Chapter 151
Having understood that Major-General S. D. Lee was in command there, I directed my letter to him--a copy of it I enclose. You say in your letter that it has been reported to you that all the negro troops stationed in Memphis took an oath on their knees, in the presence of Major-General Hurlbut, and other officers of our army, to avenge Fort Pillow, and that they would show your troops no quarter.
I believe it is true that the colored troops did take such an oath, but not in the presence of General Hurlbut. From what I can learn, this act of theirs was not influenced by any white officer, but was the result of their own sense of what was due to themselves and their fellows who had been mercilessly slaughtered.
I have no doubt that they went into the field, as you allege, in the full belief that they would be murdered in case they fell into your hands. The affair at Fort Pillow fully justified that belief. I am not aware as to what they proclaimed on their late march, and it may be, as you say, that they declared that no quarter would be given to any of your men that might fall into their hands.
Your declaration that you have conducted the war, on all occasions, on civilized principles, cannot be accepted; but I receive with satisfaction the intimation in your letter that the recent slaughter of colored troops at the battle of Tishemingo Creek resulted rather from the desperation with which they fought than a predetermined intention to give them no quarter.
You must have learned by this time that the attempt to intimidate the colored troops by indiscriminate slaughter has signally failed, and that, instead of a feeling of terror, you have aroused a spirit of courage and desperation that will not down at your bidding.
I am left in doubt, by your letter, as to the course you and the Confederate government intend to pursue hereafter in regard to colored troops, and I beg you to advise me, with as little delay as possible, as to your intentions.
If you intend to treat such of them as fall into your hands as prisoners of war, please so state; if you do not so intend, but contemplate either their slaughter or their return to slavery, please state _that_, so that we may have no misunderstanding hereafter. If the former is your intention, I shall receive the announcement with pleasure, and shall explain the fact to the colored troops at once, and desire that they recall the oath they have taken; if the _latter_ is the case, then let the oath stand, and upon those who have aroused this spirit by their atrocities, and upon the government and people who sanction it, be the consequences.
In regard to your inquiry relating to prisoners of your command in our hands, I have to state that they have always received the treatment which a great and humane Government extends to its prisoners. What course will be pursued hereafter toward them must, of course, depend on circ.u.mstances that may arise. If your command, hereafter, does nothing which should properly exclude them from being treated as prisoners of war, they will be so treated.
I thank you for your offer to exchange wounded officers and men in your hands. If you will send them in, I will exchange man for man, so far as I have the ability to do so.
Before closing this letter, I wish to call your attention to one case of unparalleled outrage and murder that has been brought to my notice, and in regard to which the evidence is overwhelming.
Among the prisoners captured at Fort Pillow was Major Bradford, who had charge of the defence of the fort after the fall of Major Booth.
After being taken prisoner, he was started with other prisoners of war, in charge of Colonel Duckworth, for Jackson. At Brownsville they rested over night. The following morning two companies were detailed by Colonel Duckworth to proceed to Jackson with the prisoners.
After they had started, and proceeded a very short distance, five soldiers were recalled by Colonel Duckworth, and were conferred with by him; they then rejoined the column, and after proceeding about five miles from Brownsville the column was halted, and Major Bradford taken about fifty yards from the roadside and deliberately shot by the five men who had been recalled by Colonel Duckworth, and his body left unburied upon the ground where he fell.
He now lies buried near the spot, and, if you desire, you can easily satisfy yourself of the truth of what I a.s.sert. I beg leave to say to you that this transaction hardly justifies your remark, that your operations have been conducted on civilized principles, and until you take some steps to bring the perpetrators of this outrage to justice, the world will not fail to believe that it had your sanction.
I am, General, your obedient servant, C. C. WASHBURN, _Major-General Commanding_.
GENERAL FORREST TO GENERAL WASHBURN.
HEADQUARTERS FORREST'S CAVALRY, } TUPELO, MISS., June 20, 1864.}
Major-General C. C. WASHBURN, _Commanding U. S. Forces, Memphis, Tenn_.
GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt (per flag of truce) of your letter of the seventeenth instant, addressed to Major-General S. D. Lee, or officer commanding Confederate forces near Tupelo. I have forwarded it to General Lee, with a copy of this letter.
I regard your letter as discourteous to the commanding officer of this department, and grossly insulting to myself.
