GENERAL WASHBURN TO GENERAL LEE.
Headquarters District of West Tennessee, }
Memphis, Tennessee, July 3, 1864. }Lieutenant-General S. D. Lee, Commanding Department Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana, C. S. A., Meridian, Miss.:
General: Your letter of the twenty-eighth ult., in reply to mine of the seventeenth ult., is received.
The discourtesy which you profess to discover in my letter I utterly disclaim. Having already discussed at length, in a correspondence with Major-General Forrest, the Fort Pillow massacre, as well as the policy to be pursued in regard to colored troops, I do not regard it necessary to say more on those subjects. As you state that you fully approve of the letter sent by General Forrest to me, in answer to mine of the seventeenth ult., I am forced to presume that you fully approve of his action at Fort Pillow.
Your arguments in support of that action confirm such presumption. You state that the "version given by me and my government is not true, and not sustained by the facts to the extent I indicate." You furnish a statement of a certain Captain Young, who was captured at Fort Pillow, and is now a prisoner in your hands. How far the statement of a prisoner under duress and in the position of Captain Young should go to disprove the sworn testimony of the hundred eye-witnesses who had ample opportunity of seeing and knowing, I am willing that others shall judge.
In relying, as you do, upon this certificate of Captain Young, you confess that all better resources are at an end.
You are welcome to all the relief that that certificate is calculated to give you. Does he say that our soldiers were not inhumanly treated? No. Does he say that he was in a position to see in case they had been mistreated? No. He simply says that "he saw no ill-treatment of their wounded." If he was in a position to see and know what took place, it was easy for him to say so.
I yesterday sent to Major-General Forrest a copy of the report of the Congressional Investigating Committee, and I hope it may fall into your hands. You will find there the record of inhuman atrocities, to find a parallel for which you will search the page of history in vain. Men—white men and black men—were crucified and burned; others were hunted by bloodhounds; while others, in their anguish, were made the sport of men more cruel than the dogs by which they were hunted.
I have also sent to my government copies of General Forrest's reports, together with the certificate of Captain Young.
The record in the case is plainly made up, and I leave it. You justify and approve it, and appeal to history for precedents.
As I have said, history furnishes no parallel. True, there are instances where, after a long and protracted resistance, resulting in heavy loss to the assailing party, the garrison has been put to the sword, but I know of no such instance that did not bring dishonor upon the commander that ordered or suffered it.
There is no Englishman that would not gladly forget Badajos, nor a Frenchman that exults when Jaffa or the Caves of Dahra and Shelas are spoken of. The massacre of Glencoe, which the world has read of with horror, for nearly two hundred years, pales into insignificance before the truthful recital of Fort Pillow.
The desperate defence of the Alamo was the excuse for the slaughter of its brave survivors after its surrender, yet that act was received with just execration, and we are told by the historian that it led more than anything else to the independence of Texas.
At the battle of San Jacinto the Texans rushed into action with the war-cry, "Remember the Alamo," and carried all before them.
You will seek in vain for consultation in history, pursue the inquiry as far as you may.
Your desire to shift the responsibility of the Fort Pillow massacre, or to find excuses for it, is not strange. But the responsibility still remains where it belongs, and there it will remain.
In my last letter to General Forrest I stated that the treatment which Federal soldiers received would be their guide hereafter, and that if you give no quarter you need expect none. If you observe the rules of civilized warfare I shall rejoice at it, as no one can regret more than myself a resort to such measures as the laws of war justify towards an enemy that gives no quarter.
Your remark that our colored soldiers "will not be regarded as prisoners of war, but will be retained and humanely treated," indicating that you consider them as of more worth and importance than your own soldiers who are now in our hands, is certainly very complimentary to the colored troops, though but a tardy acknowledgment of their bravery and devotion as soldiers; but such fair words can neither do justice to the colored soldiers who were butchered at Fort Pillow after they had surrendered to their victors, nor relieve yourself, General Forrest, and the troops serving under you, from the fearful responsibility now resting upon you for those wanton and unparalleled barbarities.
I concur in your remarks that if the black flag is once raised, there can be no distinction so far as our soldiers are concerned. No distinction in this regard as to color is known to the laws of war, and you may rest assured that the outrages we complain of are felt by our white soldiers, no less than by our black ones, as insults to their common banner, the flag of the United States.
I will close by a reference to your statement that many of our colored soldiers "are yet wandering over the country attempting to return to their masters." If this remark is intended for a joke, it is acknowledged as a good one; but, if stated as a fact, permit me to correct your misapprehensions by informing you that most of them have returned to their respective commands, their search for their late "masters" having proved bootless; and I think I do not exaggerate in assuring you that there is not a colored soldier here who does not prefer the fate of his comrades at Fort Pillow to being returned to his "master."
I remain, General,
Yours, very respectfully,C. C. WASHBURN, Major-General.
CAPTAIN J. T. YOUNG TO GENERAL WASHBURN.
Memphis, Tennessee, September 13, 1864.
