to throw their shells. We had a great many guns on the boat, and about twenty used their guns all the time. The rebel sharp-shooters would come over the hill and shoot at the boat and every body that passed.

Question. Where were you when the flag of truce came in?

Answer. I was on the boat.
Question. What did you see?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. What did you hear about it.

Answer. I heard one of them say that he saw where a negro was buried, and saw a large mass of foam and dirt where somebody had been breathing through the earth. He brushed it off, and saw a negro there still breathing. I saw one or two who looked as if they had been buried when they came on board. I heard one ask them if they had been buried, and they said: "Very near it." I don't think they were wounded. One of them had been in the dirt. I don't know whether he played dead and was buried or not. Question. Do you know any thing of their

Answer. As soon as the flag of truce came in the gunboat stopped firing. It was about three o'clock when it came in, and while it was in, the enemy were creeping up constantly, sharpshooters and all, nearer and nearer. I saw a great many creeping on their hands and feet, get-killing the men in the hospital? ting up to the hill close to the Fort. I don't know what was back of that. Some men in the Fort told me that they had advanced and got close to the Fort before the flag of truce was taken out. I saw them gathering around there all the time, and all that time they were stealing from the commissary's stores, blankets and every thing else they could get at. I reckon I saw two hundred men climbing the hill with as much as they could carry on their backs, shoes, etc.

Question. Why did our officers permit that without firing on them?

Answer. The gunboat, I think, was almost out of ammunition, and had nothing to shoot; and none of them supposed the gunboat would stop shooting, but she ran out of ammunition.

Question. Were you there until the place was taken?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. What happened after that?

Answer. About the time the rebels got over the Fort there was just a cloud of them, our men in the Fort running out. About five hundred secesh cavalry, as well as I could see, came up, and turned in to shooting them down just as fast as they could. I heard a great deal of screaming and praying for mercy. The negroes took a scare from that, and ran down the hill and into the river, but they kept shooting them. I was not more than four hundred yards off, on the gunboat. I don't suppose one of them got more than thirty yards into the river before they were shot. The bullets rained as thick in the water as you ever saw a hail-storm.

Question. Were those men armed who were shot?

Answer. No, sir; they threw down their

arms.

Question. How many were shot? Answer. I don't know how many. They lay thick there the next morning, beside those they had buried.

Question. You came back there the next morning?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. What do you know about their burying men who were not dead?

Answer. I don't know any thing myself, only what I heard.

Question. Did you go up there where they had buried them.

Answer. Not of my own seeing. Mr. Akerstrom was in his office down under the hill after the flag of truce was in, and made some signs for us to come to him. Since that time I have been told that they wounded him, and then nailed him to a door, and burned him up, but I didn't see that myself.

Question. When did you hear about this nailing to a building and burning him up? Answer. Since we came up here.

Question. Were you on board the gunboat the next day when some of the rebel officers came on board?

Answer. I was on board the Platte Valley.

Question. Did they come with a flag of truce? Answer. A flag of truce was hoisted, and when we got in to the shore some of the rebel officers came on board the Platte Valley.

Question. How were they received by our officers ?

Answer. Just as though there had been no fight. Some of the officers on the Platte Valley took one of the rebel officers up to the bar and treated him, and some would ask the rebel officers what made them treat our men as they did. He said they intended to treat all home-made Yankees just as they did the negroes. I went to Captain Marshall and asked him to let me shoot him. He said that the flag of truce was up, and it would be against the rules of war to shoot him.

Question. Do you know what officers treated him?

Answer. I don't know; they were all strangers to me. The gunboat first landed, and then the transport Platte Valley came up and took the prisoners, and then another boat came up and laid alongside of her. The three lay there together.

Question. Do you know of any thing further on the subject that is important?

Answer. I don't think of any thing now.

William E. Johnson, sworn and examined.
By Mr. Gooch:

Question. To what regiment do you belong?
Answer. I am a sergeant of company B, of the
Thirteenth Tennessee cavalry.

Question. Were you at Fort Pillow at the time of the attack there?

Answer. No, sir; I was at Memphis. I came

up to Fort Pillow the morning after the fight, on the Platte Valley, within some six or eight miles below Fort Pillow, and then got on the gunboat Twenty-eight.

