Question. Do you consider the testimony thus furnished entirely reliable?
Answer. "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every work be established." Here are scores of them living and dying. There are doubtless errors as to time and place, and scenes witnessed from different points of observation, but in the main I regard the witnesses honest and their accounts true.
Question. What did you learn concerning violations of the flag of truce?
Answer. I learn from official sources that at Paducah, Columbus, Union City, and Fort Pillow, the rebels moved troops, placed batteries, formed new lines, advanced, robbed stores and private houses, stole horses and other property while protected by flags of truce. J. W. McCord and Mrs. Hannah Hammond state, in writing, that at Paducah they forced five women nurses at the hospital out in front of their line, and kept them there for an hour, thus silencing our guns. Mrs. Hammond was one of the five. Reference is made to testimony furnished on the subject, and to official reports when transmitted to the War Department.
Question. What information have you as to the intention of the enemy to perpetrate such acts as the massacre at Fort Pillow?
Answer. I furnish the correspondence growing out of demands to surrender at Union City, Paducah, and Columbus, showing premeditation on the part of officers in command of the rebel army.
[Take in from reports of Lieutenant Gray, Colonel Hicks and Colonel Lawrence, with which the committee is furnished.—See Appendix.]
Question. Has there been co-operation and harmony among commanders since these troubles began?
Answer. Entire and in every respect, so far as I know. Officers of the army in charge of troops temporarily here gave all the aid possible. They were under orders which prevented their going out in pursuit of Forrest, but they gave me detachments to guard our river posts when threatened.
Question. What have been the relations existing generally between you and Captain Pennock, of the navy, fleet captain of the Mississippi squadron?