ored). He states that after Major Booth was killed the troops were drawn from the rifle-pits to the inner works by Major Bradford, and that the thought was prevailing among the prisoners that if they had remained at the rifle-pits our troops would have been able to hold the fort. Kennedy was held as a prisoner to the day after the fight, when he managed the escape.

The detached section from my battery consisted of 1 commissioned officer and 34 enlisted men, and the casualties are the following, viz: Killed, enlisted men, 6; wounded, enlisted men, 3, (hospital in Cairo); wounded, enlisted men, 1 (hospital in Memphis); escaped, enlisted men, 1 (with the battery); prisoners, enlisted men, 5; total accounted for, 16. One commissioned officer (First Lieutenant A. M. Hunter) and 18 enlisted men missing, with no information about their fate.

I have the honor to be, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CARL ADOLF LAMBERG,

Captain Commanding Batty. D, 2nd U. S. Light Artillery (colored).

Lieutenant Colonel T. H. HARRIS,

Asst. Adjt. General, Sixteenth Army Corps, Memphis, Tenn.

Numbers 15. Report of Captain William T. Smith, Sixth U. S. Colored Heavy Artillery, of the capture of Fort Pillow.

CAMP SIXTH U. S. HEAVY ARTILLERY (COLORED),

April 15, 1864.

SIR: I have the honor to make the following statement in regard to the battle of Fort Pillow. I was not in the battle, but arrived there after the fort was captured, and by conversation with officers that were engaged in the same and prisoners I learned the following particulars:

On the morning of the 12th of April, at daybreak, the pickets were attacked, and without resistance, which should have been made, hastily returned to the fort. Major Booth, of the Sixth U. S. Heavy Artillery (colored, was in command. He had made all disposition that was in his power with the small force that was under his command, and when the enemy charged his rifle-pits they were repulsed, and every time they met with the same; and while Major Booth was passing among his men and cheering the same to fight he was struck in the head by a bullet and killed, after which the command retired inside of the fort, when the enemy sent in a demand for the surrender of the fort immediately, which demand was refused; and while consulting under the flag of truce the enemy advanced his lines by crawling up on our breast-works. After the refusal they charged our works, and again were repulsed. They then sent in another demand for surrender, which again was refused. They then stormed the fort, and succeeded by their treachery in entering the same, and they then commenced an indiscriminate slaughter of the command. The fort never was surrendered. I passed over the field of battle under the flag of truce (which was out to bury our dead), and I there saw men who were shot after they had thrown down their