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

Mound City Hospital, Illinois, April 22, 1864.
Sergeant W. P. Walker, (white,) sworn and examined.
By Mr. Gooch:

Question. In what capacity did you serve in the army?
Answer. I was a sergeant in the 13th Tennessee cavalry, company D.
Question. Were you at Fort Pillow at the time of the fight there?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Will you state what took place there?
Answer. In the morning the pickets ran in. We were sent out a piece as skirmishers. They kept us out about a couple of hours, and then we retreated into the fort. The firing kept up pretty regular until about two o'clock, when a flag of truce came in. While the flag of truce was in, the enemy was moving up and taking their positions; they were also pilfering and searching our quarters.
Question. They finally took the fort?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. What happened then?
Answer. They just shot us down without showing any quarter at all. They shot me, for one, after I surrendered; they shot me in the arm, and the shoulder, and the neck, and in the eye.
Question. How many times did they shoot you?
Answer. They shot me in the arm and eye after I surrendered; I do not know when they shot me in the other places.
Question. Who shot you?
Answer. A private shot me with a pistol; there were a great many of us shot.
Question. What reason did he give for shooting you after you had surrendered?
Answer. A man came down the hill and said that General - some one; I could not understand the name - said that they should shoot every one of us, and take no prisoners, and then they shot us down.
Question. How did you escape?
Answer. They thought they had killed me. They searched my pockets half a dozen times, or more, and took my pocket-book from me.
Question. Did you see anyone else shot after they surrendered?
Answer. Yes, sir; I saw several shot right around me.
Question. Did they shoot all, colored and white?
Answer. They shot all where I was. When they turned in and went to shooting the white men, they scattered and ran, and then they shot them down.
Question. Did you see them do anything else besides shooting them?
Answer. I saw some knock them over the heads with muskets, and some stick sabres into them.
Question. Did you see anything of any burning or burying alive?
Answer. No, sir; I did not see that.
Question. Were any of the rebel officers about while this was going on?
Answer. Not where I was; I was down under the hill then. The niggers first ran out of the fort, and then, when they commenced shooting us, we ran down under the hill, and they followed us up and shot us. They came back the next day and shot several wounded negroes.
Question. Did you see that?
Answer. I was lying in a house, but I heard the negroes begging, and heard the guns fired; but I did not see it.

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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 32-33