Answer. They are in as good condition as they can be, probably about one-third of them must die.
Question. Is your hospital divided into wards, and can we go through and take the testimony of these men, ward by ward?
Answer. It is divided into wards. The men from Fort Pillow are scattered through the hospital, and isolated to prevent erysipelas. If I should crowd too many badly wounded men in one ward I would be likely to get the erysipelas among them, and lose a great many of them.
By Mr. Gooch:
Question. Are the wounds of these men such as men usually receive in battle?
Answer. The gunshot wounds are; the sabre cuts are the first I have ever seen in the war yet. They seem to have been shot with the intention of hitting the body. There are more body wounds than in an ordinary battle.
Question. Just as if they were close enough to select the parts of the body to be hit?
Answer. Yes, sir; some of them were shot with pistols by the rebels standing from one foot to ten feet of them.
The committee then proceeded to the various wards and took the testimony of such of the wounded as were able to bear the examination.
The testimony of the colored men is written out exactly as given, except that it is rendered in a grammatical form, instead of the broken language some of them used.