Testimony Timeline

April 17, 1864 - Diary of Oliver R. McNary, Major, 37th USCT. Recruiting officer and acting superintendent of Negro affairs at Plymouth. Plymouth attacked at 4 o'clock by a heavy force. Women & Childrin & Negroes sent off at 11 o'clock on the Messoit [Massasoit] & Tug Boat. No mentions in his entire diary of any atrocities.

April 21, 1864 - U.S.S. Miami, Off Roanoke River, Charles A. French, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant, Commanding. I have received, and am receiving, many escaped soldiers and refugees who have taken to the swamp, and have detained the army transport Massasoit for the purpose of conveying them to Roanoke Island.

April 26, 1864 – The World, New York, NY. Another Story. NEWBERN, N.C., April 22. Two companies of the Second North Carolina (Union) volunteers were among the captured at Plymouth, the most of whom were taken out and shot by the enemy after our forces surrendered. All the negroes found in uniform were also shot.

April 26, 1864 – Diary of Attorney General Edward Bates. Mr. Clarke, Member of Congress of N.Y. called to pay his respects, and told me some facts, which I had not heard before, about the surrender of Plymouth N.C. by Gen Wessells. He says (repeating the news of the morning) that Wessells surrendered 2500 men and that after the surrender, the enemy deliberately shot all our black soldiers, but also, several hundred of our North Carolina troops — executing these last as traitors! How many of them he did not say. For the sake of humanity, I hope that this is not true. But if it be true — superadded to the massacre at Columbus, it will give to the closing scenes of the war, a brutal ferocity, unknown to modern times. For such barbarity can hardly fail to produce a corresponding barbarity, in retaliation. He notates that he met later that day with President Lincoln’s cabinet. “At cabinet today, I find that this horrid story is not believed.”

April 26, 1864 - The Philadelphia Inquirer. ASSOCIATED PRESS ACCOUNT. Baltimore, April 25. - A letter from Fortress Monroe says that Captain WEATHERBEE, of the Twenty-third Massachusetts Regiment, just arrived from Roanoke Island, reports that General WESSELS surrendered to the enemy at Plymouth, on Wednesday, after four days' hard fighting. Our loss was one hundred and eighty killed and twenty-five hundred captured. The Rebels lost fifteen hundred killed. There are reports on the streets here, this morning, purporting to have been brought by a sutler, that the colored troops at Plymouth were murdered after the surrender, but we have not the means of verifying it. Confirmation of the Reported Slaughter of Colored Troops. NEWBERN, April 22, via FORTRESS MONROE, April 24. - Plymouth was captured by the enemy, at 8 o'clock, Wednesday morning. General WESSELS and his force, one thousand five hundred men, went into Fort Williams and held the enemy at bay until twelve o'clock M., driving them back with severe loss in every attack, but was finally obliged to surrender. Two full companies of the Second North Carolina Union (colored) Volunteers were among the captured, the most of whom were lead out and shot by the enemy after surrendering. All of the negroes who were found in uniform were shot. I hesitated whether to include this account. Any student of the Battle of Plymouth can quickly spot multiple errors; most blatantly that the 2nd NC Union troops were not "colored." However, it does serve as an example of inaccurate reporting and how stories like this can spread.

April 26, 1864 – The Alexandria Gazette, VA. The reports of the shooting of North Carolina deserters and refugees and negro troops by the Confederates, after the surrender, is not credited.

April 27, 1864 – The Boston Herald. The Surrender of Plymouth – Additional Particulars – The Fort Pillow Massacre Re-enacted. All the negroes found after the surrender were stripped of their clothing and brutally murdered in cold blood. It must be understood that Gen. Wessells had no colored troops at Plymouth, save a few recruits for North Carolina regiments, and the poor, unfortunate blacks thus butchered were merely laborers for the Government. The negroes were formed into line, in a nude state, and fired at by the brutal soldiery, purporting to represent Southern chivalry. Nature revolts at these facts; and the plan apparently adopted by the rebels for the future disposition of negroes is emancipation from, and not for, life.

