Part 36 (1/2)

'Question. How many do you suppose you saw shot after they surrendered? 'Answer. I did not see but two or three shot around me. One of the boys of our company, named Taylor, ran up there, and I saw him shot and fall. Then another was shot just before me, like--shot down after he threw down his arms.

'Question. Those were white men? 'Answer. Yes, sir. I saw them make lots of n.i.g.g.e.rs stand up, and then they shot them down like hogs. The next morning I was lying around there waiting for the boat to come up. The secesh would be prying around there, and would come to a n.i.g.g.e.r and say, 'You ain't dead are you?' They would not say anything, and then the secesh would get down off their horses, p.r.i.c.k them in their sides, and say, 'D--n you, you aint dead; get up.' Then they would make them get up on their knees, when they would shoot them down like hogs.

'Question. Do you know of their burning any buildings?

'Answer. I could hear them tell them to stick torches all around, and they fired all the buildings.

'Question. Do you know whether any of our men were in the buildings when they were burned? 'Answer. Some of our men said some were burned; I did not see it, or know it to be so myself.

'Question. How did they bury them--white and black together?

'Answer. I don't know about the burying; I did not see any buried.

'Question. How many negroes do you suppose were killed after the surrender? 'Answer. There were hardly any killed before the surrender. I reckon as many as 200 were killed after the surrender, out of about 300 that were there.

Question. Did you see any rebel officers about while this shooting was going on? 'Answer. I do not know as I saw any officers about when they were shooting the negroes. A captain came to me a few minutes after I was shot; he was close by me when I was shot.

'Question. Did he try to stop the shooting? 'Answer. I did not hear a word of their trying to stop it. After they were shot down, he told them not to shoot them any more. I begged him not to let them shoot me again, and he said they would not. One man, after he was shot down, was shot again. After I was shot down, the man I surrendered to went around the tree I was against and shot a man, and then came around to me again and wanted my pocket-book. I handed it up to him, and he saw my watch-chain and made a grasp at it, and got the watch and about half the chain. He took an old Barlow knife I had in my pocket. It was not worth five cents; was of no account at all, only to cut tobacco with.'

”Nathan G. Fulks, sworn and examined. By Mr. Gooch:

'Question. To what company and regiment do you belong?

'Answer. To Company D, 13th Tennessee cavalry.

'Question. Where are you from? 'Answer. About twenty miles from Columbus, Tennessee.

'Question. How long have you been in the service? 'Answer.

Five months, the 1st of May.

'Question. Were you at Fort Pillow at the time of the fight there? Answer. Yes, sir.

'Question. Will you state what happened to you there?

'Answer. I was at the corner of the fort when they fetched in a flag for a surrender. Some of them said the major stood a while, and then said he would not surrender. They continued to fight a while; and after a time the major started and told us to take care of ourselves, and I and twenty more men broke for the hollow. They ordered us to halt, and some of them said, 'G.o.d d--n 'em, kill 'em!' I said, 'I have surrendered.' I had thrown my gun away then. I took off my cartridge-box and gave it to one of them, and said, 'Don't shoot me;' but they did shoot me, and hit just about where the shoe comes up on my leg. I begged them not to shoot me, and he said,' G.o.d d--n you, you fight with the n.i.g.g.e.rs, and we will kill the last one of you!' Then they shot me in the thick of the thigh, and I fell; and one set out to shoot me again, when another one said, 'Don't shoot the white fellows any more.

'Question. Did you see any person shot besides yourself?

'Answer. I didn't see them shot. I saw one of our fellows dead by me.

'Question. Did you see any buildings burned? 'Answer. Yes, sir. While I was in the major's headquarters they commenced burning the buildings, and I begged one of them to take me out and not let us burn there; and he said, 'I am hunting up a piece of yellow flag for you.' I think we would have whipped them if the flag of truce had not come in. We would have whipped them if we had not let them get the dead-wood on us. I was told that they made their movement while the flag of truce was in. I did not see it myself, because I had sat down, as I had been working so hard.

'Question. How do you know they made their movement while the flag of truce was in? 'Answer. The men that were above said so. The rebs are bound to take every advantage of us. I saw two more white men close to where I was lying. That makes three dead ones, and myself wounded.”

Later on during the war the policy of ma.s.sacring was somewhat abated, that is it was not done on the battle-field. The humanity of the confederates in Virginia permitted them to take their black prisoners to the rear. About a hundred soldiers belonging to the 7th Phalanx Regiment, with several of their white officers, were captured at Fort Gilmer on the James River, Va., and taken to Richmond in September, 1864. The following account is given of their treatment in the record of the Regiment:

”The following interesting sketches of prison-life, as experienced by two officers of the regiment, captured at Fort Gilmer, have been kindly furnished. _The details of the sufferings of the enlisted men captured with them we shall never know, for few of them ever returned to tell the sad story._

”'An escort was soon formed to conduct the prisoners to Richmond, some seven or eight miles distant, and the kinder behavior of that part of the guard which had partic.i.p.ated in the action was suggestive of the freemasonry that exists between brave fellows to whatever side belonging. On the road the prisoners were subjected by every pa.s.ser-by, to petty insults, the point in every case, more or less obscene, being the color of their skin. The solitary exception, curiously enough, being a _nymph du pave_ in the suburbs of the town.[30]

”'About dusk the prisoners reached the notorious Libby, where the officers took leave of their enlisted comrades--from most of them forever. The officers were then searched and put collectively in a dark hole, whose purpose undoubtedly was similar to that of the 'Ear of Dionysius.'

In the morning, after being again searched, they were placed among the rest of the confined officers, among whom was Capt. Cook, of the Ninth, taken a few weeks previously at Strawberry Plains. Some time before, the confederates had made a great haul on the Weldon Railroad, and the prison was getting uncomfortably full of prisoners and--vermin. After a few days sojourn in Libby, the authorities prescribed a change of air, and the prisoners were packed into box and stock cars and rolled to Salisbury, N. C. The comforts of this two day's ride are remembered as strikingly similar to those of Mr. Hog from the West to the Eastern market before the invention of the S. F. P. C. T. A.

”'At Salisbury the prisoners were stored in the third story of an abandoned tobacco factory, occupied on the lower floors by political prisoners, deserters, thieves and spies, who during the night made an attempt on the property of the new-comers, but were repulsed after a pitched battle. In the morning the Post-Commandant ordered the prisoners to some unused negro quarters in another part of the grounds, separated from the latter by a line of sentries. During the week train-loads of prisoners--enlisted men--arrived and were corralled in the open grounds. The subsequent sufferings of these men are known to the country, a parallel to those of Andersonville, as the eternal infamy of Wirtz is shared by his _confrere_ at Salisbury--McGee.