Virginia, May 7, 1864_.

SIR: At my own request having been relieved from duty as military governor of Louisiana, and ordered to report for duty to the commanding general of the army, I left New Orleans, on the evening of the 6th of April, as a pa.s.senger in the Olive Branch, a New Orleans and St. Louis pa.s.senger steamer _not in the service of the government_, but loaded with male and female pa.s.sengers and cargo of private parties. The steamer was unarmed, and had no troops and no muskets for protection against guerillas when landing at wood yards and other places.

The boat stopped at Vicksburg, and I went ash.o.r.e. When I returned to the boat as she was about leaving, I found that a detachment of a portion of the men of two batteries--one Ohio and one Missouri--belonging to the 17th army corps, with the horses, guns, caissons, wagons, tents, and baggage of the two batteries, had been put on board, with orders, as I afterwards learned on inquiring, to report to General Brayman, at Cairo.

The horses occupied all the available s.p.a.ce, fore and aft, on the sides of the boilers and machinery, which were on deck. The guns, caissons, baggage wagons, tents, garrison and camp equipage, were piled up together on the bows, leaving only s.p.a.ce for the gang plank.

The men had no small arms, so that when the boat landed, as happened in one instance at a wood yard where guerillas had just pa.s.sed, the pickets thrown out to prevent surprise were necessarily unarmed.

As the boat was approaching, and before it was in sight of Fort Pillow, some females hailed it from the sh.o.r.e, and said the rebels had attacked Fort Pillow, and captured two boats on the river, and would take us if we went on.

The captain of the Olive Branch said they had probably taken the Mollie Able, which was due there about that time from St. Louis.

He turned his boat, saying he would go back to Memphis.

I objected to going back; stopped the boat below the next point; hailed another smaller steamer without pa.s.sengers which I saw approaching, and ordered it alongside. I ordered the captain of this boat to cast off the coal barges he had in tow, and take me on board with a section of a battery to go to Fort Pillow.

While he was trying to disenc.u.mber his boat of the coal barges, another boat, better for the purpose, (the Cheek,) hove in sight. Finding I could get her ready quicker than the other, I had her brought alongside, and went aboard myself with Captain Thornton, of my staff, and Captain Williams, the ranking officer of the batteries.

Before we could get the guns on board, _a steamer with troops_ hove in sight _coming down the river_ from Fort Pillow.

We could not distinguish at first whether they were Union or rebel soldiers.

I asked Captain Pegram, of the Olive Branch, if the story of the women turned out to be true, and the rebels had the steamer, could his boat sink her. Captain Pegram replied, "Yes, my boat can run right over her."

I ordered him to swing out into the stream to be ready for her. When she approached we saw _United States infantry soldiers on board that had just pa.s.sed the fort_. She kept on going rapidly down with the current, only hailing the Olive Branch: "_All right up there; you can go by_.

_The gunboat is lying off the fort_."

This steamer was the Liberty. We then proceeded up the river in the Olive Branch. Near Fort Pillow some stragglers or guerillas fired from the sh.o.r.e with musketry, aiming at the pilot-house.

I was then in the pilot-house, and, as we kept on, I observed that one of the two other boats I have mentioned, which followed us at some distance, was compelled to put back. The Olive Branch kept on to report to the gunboat on the station.

An officer came off from the gunboat, in a small boat, and said he did not want any boat to stop; ordered us to go on to Cairo, and tell captain (name not recollected) to send him immediately four hundred (400) rounds of ammunition. There was no firing at the fort at this time.

The Union flag was flying, and after we had pa.s.sed the fort we could see a "flag of truce" outside the fortifications.

_No signal of any kind was made to the boat from the fort, or from the sh.o.r.e._

No intimation was given us from the gunboat, which had the right to order a steamer of this description, other than the order to proceed to Cairo, to send down the ammunition.

From the fact that the Liberty had just pa.s.sed down the river from the fort, with troops on board; from her hailing us _to go by_, and continuing her course down the river without stopping; that no signal was made the Olive Branch from the fort on the sh.o.r.e, and no attack was being made on the fort at the time; that the officer of the gunboat said he did not want any boats to stop, and ordered the captain of the Olive Branch to go on, and have ammunition sent down to him by first boat, I considered, and now consider, that the captain of the Olive Branch was not only justified in going on, but bound to proceed.

The Olive Branch was incapable of rendering any a.s.sistance, being entirely defenceless. If any guns could have been placed in position on the boat, they could not have been elevated to reach sharpshooters on the high steep bluff outside the fort.

A very few sharpshooters from the sh.o.r.e near the fort could have prevented any landing, and have taken the boat. We supposed the object of the rebels was rather to seize a boat, to effect a crossing into Arkansas, than to capture the fort. We had no means of knowing or suspecting that so strong a position as Fort Pillow had not been properly garrisoned for defence, when it was in constant communication with General Hurlbut at Memphis.

The Olive Branch had just left Memphis, General Hurlbut's headquarters, where it had been during the previous night. If it had not been for the appearance of the Liberty, I should have attempted a landing at Fort Pillow in the small steamer. If any intimation had been given from the gunboat, or the sh.o.r.e, I should have landed personally from the Olive Branch. The order given to the contrary prevented it.

Coming from New Orleans, and having no knowledge of affairs in that military district, I could not presume that a fort, with uninterrupted water communication above and below, could possibly be without a garrison strong enough to hold it for a few hours.

I write hastily, and omit, from want of time, to state subsequent occurrences at Fort Columbus and Cairo, except to say that, at Fort Columbus, in front of which Buford then was demanding a surrender, I stopped, started to ride out to the lines, met Colonel Lawrence, the commanding officer, coming in from the front to his headquarters.

Offered to remain, with the men on board.

Colonel Lawrence said he was in good condition to stand any attack; could communicate with General Brayman; had already taken four hundred (400) infantry and one battery from the L. M. Kennett, which had just preceded us, and left six hundred (600) men, and another, or other batteries, on board, which he did not need. He declined the proffered a.s.sistance, as not needed, and immediately on arrival at Cairo I reported all the information in my possession to General Brayman, in command, who was about leaving for Columbus.

Captain Thornton, 12th Maine volunteers, a gallant officer, distinguished for his bravery at Ponchitoula, where he was wounded and left in the hands of the enemy, was on board the Olive Branch, and will take this communication to the committee.

I respectfully ask that he may be thoroughly examined as to all the circ.u.mstances.

I am conscious that a full examination will show that I rather exceeded than neglected my duty.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant,

G. F. SHEPLEY, _Brigadier General, Commanding_.