Daniel W. Gooch

“ Yet they are now dying daily, one of them being in the very throes of death as your committee stood by his bed-side and witnessed the sad spectacle there presented. All those whom your committee examined stated that they have been thus reduced and emaciated entirely in consequence of the merciless treatment they received while prisoners from their enemies; and the physicians in charge of them, the men best fitted by their profession and experience to express an opinion upon the subject, all say that they have no doubt that the statements of their patients are entirely correct. ”

“ The worst thing I saw was the rebels moving up on us while the flag of truce was up at the fort. One part of their army moved right up on the brink of the ditch, and when the firing began, they rushed right into the fort. Before that the rebels were off two or three hundred yards. They tried twice to make a charge, but they did not succeed; they did not get within twenty or thirty steps of the fort then. I saw a great many men shot after they surrendered, white and black both. ”

“ Failing to make any impression upon our forces, Forrest then demanded an unconditional surrender, closing his communication to Colonel Hicks in these words: "If you surrender you shall be treated as prisoners of war, but if I have to storm your works you may expect no quarter." ”

“ I have known men to become very emaciated by being for weeks affected with chronic diarrhœa, or something of that kind. But the chronic diarrhœa, and liver diseases, and lung affections, which those men now have, I understand to have been superinduced by the treatment to which they have been subjected; their cruel and merciless treatment and exposure to inclement weather without any shelter or sufficient clothing or food, reducing them literally to a state of starvation. ”

“ The officers and men seemed to vie with each other in the devilish work; men, women, and even children, wherever found, were deliberately shot down, beaten, and hacked with sabres; some of the children not more than ten years old were forced to stand up and face their murderers while being shot; the sick and the wounded were butchered without mercy, the rebels even entering the hospital building and dragging them out to be shot, or killing them as they lay there unable to offer the least resistance. ”

“ These deeds of murder and cruelty ceased when night came on, only to be renewed the next morning, when the demons carefully sought among the dead lying about in all directions for any of the wounded yet alive, and those they found were deliberately shot. ”

“ I think not; no man can believe it; and while a practice so shocking to humanity is persisted in by the rebel authorities, I would very respectfully urge that retaliatory measures be at once instituted by subjecting the officers we now hold as prisoners of war to a similar treatment.
I took advantage of the opportunity which this visit to Annapolis gave me to make a hasty inspection of Camp Parole, and I am happy to report that I found it in every branch in a most commendable condition. The men all seemed to be cheerful and in fine health, and the police inside and out was excellent. ”

“ Some of the rebels stood on the top of the hill or a short distance down its side, and called to our soldiers to come up to them, and as they approached, shot them down in cold blood; if their guns or pistols missed fire, forcing them to stand there until they were again prepared to fire. All around were heard cries of "No quarter!" "No quarter!" "Kill the damned niggers; shoot them down!" ”

“ Some white soldiers shot after they were wounded?
Answer. Yes, sir, with the hospital flag flying, and they holding white handkerchiefs over their heads. I saw at least ten soldiers shot individually with white handkerchiefs over their heads. They tore off pieces of their shirts—anything they could get—for flags of truce and to denote surrender.
Question. You say these men were shot down in hospital, with hospital flag flying?
Answer. Yes, sir, lying right down under it—not up walking at all. Every man lying near me was killed—lying close to me and on me. ”

“ The enormity of the crime committed by the rebels towards our prisoners for the last several months is not known or realized by our people, and cannot but fill with horror the civilized world when the facts are fully revealed. There appears to have been a deliberate system of savage and barbarous treatment and starvation, the result of which will be that few, if any, of the prisoners that have been in their hands during the past winter will ever again be in a condition to render any service, or even to enjoy life. ”

“ We also refused for the reason that we did not think they had a right to take as prisoners of war men in the hospital who were unable to walk without danger to their lives. Yet the rebels took those men and marched them ten miles, and then camped them down in a swampy piece of ground at night, with their clothes nearly all taken from them. Some of them were left bareheaded and barefooted, with nothing on but their pants and shirts, compelled to stay in that swampy ravine all night long, with nothing to eat, and not permitted to have fires. ”

“ Major Bradford brought in a black flag, which meant no quarter. I heard some of the rebel officers say: "You damned rascals, if you had not fought us so hard, but had stopped when we sent in a flag of truce, we would not have done anything to you." I heard one of the officers say: "Kill all the niggers;" another one said: "No; Forrest says take them and carry them with him to wait upon him and cook for him, and put them in jail and send them to their masters." Still they kept on shooting. They shot at me after that, but did not hit me; a rebel officer shot at me. ”

“ There is another thing I would wish to state: all the men, without any exception, among the thousands that have come to this hospital, have never, in a single instance, expressed a regret (notwithstanding the privations and sufferings that they have endured) that they entered their country's service. They have been the most loyal, devoted, and earnest men. Even on the last days of their lives they have said that all they hoped for was just to live and enter the ranks again and meet their foes. ”