You seek by implied threats to intimidate him, and a.s.sume the privilege of denouncing me as a murderer, and as guilty of the wholesale slaughter of the garrison at Fort Pillow, and found your a.s.sertion upon the _ex parte_ testimony of (your friends) the enemies of myself and country. I shall not enter into the discussion, therefore, of any of the questions involved, nor undertake any refutation of the charges made by you against myself; nevertheless, as a matter of personal privilege alone, I unhesitatingly say that they are unfounded and unwarranted by the facts. But whether those charges are true or false, they, with the question you ask, as to whether negro troops, when captured, will be recognized and treated as prisoners of war, subject to exchange, etc., are matters
Since the war began I have captured many thousand Federal prisoners, and they, including the survivors of the "Fort Pillow Ma.s.sacre," "black and white," are living witnesses of the fact that with my knowledge or consent, or by my order, not one of them has ever been insulted, or in any way maltreated.
You speak of your forbearance in not giving your negro troops instructions and orders as to the course they should pursue in regard to Confederate soldiers that might fall into their (your) hands, which clearly conveys to my mind two very distinct impressions. The first is, that in not giving them instructions and orders, you have left the matter entirely to the discretion of the negroes as to how they should dispose of prisoners.
Second, an implied threat to give such orders as will lead to "consequences too fearful" for contemplation. In confirmation of the correctness of the first impression (which your language now fully develops), refer most respectfully to my letter from the battle-field, Tishemingo Creek, and forwarded you by flag of truce on the fourteenth instant. As to the second impression, you seem disposed to take into your own hands the settlements which belong to, and can only be settled by, your government; but if you are prepared to take upon yourself the responsibility of inaugurating a system of warfare contrary to civilized usages, the onus as well as the consequences will be chargeable to yourself.
Deprecating, as I should do, such a state of affairs; determined, as I am, not to be instrumental in bringing it about; feeling and knowing, as I do, that I have the approval of my government, my people, and my conscience as to the past, and with the firm belief that I will be sustained by them in my future policy, it is left with you to determine what that policy shall be, whether in accordance with the laws of civilised nations, or in violation of them.
I am, General, yours, very respectfully, N. B. FORREST, _Major-General_.
GENERAL FORREST TO GENERAL WASHBURN.
HEADQUARTERS FORREST'S CAVALRY, } IN THE FIELD, June 23, 1864. }
Major-General C. C. WASHBURN, _Commanding District of West Tennessee, Memphis, Tenn._:
Your communication of the nineteenth inst. is received, in which you say "you are left in doubt as to the course the Confederate government intends to pursue hereafter in regard to colored troops."
Allow me to say that this is a subject upon which I did not and do not propose to enlighten you. It is a matter to be settled by our governments through their proper officers, and I respectfully refer you to them for a solution of your doubts.
You ask me to state whether "I contemplate either their slaughter or their return to slavery." I answer that I slaughter no man except in open warfare, and that my prisoners, both white and black, are turned over to my government to be dealt with as it may direct. My government is in possession of all the facts as regards my official conduct, and the operations of my command since I entered the service, and if you desire a proper discussion and decision, I refer you again to the President of the Confederate States. I would not have you understand, however, that in a matter of so much importance I am indisposed to place at your command and disposal any facts desired, when applied for in a manner becoming an officer holding your rank and position, for it is certainly desirable to every one occupying a public position to be placed right before the world, and there has been no time since the capture of Fort Pillow, that I would not have furnished all the facts connected with its capture, had they been applied for properly, but now the matter rests with the two governments. I have, however, for your information, enclosed you copies of the official correspondence between the commanding officers at Fort Pillow and myself; also copies of a statement of Captain Young, the senior officer of that garrison, together with (sufficient) extracts from a report of the affair by my A. D. C., Captain Chas. W. Anderson, which I approve and endorse as correct.
As to the death of Major Bradford, I knew nothing of it until eight or ten days after it is said to have occurred.
On the thirteenth (the day after the capture of Fort Pillow) I went to Jackson, and the report I had of the affair was this: Major Bradford was, with other officers, sent to the headquarters of Colonel McCulloch, and all the prisoners were in charge of one of McCulloch's regiments. Bradford requested the privilege of attending the burial of his brother, which was granted, he giving his parole of honor to return. Instead of returning, he changed his clothing and started for Memphis. Some of my men were hunting deserters, and came on Bradford just as he had landed on the south bank of the Hatchie, and arrested him. When arrested, he claimed to be a Confederate soldier belonging to Bragg's army; that he had been on furlough, and was then on his way to join his command.
