Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War Part 58

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

WASHINGTON, D. C., _May 9, 1864_.

Captain Charles C. G. Thornton, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. What is your rank and position in the army?

Answer. I am a captain, and aid on General George F. Shepley's staff.

Question. Were you with General Shepley when he pa.s.sed Fort Pillow, about the time of the capture of that place?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Will you state what occurred there, and the reason, if any, why you did not stop there to aid the garrison?

Answer. We were pa.s.sengers on the boat Olive Branch, which left New Orleans on the 6th of April, without troops. On arriving at Vicksburg, parts of two batteries--a Missouri and an Ohio battery--were put on board. I do not know the exact number of men, but I should think that perhaps there were 120 men with the two batteries. The men had no small-arms whatever--no arms but the guns of their batteries. We stopped at a place to take in wood, where we were told the guerillas had just pa.s.sed, and we threw out pickets to keep from being surprised. We were unable to arm those men with anything whatever, and merely stationed them so that we should not be surprised, but have an opportunity of getting on board the boat and leave. Upon arriving within three miles--perhaps two and a half miles--of Fort Pillow, some women on sh.o.r.e hailed us and told us that Fort Pillow was captured with two transports or steamers, and motioned to us to return. The captain of the boat turned about for the purpose of returning to Memphis, but General Shepley stopped it. Colonel Sears, the owner of the boat, who was on board, came to me and asked me to go to General Shepley and tell him the importance of our going back to Memphis; that it was dangerous for us to proceed with so many pa.s.sengers. The boat was a very large one, loaded with pa.s.sengers, every state-room being occupied by men, women, and children.

Question. How many pa.s.sengers, non-combatants, do you suppose you had on board?

Answer. Perhaps one hundred and fifty, but that is a mere guess. When Colonel Sears urged me to ask General Shepley to go back to Memphis, I told him I should do nothing of the kind; that if he wished General Shepley to allow the boat to go back, he might see him about it himself.

He did so, but General Shepley positively refused to go. He ordered the captain of the Olive Branch to hail a boat which came in sight, and direct her to come alongside. General Shepley then said, "I will have a section of the battery put on this boat, and will go up and reconnoitre." The boat was called the "Hope," I think. There is a point just below where the rebels, if they had a battery, might bring it to bear on us. General Shepley consented to have the Hope go below that point with the boat we were on, in order to have this section of a battery put on board of her. On our way down we met another boat, the "Cheek," which would answer our purpose better, and she was stopped.

General Shepley ordered a section of a battery put on board of her, and directed Captain Williams, commanding the battery, and myself, to accompany him up to Fort Pillow to reconnoitre. I suggested to General Shepley, or was on the point of suggesting to him, that perhaps he had better not go himself, but send Captain Williams and myself. The instant I suggested that, he said "No, I will go myself, and personally ascertain the condition of affairs." He asked the captain how many minutes it would take him to get his guns on board. He said he could probably get a couple of guns on in a few minutes.

Just then a steamer, which afterwards proved to be the steamer "Liberty," hove in sight. We supposed at first that she was the Mollie Able, which the captain of our boat said was due at Fort Pillow just about that time, and that she was one of the boats the rebels had captured, if the story of the women was true. When we saw her coming we noticed that she was loaded with troops, whether Union or rebel troops we could not tell. The general said to our captain, "Can you run that boat down?" He said, "If it is the Mollie Able, I can run right over her." When she hove in sight we saw at once that there was no time to put a battery on board the Cheek; General Shepley then ordered the Cheek to move out of the way, and the captain of our boat to swing out, with the intention of running this other boat down if she should prove to be loaded with rebel soldiers. When the boat got nearer, however, we found she had Union troops on board. As she pa.s.sed us our captain hailed her, and she replied "All right up there; you can go by. There is a gunboat there." We were then satisfied that everything was all right, as she had been allowed to come down by them with so large a body of troops on board.

We went up, and when within perhaps a mile of the place some rebel soldiers fired upon our boat, probably aiming at the pilot-house. I stood on the after part of the deck at the time. The general was in the pilot-house looking out. The shots did not take effect or amount to anything. We went on up, and found no firing at the fort. We stopped at the gunboat, as all boats are required to do which pa.s.s. An officer came on board from the gunboat and said to the captain of our boat, "I want you to proceed immediately to Cairo, and send down 400 or 500 rounds of ammunition; and order all boats back that may be coming down; we want no boats here." We talked the matter over, and came to the conclusion that the object of this Fort Pillow affair was not to capture the fort, but to capture more of our boats, if possible, in order to get across the river. That was merely our supposition, as we knew nothing about the battle. There was no firing at the fort at that time, and our boat went on up the river in obedience to the orders of the gunboat, as it had a right to give that order.

