38th Congress, 1st Session.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Report No. 65.

FORT PILLOW, TENNESSEE, April 25, 1864.
Frank Hogan, (colored,) sworn and examined.
By the chairman:

Question. Were you at Fort Pillow on the day of the fight?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. In what company and regiment?
Answer. Company A, 6th United States heavy artillery.
Question. What did you see there that day, especially after the fort was taken?
Answer. I saw them shoot a great many men after the fort was taken, officers and private soldiers, white and black.
Question. After they had given up?
Answer. Yes, sir. I saw them shoot a captain in our battalion, about a quarter of an hour after he had surrendered. One of the secesh called him up to him, and asked him if he was an officer of a nigger regiment. He said, "Yes," and they shot him with a revolver.
Question. Did they say anything more at the time they shot him?
Answer. Yes, sir; one of them said, "God damn you, I will give you a nigger officer." They talked with him a little time before they shot him. They asked him how he came to be there, and several other questions, and then asked if he belonged to a nigger regiment, and then they shot him. It was a secesh officer who shot him. I was standing a little behind.
Question. What was the rank of the secesh officer?
Answer. He was a first lieutenant. I do not know his name.
Question. Do you know the name of the officer he shot?
Answer. Yes, sir; Captain Carson, company D.
Question. Why did they not shoot you?
Answer. I do not know why they didn't.
Question. How long did you stay with them?
Answer. I staid with them two nights and one day. They took me on Tuesday evening, and I got away from them Thursday morning, about two hours before daylight. They were going to make an early move that morning, and they sent me back for some water, and I left with another boy in the same company with myself.
Question. Where did you go then?
Answer. Right straight through the woods for about three or four miles, and then we turned to the right and came to a road. We crossed the road, went down about three miles, and crossed it again, and I kept on, backwards and forwards, until I got to a creek about five or six miles from here.
Question. Do you know anything of the rebels burning any of the tents that had wounded men in them?
Answer. I know they set some on fire that had wounded men in them, but I did not see them burn, because they would not let us go around to see.
Question. About what time of the day was that?
Answer. It was when the sun was about an hour or three-quarters on from the day of the battle.
Question. Did you hear the men in there after they set the building on fire?
Answer. Yes sir; I heard them in there. I knew they were in there. I knew that they were there sick. I saw them shoot one or two men who came out of the hospital, and then they went into the tents, and then shot them right in the tents. I saw them shoot two of them right in the head. When they charged the fort they did not look into the tents, but when they came back afterwards they shot those sick men in the head. I knew the men, because they belonged to the company I did. One of them was Dennis Gibbs, and the officer was named Alfred Flag.
Question. How long had they been sick?
Answer. They had been sick at the hospital in Memphis, and had got better a little, and been brought up here, but they never did any duty here, and went to the hospital. They came out of the hospital and went into these tents, and were killed there. They were in the hospital the morning of the fight. When the fight commenced, they left the hospital and came into the tents inside the fort.
Question. Did you see them bury any of our men?
Answer. I saw them put them in a ditch. I did not see them cover them up.
Question. Were they all really dead or not?
Answer. I saw them bury one man alive, and heard the secesh speak about it as much as twenty times. He was shot in the side, but he was not dead, and was breathing along right good.
Question. Did you see the man?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. How came they to bury him when he was alive?
Answer. They said he would die any how, and they would let him stay. Every once in a while, if they put dirt on him, he would move his hands. I was standing right there, and saw him when they put him in, and saw he was not dead.
Question. Have you seen the three bodies that are now lying over beyond the old hospital?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Did you know them?
Answer. I knew one of them. I helped to take him to the hospital on the Sunday before the fight. There was another man there. I knew the company he belonged to, (company B,) but I do not know his name. He was a colored man, but he had hair nearly straight, like a white man or an Indian. He had been sick a great while.

Captain James Marshall, recalled.
By the chairman:

Question. Does this witness (Hogan) speak of the same men that you supposed were fleeing from the hospital when they were killed?
Answer. Yes, sir, the same men.

Frank Hogan, resumed.
By the chairman:

Question. What did they do with the prisoners they took away with them?
Answer. I saw several officers of our regiment, and some of the men.
Question. Did you hear anything 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 a while. 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 afterwards.

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Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War be, and they are hereby, instructed to inquire into the truth of the rumored slaughter of the Union troops, after their surrender, at the recent attack of the rebel forces upon Fort Pillow, Tennessee; as, also, whether Fort Pillow could have been sufficiently re-enforced or evacuated, and if so, why it was not done; and that they report the facts to Congress as soon as possible. Approved April 21, 1864. Pages 94-95