The Massacre at Fort Pillow

Washington, Monday, May 2, 1864

               The Sub-committee on the Conduct of the War (Senator Wade and Representative Gooch) have returned from Ft. Pillow. They took fifty seven depositions, all of which more than confirm the newspaper accounts of the massacre. They say it would be impossible to exaggerate the cruelties committed. Among the witnesses who were examined is the negro who was buried alive, and who dug himself out of his own grave. There is no doubt of the fact that one or more persons were nailed through their flesh to pieces of wood , and then burnt alive. Not only on the day of surrender were such fiendish acts perpetrated, but on the next day, in cold blood. The victims seen by the Committee were some of them pierced and cut in the face and eyes with bayonets and swords, while other parts of their bodies were smashed and disfigured either by steel or lead. 

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