We had proceeded but a little way before we discovered a flag of truce at the fort, as it was reported to me; I did not see it myself, but it undoubtedly was there. We pa.s.sed on a short distance further, and then noticed that our flag at the fort was down; we had seen it flying as we pa.s.sed the fort. I went to the stern of our boat, and with a gla.s.s looked carefully at the fort. After a time I discovered that the gunboat had steamed up a little ways, as I supposed for the purpose of firing upon the right flank of the rebels. We could see a line of fire or smoke in the woods, which we supposed to be from the musketry of the rebels.

We then saw a flag raised up on a pole at the fort, I should think ten or twelve feet high. I supposed that our flag had been shot away, and they were raising it again. The guns from the fort at that time were pretty heavy, while the fire of the enemy, appeared to be from musketry.

I have no doubt now that that was the rebel flag that was raised after the fort was taken.

We proceeded on up to Columbus. Before we arrived there we noticed that there was heavy firing there. On our arrival there we saw a great many troops, and they remarked from the sh.o.r.e that there was hot work there.

General Shepley told me to accompany him, and went up to Colonel Lawrence's headquarters, but was told he was at the front. General Shepley ordered two horses to be prepared for us to go to the front, to see Colonel Lawrence. Just as the horses were ready, and we were about starting, Colonel Lawrence came over and rode down to his headquarters.

He told us that it was all right; that there had been some skirmishing; that Buford had come there and demanded a surrender of the fort, but he had refused to surrender. General Shepley told him that he had portions of two batteries on hand, and asked him if he wanted them; told him how they came there, and that they were ordered to Cairo as a portion of the 17th corps. Colonel Lawrence said that he had taken 400 troops from the Luther M. Kennett, and, I think, one battery. The Luther M. Kennett had just preceded us as we pa.s.sed by Fort Pillow. Colonel Lawrence said that he did not need the batteries of General Shepley. General Shepley inquired particularly about the condition of affairs, and told Colonel Lawrence what had occurred at Fort Pillow. After ascertaining that there was nothing to be done by us down there we proceeded to Cairo. On our arrival there General Shepley called upon General Brayman and told him the substance of what occurred; the condition of things as we left, the flag coming down, and the fear that the fort had surrendered. We did not know then that the fort had surrendered, though we know now it had.

The caissons and artillery had been hoisted on our boat by means of what they call a derrick, I think, and were piled up, closely packed all round. It would, therefore, have been impossible for us to have removed those cannon for several hours. It took us several hours to land them at Cairo; and it would have been an utter impossibility for us to have taken those cannon up to Fort Pillow, as we had no infantry to cover our landing; and half a dozen sharpshooters could have undoubtedly captured our boat had we attempted it.

Question. If I understand you, General Shepley had no opportunity to relieve Fort Pillow any way?

Answer. He went on board the boat a mere pa.s.senger, with no arms. We did not know any troops were coming on board. Those two portions of batteries, with their guns, were ordered to report at Cairo. The gunboat was lying right by the side of us, and its fire was of no account, and, of course, ours would not have been.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Would it have been possible for you to have used your batteries from the boat with any effect upon the rebels?

Answer. No, sir; it would have been an utter impossibility to have done so. If we had gone in and stopped five minutes there, the rebels could have captured us without the least trouble in the world. The question may be asked why we offered a.s.sistance at Columbus and not at Fort Pillow. The fort at Columbus is clear in back from the river, and there were infantry troops there to protect our landing. But Colonel Lawrence said he did not expect the fight to occur for some time, even if there was any fight at all, which he did not expect.

Question. At Columbus you could have landed your batteries under the protection of our forces there?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. And you could not have done that at Fort Pillow?

Answer. No, sir; for at Fort Pillow we should have been right under the fort, and could have been easily reached. This was all stated to General Brayman, and I was quite surprised when I heard of the testimony in regard to the matter.

38th Congress,} SENATE. {Rep. Com.

_1st Session_.} {No. 68.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

May 9, 1864.--_Ordered_, That the report, with the accompanying evidence, be printed in connexion with the report of the committee in relation to the Fort Pillow ma.s.sacre, and that twenty thousand additional copies be printed for the use of the Senate.