As he could show no papers he was believed to be a deserter, and was taken to Covington, and not until he was recognized and spoken to by citizens did the guards know that he was Bradford.
He was sent by Colonel Duckworth, or taken by him, to Brownsville.
All of Chalmers's command went from Brownsville, _via_ La Grange, and as all the other prisoners had been gone some time, and there was no chance for them to catch up and place Bradford with them, he was ordered by Colonel Duckworth or General Chalmers to be sent south to me at Jackson.
I knew nothing of the matter until eight or ten days afterwards I heard that his body was found near Brownsville. I understand that he attempted to escape and was shot. If he was improperly killed, nothing would afford me more pleasure than to punish the perpetrators to the full extent of the law, and to show you how I regard such transactions.
I can refer you to my demand on Major-General Hurlbut (no doubt upon file in your office) for the delivery to Confederate authorities of one Colonel Fielding Hurst and others of his regiment, who deliberately took out and killed seven Confederate soldiers, one of whom they left to die after cutting off his tongue, punching out his eyes, splitting his mouth on each side to his ears, and cutting off his privates. I have mentioned and given you these facts in order that you may have no further excuse or apology for referring to these matters in connection with myself, and to evince to you my determination to do all in my power to avoid the responsibility of causing the adoption of the policy which you have determined to press. In your letter you acknowledge the fact that the negro troops did take an oath on bended knees to show no quarters to my men, and you say further "you have no doubt they went to the battle-field expecting to be slaughtered," and admit, also, the probability of their having proclaimed on their march that no quarter would be shown us. Such being the case, why do you ask for the disavowal on the part of the commanding general of this department of the government, in regard to the loss of life at Tishemingo Creek? That your troops expected to be slaughtered, appears to me, after the oath they took, to be a very reasonable and natural expectation. Yet you who sent them out, knowing and now admitting that they had sworn to such a policy, are complaining of atrocities, and demanding acknowledgments and disavowals on the part of the very men you sent forth sworn to slay whenever in your power.
I will, in all candor and truth, say to you that I had only heard these things, but did not believe them; indeed, did not attach to them the importance they deserved, nor did I know of the threatened vengeance as proclaimed along the line of march until the contest was over. Had I and my men known it, as you admit it, the battle of Tishemingo Creek would have been noted as the bloodiest battle of the war. That you sanctioned this policy is plain, for you say now "that if the negro is treated as a prisoner of war, you will receive with pleasure the announcement, and will explain the facts to your colored troops, and _desire_ (not _order_) that they recall the oath; but if they are to be either slaughtered or returned to slavery, let the oath stand."
Your rank forbids a doubt as to the fact that you and every officer and man of your department are identified with the policy and responsible for it, and I shall not permit you, notwithstanding by your studied language in both your communications you seek to limit the operations of your unholy scheme, and visit its terrible consequences alone upon that ignorant, deluded, but unfortunate people, the negroes, whose destruction you are planning in order to accomplish ours. The negroes have our sympathy, and, so far as consistent with safety, we will spare them at the expense of those who are alone responsible for the inauguration of a worse than savage warfare.
Now, in conclusion, I demand a plain and unqualified answer to two questions, and then I have done with further correspondence with you on this subject. This matter must be settled. In battle and on the battle-field do you intend to slaughter my men who fall into your hands? If you do not intend so to do, will they be treated as prisoners of war?
I have over two thousand of Sturgis's command prisoners, and will hold every officer and private hostage until I receive your declarations, and am satisfied that you carry out in good faith the answers you make, and until I am a.s.sured that no Confederate soldier has been foully dealt with from the day of the battle of Tishemingo Creek to this time. It is not yet too late for you to retrace your steps and arrest the storm.
Relying, as I do, upon that Divine power which in wisdom disposes of all things; relying also upon the support and approval of my government and countrymen, and the unflinching bravery and endurance of my troops; and with a consciousness that I have done nothing to produce, but all in my power, consistent with honor and the personal safety of myself and command, to prevent it, I leave with you the responsibility of bringing about, to use your own language, "a state of affairs too fearful to contemplate."
I am, General, yours, very respectfully, N. B. FORREST, _Major-General_.
OFFICIAL MEMORANDA.
CAHABA HOSPITAL, CAHABA, ALABAMA, } May 11, 1864. }
Colonel H. C. DAVIS, _Commanding Post Cahaba_:
COLONEL: I herewith transmit you, as near as my memory serves me, according to promise, the demand made by Major-General Forrest, C. S. A., for the surrender of Fort Pillow, Tennessee.