April 27, 1864 – The Pittsburgh Daily Commercial, Pittsburgh, PA. The Alleged Plymouth Massacre. No official confirmation has been received of the reported massacre of prisoners taken at Plymouth.

April 27, 1864 – Cleveland Weekly Plain Dealer, Cleveland, OH. WAR BARBARITIES, BALTIMORE, May [April] 25^th. – Reports here, said to have been brought by a colored sutler, state that the colored troops at Plymouth, after the surrender, were murdered by the rebels. The rumor is probably untrue.

April 27, 1864 – Boston Semi-Weekly Advertiser, Boston, MA. No Official News of a Massacre at Plymouth. WASHINGTON, April 26. – No official confirmation or intimation has been received of the reported massacre of prisoners at Plymouth. Representative Gooch telegraphs from Fort Pillow that the facts in regard to that massacre are more horrible than the published accounts.

April 27, 1864 – The Daily Confederate, Raleigh, NC. A large number of negroes and “buffaloes” (fit associates) escaped by means of boats and canoes, while quite a number plunged into the river, a portion of whom never reached the opposite shore. The behavior of our troops throughout the whole affair was everything that could be desired, and where all did so well it would be next to injustice to discriminate.

April 28, 1864 – The Daily Courant, Hartford CT. A profound conviction pervades Congress of the necessity of such terrible, inexorable retaliation for the Fort Pillow and Plymouth massacres as will forever prevent a recurrence of similar barbarities.

April 28, 1864 - Litchfield Enquirer, Litchfield CT. BARBARISM OF THE ENEMY. - The alleged inhumanity of the rebels in the treatment of prisoners of war, and of dead and wounded soldiers on the battlefield, has been made by Mr. Deming, of the House Military Committee, a subject of extensive inquiry. A report embracing the year and a half of the war is complete, and will soon be published. - The facts presented are heart sickening and shocking to humanity.

April 29, 1864 - The Liberator, Boston, MA. On Thursday evening, April 14, Frederick Douglass addressed the Twelfth Baptist Church in New York and states in part, "Quite contrary to the expectations of some, this horrible massacre at Fort Pillow has given an impulse to enlisting; and in many localities South, colored men manifest an eagerness for the chance to avenge their slaughtered brethren." So far, I have not found that Frederick Douglass ever made any reference to Plymouth.

April 30, 1864 - Cleveland Daily Leader - Washington, April 29. WHITE AND BLACK SOLDIERS PAID ALIKE. Mr. Wilson's amendment to place white and black soldiers on the same footing, occurred in changing time when to take effect from January last to 1st of next May. The House Military Committee, converted by Fort Pillow and Plymouth, have finally determined to pay white and black soldiers alike, and to raise the pay of all to sixteen dollars. Negroes, however, have but one hundred dollars in bounty. If anything good came out of the reports of Pillow and Plymouth it was equal pay.

May 2, 1864 - The Philadelphia Inquirer. Some twenty colored soldiers, recruited at Plymouth, escaped from there at the time of the surrender, and reached here [New Bern] Sunday morning.

May 3, 1864 - The Daily Confederate, Raleigh, NC. About 600 negroes were taken – about 100 men, the balance women and children – not many men who were soldiers. About 6 o’clock in the morning a large body, perhaps six hundred negroes and buffaloes, came out of the Garret fort [Fort Williams] and made for the nearest point of Peacock swamp. Three companies of cavalry and one of infantry were hunting them there all day, and nearly all were killed. I suppose no prisoners were taken there.

It is highly doubtful that the number who fled to the swamp is 600 but the exact number is not known. Nevertheless, there are several accounts that show there was a large number of African Americans and 2^nd NC Union Volunteers who broke through the lines at about 6 a.m. and made for the swamp. Undoubtedly, the soldiers would have been armed. This would be prior to Wessells’ official surrender at 10 a.m., but after the fall of Fort Compher and Conaby Redoubt. One could possibly justify the killing of armed soldiers in the swamp who refused to surrender. Most all of the USCT and 2^nd NC were stationed at the west end of town and not near the Peacock Swamp. The 10^th USCT were stationed in and near Fort Williams. However, by 6 a.m., most of the troops who had not already surrendered were making their way towards Fort Williams.

