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but when a Confederate soldier was captured, no regard was paid to the usages of civilized warfare.
The captive was shot and mutilated in the most barbarous and inhuman manner, no trial by court-martial was permitted, no respect was paid to age or calling, and no mercy was accorded to prisoners.
Lieut.-Col. W. M. Reed, an eminent minister of the gospel (who fell in the gallant discharge of his duty in the assault on Fort Pillow), after a careful investigation, submitted a report to General Forrest (see page 118, Vol.
XXXII, Part 3, Official Records of the War), in which he recited a series of atrocities that should have brought their authors to the gallows.
General Forrest enclosed the report to Major-General Hurlbut at Memphis, commanding the district of West Tennessee, and asked for the surrender of Hurst for trial.
This demand was refused, and thereupon Forrest issued an order declaring Hurst and his officers outlaws.
For private gain he had extorted, over $5,000 from the citizens of Jackson, Tenn., under a threat of burning the town.
He was, said the order, ‘guilty of house burning, guilty of murder of both citizens and soldiers of the Confederate States.’
The victims were comrades, or kinsmen and friends of Forrest's cavalry, and yet with a full knowledge of these gross outrages, no Federal prisoner (and hundreds were captured) received other than humane treatment.
General Hurlbut was relieved from command on the 16th of April, not because he tolerated Hurst and his kind, but, said General Sherman, ‘You are relieved because there has been marked timidity in the management of affairs since Forrest passed north of Memphis.’
Brutality to citizens and barbarity to prisoners called forth no protest; ‘timidity’ in the face of danger was the only sin.
On the 29th of March, Colonel Neely, Thirteenth Tennessee, engaged Hurst near Bolivar, capturing his entire wagon train, routing and driving him on the wings of the
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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