The Fairfield Herald

The Fort Pillow Affair--A Card From Gen. N. B. Forrest.

To the Editor of the New York Times:

A correspondent of the Times whose letter was published on the 26th inst., says:

"At the time of the capture of Fort Pillow by the rebel General Forrest, and the massacre of its entire garrison; Gen. (then Colonel) Lawrence was in command of Fort Columbus a point on the Mississippi river above Fort Pillow, Gen. Forrest, flushed with his victory and his murders, marched from Fort Pillow directly on Fort Columbus, notified Col. Lawrence that the commander and garrison of Fort Pillow had been massacred, informed him that he commanded 10,000 troops, and knew that he (Lawrence) had only 1,000, and ordered him to surrender in one hour, or he and his command should share the fate which had been visited on the garrison at Fort Pillow"

This grossly assails my character as a man and a soldier; but a desire for my own vindication, and a sense of duty to the brave gentlemen who followed me during the late war, will not permit me to remain silent any longer. I must therefore, ask you to be pleased to allow me to say through the columns of the Times, that the charges made against me by your correspondent are utterly false, and their falsity can be easily demonstrated by proof which is in easy reach.

The official report of the United States officer commanding at Fort Pillow, and the testimony reported by the Congressional Investigating Committee, of which Vice-President Wade was chairman, show that the garrison consisted of only about 580 officers and men. Other proofs, which I can produce at any time, show that I captured and can account for, more than three hundred of these--sixty-five of them, who were badly wounded, having been delivered by me to the officer commanding a United States gun-boat in the vicinity of the fort, and about 250 (an official descriptive list of whom is now in this city, in the possession of Gen. Thomas Jordan,) having been turned over by me to General Polk, at Demopolis, Alabama. Of these captured men, ninety were negro soldiers. Nor were the rest of the garrison all killed; for many of them effected their escape, while others were drowned in the attempt. It will thus be seen that the proportion of killed is not greater than is usual in the case of so severe a fight, accompanied by a desperate assault and defence.

These facts are known to the Government of the United States, and acquit me, not only in the opinion of the President, Mr Stanton, and Judge Holt, but in that of Congress, of any violation of the rules of civilized warfare. Otherwise, I would have been long ago arrested and tried upon that charge. For my own part, conscious of my innocence, and knowing perfectly well that I have always waged war with the strictest regard to the usages of civilized nations, I have never shunned any investigation to which the Executive or Congress might subject my military conduct.

As to the absurd charge that I marched against Columbus with 10,000 men and demanded its surrender, with the threat that I would, in the event of refusal, "massacre" its garrison, I have only to say that I never was, during the war, within fifty miles of Columbus, after its evacuation by the Confederates in 1862; and the only troops which approached it at the time referred to, was a scouting party of less than 100 men; and that the official report of General Lawrence himself utterly disproves your correspondent's statements.

N. B. FORREST.