Mr. Wade submitted the following REPORT.

_The Joint Committee on the Conduct and Expenditures of the War submitted the following report, with the accompanying testimony._

On the 4th instant your committee received a communication of that date from the Secretary of War, enclosing the report of Colonel Hoffman, commissary general of prisoners, dated May 3, calling the attention of the committee to the condition of returned Union prisoners, with the request that the committee would immediately proceed to Annapolis and examine with their own eyes the condition of those who have been returned from rebel captivity. The committee resolved that they would comply with the request of the Secretary of War on the first opportunity. The 5th of May was devoted by the committee to concluding their labors upon the investigation of the Fort Pillow ma.s.sacre. On the 6th of May, however, the committee proceeded to Annapolis and Baltimore, and examined the condition of our returned soldiers, and took the testimony of several of them, together with the testimony of surgeons and other persons in attendance upon the hospitals. That testimony, with the communication of the Secretary of War, and the report of Colonel Hoffman, is herewith transmitted.

The evidence proves, beyond all manner of doubt, a determination on the part of the rebel authorities, deliberately and persistently practiced for a long time past, to subject those of our soldiers who have been so unfortunate as to fall in their hands to a system of treatment which has resulted in reducing many of those who have survived and been permitted to return to us to a condition, both physically and mentally, which no language we can use can adequately describe. Though nearly all the patients now in the Naval Academy hospital at Annapolis, and in the West hospital, in Baltimore, have been under the kindest and most intelligent treatment for about three weeks past, and many of them for a greater length of time, still they present literally the appearance of living skeletons, many of them being nothing but skin and bone; some of them are maimed for life, having been frozen while exposed to the inclemency of the winter season on Belle Isle, being compelled to lie on the bare ground, without tents or blankets, some of them without overcoats or even coats, with but little fire to mitigate the severity of the winds and storms to which they were exposed.

The testimony shows that the general practice of their captors was to rob them, as soon as they were taken prisoners, of all their money, valuables blankets, and good clothing, for which they received nothing in exchange except, perhaps, some old worn-out rebel clothing hardly better than none at all. Upon their arrival at Richmond they have been confined, without blankets or other covering, in buildings without fire, or upon Belle Isle with, in many cases, no shelter, and in others with nothing but old discarded army tents, so injured by rents and holes as to present but little barrier to the wind and storms; on several occasions, the witnesses say, they have arisen in the morning from their resting-places upon the bare earth, and found several of their comrades frozen to death during the night, and that many others would have met the same fate had they not walked rapidly back and forth, during the hours which should have been devoted to sleep, for the purpose of retaining sufficient warmth to preserve life.

In respect to the food furnished to our men by the rebel authorities, the testimony proves that the ration of each man was totally insufficient in quant.i.ty to preserve the health of a child, even had it been of proper quality, which it was not. It consisted usually, at the most, of two small pieces of corn-bread, made in many instances, as the witnesses state, of corn and cobs ground together, and badly prepared and cooked, of, at times, about two ounces of meat, usually of poor quality, and unfit to be eaten, and occasionally a few black worm-eaten beans, or something of that kind. Many of our men were compelled to sell to their guards, and others, for what price they could get, such clothing and blankets as they were permitted to receive of that forwarded for their use by our government, in order to obtain additional food sufficient to sustain life; thus, by endeavoring to avoid one privation, reducing themselves to the same dest.i.tute condition in respect to clothing and covering that they were in before they received any from our government. When they became sick and diseased in consequence of this exposure and privation, and were admitted into the hospitals, their treatment was little, if any, improved as to food, though they, doubtless, suffered less from exposure to cold than before.

Their food still remained insufficient in quant.i.ty and altogether unfit in quality. Their diseases and wounds did not receive the treatment which the commonest dictates of humanity would have prompted. One witness, whom your committee examined, who had lost all the toes of one foot from being frozen while on Belle Isle, states that for days at a time his wounds were not dressed, and that they had not been dressed for four days when he was taken from the hospital and carried on the flag-of-truce boat for Fortress Monroe.

In reference to the condition to which our men were reduced by cold and hunger, your committee would call the attention to the following extracts from the testimony.

One witness testifies:

I had no blankets until our government sent us some.

Question. How did you sleep before you received those blankets?

Answer. We used to get together just as close as we could, and sleep spoon-fashion, so that when one turned over we all had to turn over.

Another witness testifies: