the third day it rained heavily. The negroes, shivering with the cold, their children crying, and women moaning piteously, endeavored, to the best of their ability, to keep up with the train. The cavalry co fails. Thus far nothing had been heard of Sooy Smith. Had he come as ordered, Polk's army could not operating force possibly have escaped, and the expedition might have advanced as far as Selma before it returned. Cavalry were sent in various directions in search of him. Sherman now left his army, hastened to Vicksburg, and went down quickly to New Orleans to ar range with Banks and Porter the Shreveport expedition. Not until his return did he learn that Smith had not started from Memphis until the 11th, advancing no farther than to West Point, and had turned back on the 22d. "His reports to me," says Sherman," are unsatisfactory. He delayed his start until the 11th, when his orders were to be at Meridian on the 10th, and when he knew that I was marching from Vicksburg. The mode of his return to Memphis was not what I had expected; he had nothing to deal with but Forrest and the militia. I hope he will make these points more clear to the general-in-chief." Polk, having retired safely behind the Tombigbee, determined to send out his cavalry on a sally. erate cavalry under He ordered it to join Forrest, who had now about 7000 men, and to resist the advance of Smith, then marching toward Meridian. An action oc curred at Okalona, in which Forrest had the advantage, taking from Smith six guns, and compelling him to retreat over the country he had laid waste. Sally of the Confed Forrest. Forrest now advanced into Tennessee, devastating the It is repulsed from country as he advanced. He captured JackPaducah. son, in that state, on the 23d of March, and, moving northward, appeared before Paducah, held by Colonel Hicks with 650 men. His demand for a surrender was accompanied with a threat: "If you surrender, you shall be treated as prisoners of war; but if I have to storm your works, you may expect no quarter." He made three assaults, and then retired, having lost 1500 men. Fort Fillow. On the 12th of April he was at Fort Pillow, which was He appears before garrisoned by 19 officers and 538 men, of whom 262 were negroes. This force was not a part of the army, but a nondescript body in process of formation, placed there to cover a trading-post for the convenience of families supposed to be friendly, or at least not hostile; it had been left in violation of Sherman's peremptory orders. The attack was made before sunrise; and, after some severe fighting, Major Booth, the commanding officer of the garrison, was killed. Major Bradford, who succeeded him, drew the troops from the outer line of intrenchments into the fort, and continued the contest until afternoon. A gun-boat, which had been co-operating in the defense, withdrew to cool or clean her guns, and, the fire slackening, Forrest sent a summons to surrender, and shortly after a second, demanding that the surrender should be made in twenty minutes. These terms were declined by Bradford. But, while the negotiations were in progress, the assailants were stealthily advancing, and gaining such positions that they could rush upon the fort. fort. Accordingly, as soon as Bradford's answer was received, Capture of that they sprang forward. The fort was instantly carried. Its garrison threw down their arms and fled, seeking refuge wherever they could. And now was perpetrated one of the most frightful acts of all recorded history. The carnage did not cease with the struggle of the storming, but was continued as a carnival of murder until night, and renewed again the next morning. Without any discrimination of color, age, or sex, the fugi tives were dragged from their hiding-places and cruelly Massacre of the murdered. Wounded men, who had made a gallant defense, were atrociously compelled to stand up and be shot; some were burnt in their tents, garrison. some were stabbed. For the black soldiers there was no mercy. "They were massacred because they were nig gers," and the whites "because they were fighting with niggers." General Stephen E. Lee, the superior of Forrest, partly denying and partly excusing this atrocity, says, "It is generally conceded by all military precedent that, when the issue has been fairly presented and the ability display. ed, 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." The Committee of Congress on the Conduct of the War appointed a sub-committee to go to such Report of the Con gressional Commit- places as they might deem necessary, and take testimony in relation to the Fort Pillow mas tee on the subject. sacre. Their report presents facts in connection with this mas sacre of the deepest atrocity. Men were not only shot in cold blood and