Answer. Well, I think, from all the information I could gather, there were about 400 men killed after the capture, or 450. I think there were about 500 and odd men killed there. A very great majority of them were killed after the surrender. I do not suppose there were more than 20 men killed before the fort was captured and the men threw down their arms and begged for quarter.
Question. Was there any resistance on the part of our soldiers after the capture of the fort?
Answer. None in the world. They had no chance to make any resistance.
Question. And they did not attempt to make any?
Answer. None that I could discover. There were about 500 black soldiers in all there, and about 200 whites able for duty. There were a great many of them sick and in the hospital.
Question. What happened after that?
Answer. They then got our cannon in the fort, and turned them on us, and we had to steam off up the river a little, knowing that they had got a couple of 10 or 12-pounder Parrott guns. They threw three shells towards us. We steamed off up the river, anchored, and lay there all night. We returned the next morning. We got down near there, and discovered plenty of rebels on the hill, and a gunboat and another boat lying at the shore. We acted pretty cautiously, and held out a signal, and the gunboat answered it, and then we went in. When we got in there, the rebel General Chalmers was on board, and several other officers—majors, captains, orderlies, &c.—and bragged a great deal about their victory, and said it was a matter of no consequence. They hated to have such a fight as that, when they could take no more men than they had there. One of the gunboat officers got into a squabble with them, and said they did not treat the flag of truce right. An officer—a captain, I think—who was going home, came up and said that, "Damn them, he had 18 fights with them, but he would not treat them as prisoners of war after that," and that he intended to go home, and would enlist again. Chalmers said that he would treat him as a prisoner of war, but that they would not treat as prisoners of war the "home-made Yankees," meaning the loyal Tennesseeans. There were some sick men in the hospital, but I was afraid to go on shore after the rebels got there. I merely went on shore, but did not pretend to leave the boat.
Question. Did you see any person shot there the next morning after you returned?
Answer. I heard a gun or a pistol fired up the bank, and soon afterwards a negro woman came in, who was shot through the knee, and said it was done about that time. I heard frequent shooting up where the fort was, but I did not go up to see what was done.