Major-General C. C. Washburn, Commanding District West Tennessee:
General: I have the honor to address you in regard to certain papers forwarded you by Major-General Forrest, of the so-called Confederate army, signed by me under protest, whilst a prisoner of war at Cahaba, Alabama. I would first call your attention to the manner by which these papers were procured. About twenty-seventh April last, all Federal prisoners (except colored soldiers) were sent to Andersonville and Macon, Georgia, myself among the number. About ten days after my arrival at Macon prison, a Confederate captain, with two men as guard, came to that prison with an order for me to return to Cahaba. I appealed to the officer in command to know why I was taken from the other officers, but received no explanation. Many of my friends among the Federal officers who had been prisoners longer than myself felt uneasy at the proceedings, and advised me to make my escape going back, as it was likely a subject of retaliation. Consequently I felt considerable uneasiness of mind. On returning to Cahaba, being quite unwell, I was placed in hospital, under guard, with still no explanation from the military authorities. On the day following, I was informed by a sick Federal officer, also in hospital, that he had learned that I had been recognized by some Confederate as a deserter from the Confederate army, and that I was to be court-martialed and shot. The colored waiters about the hospital told me the same thing, and although I knew that the muster-rolls of my country would show that I had been in the volunteer service since first May, 1861, I still felt uneasy, having fresh in my mind Fort Pillow, and the summary manner the Confederate officers have of disposing of men on some occasions. With the above impressions on my mind, about three days after my return to Cahaba I was sent for by the Provost Marshal, and certain papers handed me, made out by General Forrest for my signature. Looking over the papers, I found that signing them would be an endorsement of General Forrest's official report of the Fort Pillow affair. I of course returned the papers, positively refusing to have anything to do with them. I was sent for again the same day, with request to sign other papers of the same tendency, but modified. I again refused to sign the papers, but sent General Forrest a statement, that although I considered some of the versions of the Fort Pillow affair, which I had read in their own papers, said to be copied from Federal papers, exaggerated, I also thought that his own official report was equally so in some particulars.
Here the matter rested about one week, when I was sent for by Colonel H. C. Davis, commander of post at Cahaba, who informed me that General Forrest had sent P. T. Scroggs to see me, and have a talk with me about the Fort Pillow fight; I found the judge very affable and rather disposed to flatter me; he said that General Forrest thought that I was a gentleman and a soldier, and that the General had sent him (the judge) down to see me and talk to me about the Fort Pillow fight; he then went on to tell over a great many things that were testified to before the Military Commission, which I was perfectly ignorant of, never having seen the testimony. He then produced papers which General Forrest wished me to sign. Upon examination, I found them about the same as those previously shown me, and refused again to sign them, but the Judge was very importunate, and finally prevailed on me to sign the papers you have in your possession, pledging himself that if I wished it they should only be seen by General Forrest himself, that they were not intended to be used by him as testimony, but merely for his own satisfaction.
I hope, General, that these papers signed by me, or rather extorted from me while under duress, will not be used by my government to my disparagement, for my only wish is now, after three years' service and over, to recruit my health, which has suffered badly by imprisonment, and go in for the war.
I have the honor to be, General,
Your obedient servant,JOHN T. YOUNG, Captain, Company A, Twenty-fourth Mo. Inf.[144]
It should not be forgotten that the material part of Gen. Forrest's defence was extorted from Capt. John T. Young, an officer in the Union forces at Fort Pillow. He was sick and a prisoner in the hands of the rebels; and while in this condition he was compelled to sign the papers given above, which had been made out by Forrest himself. The last letter of the correspondence shows that Capt. Young did not want the papers used by the United States Government, because they were not true. Moreover, the despatches of Forrest to Major Bradford make no mention of retaliation. The despatches above are not true copies. For instance, he demanded the surrender of Paducah on the 25th of March, 1864, just before he took Fort Pillow, and this was his despatch:
H'dqu'rs Forrest's Cavalry Corps, }
Paducah, March 23, 1864 }To Col. Hicks, Commanding Federal Forces at Paducah:
Having a force amply sufficient to carry your works and reduce the place, in order to avoid the unnecessary effusion of blood, I demand the surrender of the fort and troops, with all the public stores. If you surrender, you shall be treated as prisoners of war; but, if I have to storm your works, you may expect no quarter.
N. B. FORREST, Maj.-Gen. Com'ding.
And on the 19th of April, 1864, the next day after the massacre at Fort Pillow, Gen. Abe Buford demanded the surrender of Columbus, Kentucky, in the following despatch:
To the Commander of the United States Forces, Columbus. Ky.:
Fully capable of taking Columbus and its garrison by force, I desire to avoid shedding blood. I therefore demand the unconditional surrender of the forces under your command. Should you surrender, the negroes now in arms will be returned to their masters. Should I be compelled to take the place by force, no quarter will be shown negro troops whatever; white troops will be treated as prisoners of war.
I am, sir, yours,
A. BUFORD, Brig.-Gen.
Now, as both Bradford and Booth were dead, it was impossible to learn just what language was used by Forrest in the despatches he sent them. But from the testimony given above, the explanation of Capt. Young and the language of the two despatches just quoted, addressed to the commander of the Union forces at Paducah and Columbus, Kentucky, history has made out a case against Gen. Forrest that no human being would covet.