“ The committee must observe that the loss of Mound City and Cairo would paralyze the western army and navy. The points below Columbus and Island Ten are fortified places; while holding them, the rebels had control of the river. It required a prodigious effort to dislodge them. To concede to them any point on the river, even for a week, would bring disaster. Furthermore, the rebels now control western Kentucky; they are murdering, robbing, and driving out [Pg 9] the loyal men; they avow their determination to permit the loyal men to take no part in the approaching elections. ”

“ About this time a squad of rebels came around, it would seem for the purpose of murdering what negroes they could find. They began to shoot the wounded negroes all around there, interspersed with the whites. I was lying a little way from a wounded negro, when a secesh soldier came up to him and said: "What in hell are you doing here?" The colored soldier said he wanted to get on the gunboat. The secesh soldier said: "You want to fight us again, do you? Damn you, I'll teach you," and drew up his gun and shot him dead. ”

“ What is the general condition now of the wounded men from Fort Pillow under your charge?
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. ”

“ I was in the battle fought at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, on the 12th day of April, A. D. 1864. The engagement commenced early in the morning and lasted until three o'clock p. m. same day, at which time the enemy carried the fort. The United States troops took refuge under the bank of the river. The officers all being killed or wounded, the men raised the white flag and surrendered, but the rebels kept on firing until most all the men were shot down. I was wounded and knocked down with the but of a musket and left for dead, after being robbed, and they cut the buttons off my jacket. ”

“ They ordered us to halt, and some of them said, "God damn 'em, kill '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, "God damn you, you fight with the niggers, 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." ”

“ That testimony, with the communication of the Secretary of War, and the report of Colonel Hoffman, is herewith transmitted.
The evidence proves, beyond all manner of doubt, a determination on the part of the rebel authorities, deliberately and persistently practiced for a long time past, to subject those of our soldiers who have been so unfortunate as to fall in their hands to a system of treatment which has resulted in reducing many of those who have survived and been permitted to return to us to a condition, both physically and mentally, which no language we can use can adequately describe. ”

“ While the flag of truce was at the fort the first, second, and third times, the rebel troops were taking new positions in line of battle, although they had made a distinct agreement and understanding with Colonel Hicks that while the flag of truce was in there should be no movements of troops on either side; that everything should remain as it was. ”

“ The last words I said to Colonel Hawkins were, that if he found he could not whip the enemy, he should immediately retreat to Columbus. He said that, if he did not fall back, he would hold the place until re-enforcements reached him. I told him I would immediately push forward re-enforcements; that the garrison at Columbus consisted of only 1,100 men in all, and that 900 and odd of them were negroes, who had never been in a fight, and that re-enforcements would have to come from Cairo. I wrote a telegraphic despatch at the time to General Brayman, giving all the facts. ”

“ No one can for a moment be deceived by such statements, who will reflect that our soldiers, who, when taken prisoners, have been stout, healthy men, in the prime and vigor of life, yet have died by hundreds under the treatment they have received, although required to perform no duties of the camp or the march; while the rebel soldiers are able to make long and rapid marches, and to offer a stubborn resistance in the field. ”

“ A great many of our men lay down inside of our works and went to sleep, as they felt altogether easy about the matter. I think it was about half past ten o'clock when the bugle was sounded to cease firing; and fifteen minutes before eleven they sent in a flag of truce demanding an unconditional surrender. Colonel Hawkins called the officers together and asked them what they thought best to be done. All were in favor of fighting. When he asked me about it I told him that if they had artillery they could whip us; but if they had no artillery we could fight them till hell froze over ”

“ Paducah commands the Ohio. In hostile hands, the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers are no longer ours. Mound City, eight miles above Cairo, is the great naval depot for the western fleet. Gunboats there receive their armaments, crews, and supplies. An average of probably $5,000,000 of public property is constantly at that point; I found it guarded by, perhaps, fifty men of the veteran reserve corps, not referring to gunboats lying there. Cairo, at the confluence of the great rivers, is the narrow gateway through which all military and naval operations of the Mississippi valley must be made. ”

“ Forrest seized the Mayfield and Paducah train and carried all his wounded off to Mayfield, except a few who lay near the fort.
Our black troops were very much exposed. The fort was in bad condition, [Pg 81] and the negro troops, with the heavy artillery, were compelled to stand up on the platforms to man the guns, their only protection there being a little bank or ridge of earth about knee high. Our loss in killed resulted from this exposure. The rebel troops got up on the tops of houses, and also in the hospital, and fired down into the fort upon our gunners. ”

“ The enlisted men who had endured so many privations at Belle Isle and other places were, with few exceptions, in a very sad plight, mentally and physically, having for months been exposed to all the changes of the weather, with no other protection than a very insufficient supply of worthless tents, and with an allowance of food scarcely sufficient to prevent starvation, even if of wholesome quality; but as it was made of coarsely-ground corn, including the husks, and probably at times the cobs, if it did not kill by starvation, it was sure to do it by the disease it created. ”

“ I heard the rebels say repeatedly that they intended to kill negro troops wherever they could find them; that they had heard that there were negro troops at Union City, and that they had intended to kill them if they had found any there. They also said they had understood there were negro troops at Paducah and Mayfield, and that they intended to kill them if they got them. And they said that they did not consider officers who commanded negro troops to be any better than the negroes themselves. ”