Question. Did you see them kill any body there that was wounded?

Answer. They took two negroes out and shot them.

Question. Did you see them burn any buildings the wounded were in?

Question. Did you go on shore at Fort Pillow? Answer. No, sir; I saw some of the rebel officers come down and go on board the Platte Answer. Not the one we were in. I was told Valley; and some of our officers were drinking they fired some buildings that wounded negroes with them, and making very free with them. I were in. did not particularly notice what rank, but I took them to be captains and lieutenants.

Question. Did you hear the conversation between them?

Answer. They were making very free with one another, joking, talking, and running on. I did not feel right to see such going on, and did not go about them.

Question. What did they say when they shot you?

Answer. I asked them if they did not respect prisoners of war; they said "No, they did not," and kept on shooting; and they popped three or four caps in my face with a revolver after they had wounded me.

Question. Did you see them shoot any others after they had surrendered ?

Answer. Yes, sir, lots of them; negroes and white men both. They shot them down wherever they came to them.

Question. Were you there the next day after the battle?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did you see them shoot any body the next day?

Answer. I saw them shoot negroes, not white

men.

Question. How many did you see them shoot that day?

Answer. I saw them shoot five or six on the hill where I was; they said they shot all they could find.

Question. Were you in the hospital there? Answer. I was in a house there with the wounded.

Question. Were you where they buried any of the killed?

Answer. I saw them bury some in a ditch in the evening.

Question. Did they separate the whites from the blacks?

Answer. I cannot tell; I was not close enough. I saw them carry them there and throw them in the ditch.

Question. Did you hear any thing about their nailing a man to a building and then setting it on fire?

Answer. I heard of it, but did not see it.
Question. When did you hear of it?
Answer. After I came up here.

John F. Ray, sworn and examined.
By Mr. Gooch:

Question. To what company and regiment do you belong?

Answer. Company B, Thirteenth Tennessee cavalry.

Question. Were you at Fort Pillow when it was attacked?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. At what time were you wounded? Answer. I was wounded about two o'clock, after the rebels got in the breastworks.

Question. Was it before or after you had surrendered?

Answer. It was after I threw down my gun, as they all started to run.

Question. Will you state what you saw there? Answer. After I surrendered they shot down a great many white fellows right close to me ten or twelve, I suppose-and a great many negroes, too.

Question. How long did they keep shooting our men after they surrendered?

Answer. I heard guns away after dark shooting all that evening, somewhere; they kept up a regular fire for a long time, and then I heard the guns once in a while.

Question. Did you see any one shot the next

day?

Answer. I did not; I was in a house, and could not get up at all.

Question. Do you know what became of the quartermaster of your regiment, Lieutenant Akerstrom?

Answer. He was shot by the side of me.
Question. Was he killed?

Answer. I thought so at the time; he fell on his face. He was shot in the forehead, and I thought he was killed. I heard afterward he

was not.

day before, and returned to Fort Pillow the morning after the fight. I came up on gunboat Number Twenty-eight. The rebels were at Fulton, about two miles and a half below Fort Pillow. We fired at them, and the rebels at Fort Pillow heard it, and thought we were bringing up reenforcements, and then they set the town on fire.

Question. When did you get up there? Answer. Early in the morning, or little after daylight.

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 a flag of truce. An escort of about twenty 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 afterward. I do not know whether the man was white or black.

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 damned conscript that had run away from Forrest. But I never heard Lieutenant Akerstrom say any such thing.

Question. When did you land at Fort Pillow? Answer. We got there about eight o'clock in the morning, and shelled 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 shore to see what was wanting. One of the officers of the Sixth United States heavy artillery said he did not like to go on shore for fear the rebels would kill him. I went on shore with one of the naval Question. Did you hear any thing of their officers and saw General Forrest's Adjutant-Gen-nailing men to a building and then burning it? eral, 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 twenty or thirty 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 VOL VIII.-Doc. 3

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 Twenty-eight invite General Chalmers and some of his aids-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 Twenty-eight, 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 recog nize 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 Assistant Surgeon, United
States army.

Question. Where are you now stationed?