drowned, but were even crucified, buried alive, nailed to the floors of houses, which were then set on fire. "No cruelty," says this committee," which the most fiendish malignity could devise, was omitted by these murderers." "From three to four hundred men are known to have been killed at Fort Pillow, of whom at least three hundred were murdered in cold blood after the post was in possession of the rebels, and our men had thrown down their arms and ceased to offer resistance." The evidence collected by this committee is very volu minous. I may here quote portions of it. It should be mentioned in behalf of General Forrest that one of the witnesses, who had been rewound. ed, testified that "Forrest gave orders to stop Evidence given before that committee. the firing." One white officer, John C. Akerstrom, 2d Lieutenant of son are crucified.· Some of the garri- Company A, Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry, was more than crucified. It appeared in evidence that he was nailed through his hands and feet to the side of a house, which was then set on fire. One of the witnesses stated, however, that "the nails were not. driven through his hands, but through his wrists; but there were some black sergeants nailed through the hands to logs, and the logs were then set on fire." Some nailed to a floor and burnt. The master's mate of the gun-boat New Era, who was sent ashore the next day with a detail of men, under a flag of truce, to collect the wounded and bury the dead, testified: "I saw one black man that I took up off a tent-floor. He lay on his back with his arms stretched out. Part of his arms were burnt off, and his legs were burned nearly to a crisp. His stomach was bare. The clothes had either been burnt off or torn off. In or der to take away the remains, I slipped some pieces of board under him, and when we took him up the boards of the tent came up with him, and we then observed that nails had been driven through his clothes and his cartridge-box so as to fasten him down to the floor. His face was not burned, but was very much distorted, as if he had died in great pain." This awful statement was corroborated by several others of the burial-party who helped to remove the corpse. alive. A colored private of the Sixth United States Heavy ArSome are buried tillery testified: "I saw them bury one man alive. He was shot in the side, but he was not dead, and was breathing along right good. Ev ery once in a while, as they put dirt on him, he would move his hands. I was standing right there, and saw him when they put him in, and saw that he was not dead." Another colored private of the United States Sixth Heavy Artillery gave evidence: "Toward evening General Forrest issued an order not to kill any more negroes, because they wanted them to help to haul the artillery out. I saw them pulling the artillery, and I saw the Secesh whip them as they were going out just like they were horses." rest, and fails. No event of the Civil War was, in a moral point of view, more detrimental to the Confederacy than this murder of the garrison of Fort Pillow. Christianity every where was shocked. Even in Europe, among persons who had been supporters of the Southern cause, many were permanently alienated; nor was their just indignation limited to those who perpetrated the crime. Davis and the Richmond gov. ernment were considered responsible, because, out of def erence to the slaveholding interest, they failed to punish, or even to rebuke, the authors of this atrocity. Forrest now retreated into Mississippi, and 12,000 men, Sturgis pursues For under General Sturgis, were ordered to fol low him; but he evaded them. Early in June Sturgis was again sent after him; but, through mismanage ment, the expedition not only disastrously failed, but Stur gis was pursued almost to Memphis, losing between three and four thousand men. In the early part of July anoth er command was sent against Forrest, under A. J. Smith. An action occurred at Tupelo, and Smith was compelled to retreat to Memphis. It set out again from that place in the beginning of August, but Forrest was not to be found. While the expedition from Memphis was seeking him, he made a sudden and very unex pected dash upon that city; occupied it for a few hours, and then retreated into Mississippi. Dash of Forrest into Sherman's Meridian expedition secured all the militaResults of the Me- ry results that had been contemplated. He ridian campaign. marched about 400 miles during the shortest month of the year, and had his army in better health and condition than when he started. His loss was 21 killed, 68 wounded, 81 missing. The general results of the movement, including those of Sooy Smith, are stated to have been as follows: One hundred and fifty miles of railroad, |