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Chapter Six The Massacre’s Aftermath I N the morning twilight of April 13, the Silver Cloud, a “tinclad” gunboat similar to the New Era but larger and plated with thin iron armor, traveled toward Fort Pillow. The ship and its interracial crew had left Memphis the previous evening in response to the first report of the attack. A transport loaded with reinforcements would have gone, too, except that news of the fort’s fall arrived first. The slow warship benefitted from a gracious towing by the speedy passenger steamboat Platte Valley. As the ships approached Island No. 34, a blue-clad soldier signaled from a coal barge aground there. A small boat went from the Platte Valley to pick up Corporal Jacob Wilson of the 6th U.S.C.H.A. and three wounded comrades. The four soldiers gave the first account of the nightmarish massacre to an outside audience.1 A major controversy, focusing on racial conflict and the rules of warfare, would soon develop over the incident. That morning most of Forrest’s men began preparations for a march. General James Chalmers sent a detachment back to the fort to collect small arms, to dispose of remaining Union supplies, and to burn buildings. A number of Federal survivors later alleged that some of these soldiers killed more of the wounded that morning.2 The attitudes of the massacre may have reawakened, though no other evidence confirms this. While the detachment worked at the fort, the Silver Cloud drew close and disconnected from the Platte Valley to steam ahead. With dawn’s illumination slipping over the bluff, sailors and passengers observed, according to a St. Louis newspaper correspondent, “numerous dead bodies strewed along the river and on the sides of the bluff.” Seeing enemies scurrying around the fort, the gunboat’s captain started shelling. The Confederates then hastily set buildings and tents on fire as they tried to finish their assignment . The flames burned some Federals who may or may not have already been dead. Other Federals concealed in the terrain silently signaled the gunboat to land and then rushed out as it approached the shore. Confederates opened fire but killed only one. Silver Cloud continued shelling as the men clambered aboard and it returned to midstream.3 87 The Massacre’s Aftermath The sound of the cannon fire traveled miles away to General Nathan B. Forrest, who, preparing to depart, dispatched Major Charles W. Anderson, a few troopers, and the prisoner Captain John T. Young to try again to arrange a truce for the delivery of disabled Federals. Around 8:00 A.M. Anderson succeeded in instituting a truce to run until 5:00 P.M., not only for the sailors to gather up the sick and wounded but also to bury the dead. He ordered the other Confederates out of the fort. His small group efficiently helped to bring survivors to the landing and to write paroles. The Platte Valley drew up to the landing, and its captain volunteered to transport the wounded. Soon the gunboat New Era and passenger steamer Lady Pike came downstream. The civilian refugees on the New Era had already transferred to the Lady Pike, which stayed only forty-five minutes before heading south. A work crew from New Era participated in burying the dead. General Chalmers and his staff appeared with a group of wounded captives, who had received some care from doctors in the Confederate camps. About fifty-five soldiers, two contraband laborers, and a civilian clerk boarded Platte Valley. The group included Dr. Charles Fitch, whom Chalmers had paroled at the request of Confederate surgeons. Fitch, another surgeon from Silver Cloud, and several passengers on Platte Valley busied themselves in providing medical care.4 Reporters, Federals, and others who went ashore saw many bodies repeatedly wounded at close range and a few charred ones in the burnt structures. This, plus the survivors’ accounts, prompted them to question the Confederates. Federal accounts recorded two responses: most asserted that so many Federals died because they refused to surrender, but some, including General Chalmers, supposedly admitted the occurrence of a massacre because Federal enlistment of blacks had infuriated the enlisted men. Chalmers stressed that, while Confederate law would allow the execution of rebelling slaves, he and Forrest had neither approved nor ordered a massacre.5 While those who reported these discussions obviously could have distorted their enemies’ statements, significantly, subsequent Confederate documents would contain the same two conflicting versions of the battle...

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