"'The guards would not allow us to stand by the windows, and on one occasion, without warning, fired through a second-story window and badly wounded an officer on the third floor.
"'My shoes were nearly worn out when I was captured, and soon became so worn that I could only keep sole and body together by cutting strings from the edge of the uppers and lacing them together. These strings would wear but a little while, and frequent cuttings had made the shoes very low.
"'Toward the last of January, Capt. Cook received intelligence that a special exchange had been effected in his case and he was to start at once for the North. Here was an opportunity to communicate with our comrades and friends, for up to this time we did not know whether any of our letters had been received. Capt. Cook had a pair of good stout brogans. These shoes he urged me to take in exchange for my dilapidated ones. At first, I felt reluctant to do so, but finally made the exchange and he left us with a light heart, but his anticipations were not realized, for instead of going directly North he was detained in Libby Prison until just before the rest of us arrived, and when we reached Annapolis he was still there awaiting his leave, and had been obliged to wear my old shoes until two days previous.
"'Rumors of a general exchange began to circulate, and a few boxes of provisions and clothing, sent by Northern friends, were delivered. Among the rest, was a well-filled box from the officers of our regiment, and twelve hundred dollars Confederate money (being the equivalent of sixty dollars greenbacks) which they had kindly contributed. Could we have received the box and money in November, instead of just before our release, we could have subsisted quite comfortably all winter. As it was, we lived sumptuously as long as the contents of the box lasted, and when about a week later we started for Richmond to be paroled, we had drawn considerably upon the twelve hundred dollars.
"'February 17th, we left Danville for Richmond and were again quartered in Libby. On the 19th, we signed the parole papers.
"'The second morning after signing the rolls, one of the clerks came in and said that for want of transportation, only a hundred would be sent down the river that day, and the rest would follow soon; that those whose names were called would fall in on the lower floor, ready to start. As he proceeded to call the roll there was a death-like stillness, and each listened anxiously to hear his own name. Of our mess only one name was called. As he stopped reading and folded his rolls and turned to leave, I thought, what if our army should commence active operations and put an end to the exchange, and resolved to go with the party that day, if possible. I had noticed that the clerk had not called the names in their order nor checked them, and knew he could not tell who had been called. I therefore hurried down to the lower floor and fell in with the rest, thinking all the time of the possibility of detection and the consequent solitary confinement, and although my conscience was easy so far as the papers I had signed were concerned—for I had only agreed not to take up arms until duly exchanged—I did not breath freely until I had disembarked from the boat and was under the Stars and Stripes. Fortunately, the rest of the party came down on the boat the next day.
"'One other incident and I am done: Sergt. Henry Jordan, of Company C, was wounded and captured with the rest of us, but on account of his wounds was unable to be sent South with the other enlisted-men. After his recovery he was kept as a servant about the office of Major Turner, the commandant of the prison, and when, on the 2d of April, 1865, the rebels evacuated Richmond and paroled the prisoners, he remained until our forces came in and took possession of the city. When, a few days later, Maj. Turner was captured by our troops and confined in the same cell we had occupied, Sergt. Jordan was detailed to carry him his rations, and although he was not of a vindictive or revengeful disposition, I will venture to say that the rations allowed Turner were not much better than had been given the sergeant through the winter. Had Turner been guarded by such men as Henry Jordan, or even by the poorest soldiers of the regiment, he would not have escaped within three days of his capture, as was the case.'"
Very few of the black soldiers were exchanged, though the confederate government pretended to recognize them and treat them as they did the whites. General Taylor's reply to General Grant, was the general policy applied to them when convenient. In the latter days of the war, when—in June, 1864, at Guntown, Miss.,—the confederate Gen. Forrest attacked and routed the Union forces, under Sturgis, through the stupidity of the latter, (alluded to more at length a few pages further on,) a number of black soldiers were captured, Sturgis having had several Phalanx regiments in his command. The confederates fought with desperation, and with their usual "no quarter," because, as Forrest alleges, the Phalanx regiments meant to retaliate for his previous massacre of the blacks at Fort Pillow. Seeking to justify the inhuman treatment of his black prisoners, he wrote as follows to General Washburn, commanding the District of West Tennessee:
"It has been reported to me that all of your colored troops stationed in Memphis took, on their knees, in the presence of Major General Hurlburt and other officers of your army, an oath to avenge Fort Pillow, and that they would show my troops no quarter. Again I have it from indisputable authority that the troops under Brigadier General Sturgis on their recent march from Memphis, publicly, and in many places, proclaimed that no quarter would be shown my men. As they were moved into action on the 10th they were exhorted by their officers to remember Fort Pillow. The prisoners we have captured from that command, or a large majority of them, have voluntarily stated that they expected us to murder them, otherwise they would have surrendered in a body rather than have taken to the bushes after being run down and exhausted."
The massacre at Fort Pillow had a very different effect upon the black soldiers than it was doubtless expected to have. Instead of weakening their courage it stimulated them to a desire of retaliation; not in the strict sense of that term, but to fight with a determination to subdue and bring to possible punishment, the men guilty of such atrocious conduct. Had General Sturgis been competent of commanding, Forrest would have found himself and his command no match for the Phalanx at Guntown and Brice's Cross Roads. Doubtless Forrest was startled by the reply of General Washburn, who justly recognized the true impulse of the Phalanx. He replied to Forrest, June 19, 1864, as follows: