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[61]

Question. Did you hear any thing said about Major Bradford?

Answer. The first night after they had taken the Fort, Major Bradford was there without any guard. Colonel McCullough waked us up to make a fire, and Major Bradford walked up and asked the liberty to go out awhile. He came back, and I went to sleep, leaving Major Bradford sitting at the fire. When they waked up the next morning, they asked where Major Bradford was, and I told them he was lying there by the fire. They uncovered the head of the man who was lying there, but they said it was not Major Bradford. That was only a short distance from here. I did not see him afterward.

Alfred Coleman, (colored,) sworn and examined: by Mr. Gooch:

Question. To what company and regiment do you belong?

Answer. Company B, Sixth United States heavy artillery.

Question. Were you at Fort Pillow at the time of the fight?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Were you captured here?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. About what time?

Answer. About six o'clock, I should think.

Question. Where did they take you to?

Answer. Out toward Brownsville, between twelve and eighteen miles.

Question. What did you do after you were captured?

Answer. I helped to bury some of the dead; then I came to the commissary store, and helped to carry out some forage.

Question. Did you hear the rebels say any thing about a fight?

Answer. Nothing more than it was the hardest fight they had been in, with the force we had here. I was then with the Second Missouri cavalry.

Question. What did they say about giving quarter?

Answer. They said they would show no quarter to colored troops, nor to any of the officers with them, but would kill them all.

Question. Who said that?

Answer. One of the captains of the Second Missouri. He shot six himself, but, toward evening, General Forrest issued an order not to kill any more negroes, because they wanted them to help to haul the artillery out.

Question. How do you know that?

Answer. This captain said so.

Question. Were colored men used for that purpose?

Answer. Yes, sir. I saw them pulling the artillery, and I saw the secesh whip them as they were going out, just like they were horses.

Question. How many men did you see that way?

Answer. There were some ten or twelve men hold of a piece that I saw coming out. The secesh said they had been talking about fighting under the black flag, but that they had come as nigh fulfilling that here as if they had a black flag.

Question. How long did you stay with them?

Answer. I was taken on the Tuesday evening after the fight, and remained with them until about an hour before day of Thursday morning. I then took a sack of corn to feed the horses, and got the horses between me and them, and, as it was dark and drizzling rain, I left them and escaped.

Question. Did you see any of the shooting going on?

Answer. Yes, sir. I was lying right under the side of the hill where the most of the men were killed. I saw them take one of the Tennessee cavalry, who was wounded in one leg, so that he could not stand on it. Two men took him, and made him stand up on one leg, and then shot him down. That was about four o'clock in the afternoon.

Question. How many do you think you saw them shoot?

Answer. The captain that carried me off shot six colored men himself, with a revolver. I saw him shoot them. I cannot state about the rest.

Question. Did you see more than one white man shot?

Answer. No, sir. The others that were killed were a little nearer the water than I was. I was lying down under a white-oak log near the Fort, and could not see a great way.

Question. Do you know how many of their men were lost?

Answer. I heard some of them say, when they went out toward Brownsville, that they had lost about three hundred killed, wounded, and missing.

Question. How many of our men were killed before the Fort was taken?

Answer. I do not think there were more than ten or fifteen men killed before the Fort was taken.


Memphis, Tennessee, April 26, 1864.

Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas H. Harris, sworn and examined: by the Chairman:

Question. What is your rank and position in the service?

Answer. I am a Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General of the Sixteenth army corps.

Question. How many troops do your records show to have gone from the Sixth United States heavy artillery (colored) to Fort Pillow?

Answer. There were two hundred and twenty-one officers and men left Memphis to go to Fort Pillow.

Question. How many whites went there?

Answer. None were sent from here. I understand, unofficially, that the colored troops were recruited, to some extent, after they arrived at Fort Pillow; but I have no official knowledge of that fact. Of the two hundred and twenty-one officers and men who went from here, there are thirty here who escaped, and some twenty or more above at Mound City and Cairo.


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