This newspaper account also states that 600 “negroes” were captured. That number may be as low as 400. It’s hard to say how many civilian African Americans were still in town. Many left on the Massasoit for Roanoke Island and others acquired boats or swam across the river on the 19th and escaped. There is no doubt that there was a mass exodus from Plymouth when it appeared the town would be captured. They feared for their lives.

May 3, 1864 - The Western Democrat, Charlotte, NC. NORTHERN ITEMS. Northern papers to the afternoon of the 27th received. The accounts of the battle of Plymouth represent the Federal loss 150 killed and 2,500 captured and the Rebel loss 1,500 killed - an enormous lie - all negroes found in uniform taken out and shot.

May 5, 1864 - Official Records (O.R.) Ser. II, Vol VIII, p. 113-114. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton recommends to President Lincoln that Gen. Forrest, Gen. Chalmers and other officers who were perpetrators of the Fort Pillow Massacre should be sought out and captured and that they "shall, if they fall into our hands, be subjected to trial and such punishment as may be awarded for their barbarous and inhuman violation of the laws of war toward the officers and soldiers of the United States and Fort Pillow." No records are found of Stanton ever making similar recommendations in regards to Plymouth or retribution against Gen. Hoke, Ransom or any other Confederate officer at the battle of Plymouth.

May 6, 1864 - The Abington Virginian. A telegram was received by the President from Col. John Taylor Wood, dated Rocky Mount, 21^st instant, giving further particulars of the capture of Plymouth by the forces under Gen. Hoke, with naval co-operation. “He says about twenty five hundred prisoners were taken – three or four hundred of them negroes…”

May 6, 1864 – Richmond Enquirer. LATEST FROM THE UNITED STATES. There is a report prevalent that the rebels, after capturing the place, gathered together all of the loyal North Carolina soldiers, drew them up into line, and shot them in cold blood. It is also said that the blacks remaining in the town met with a similar fate. – Should there be a confirmation of this, and it be proven that the rebels acted in this ferocious and inhuman manner, a swift and severe retribution should be dealt out to them.

May 7, 1864 – Springfield Republican, Springfield, MA. NORTH CAROLINA. There are vague reports of the massacre of some of our men captured at Plymouth, but they do not come in credible shape.

May 7, 1864 – Hartford Courant, Hartford, CT. Southern News. FROM THE REBEL PAPERS. The Richmond Examiner thus winds up an editorial fully justifying and glorifying in the massacre at Fort Pillow: “Repeat Fort Pillow, repeat Plymouth a few times, and we will bring the Yankees to their senses; and, what is even better, our government will rise to a proper sense of its position as an organ of a nation, and no longer act as if it were the junta of revolted prisoners.” The Enquirer finds no evidence of a massacre at all, and refers to the hospitalities extended to Gen. Chalmers by the officers of the steamer Platte Valley as proof that no outrage was committed. The editor adds that “a negro at $5,000 is too valuable to be shot.”

May 10, 1864 - Staunton Spectator, VA. Between three and four hundred negro women and children, who had been taken from their legal owners, were re-captured at Plymouth. The men were either killed in battle, or made their way to the swamps and forests. Many of the latter will no doubt be taken. A Yankee Lieutenant who was in command of the negro forces, has, by order of Gen. Hoke, been confined with the negro women and children. He is said to present a most abject, hang-dog appearance, and has requested to be sent off with the other prisoners of war, but as he preferred the company of negroes previous to the capture of Plymouth, General Hoke has determined not to separate him from them now. It is assumed this is Lieut. Bascombe, 38th USCT.

May 18, 1864 - The Baraboo Republic, Baraboo, WI. A Rebel View of Murdering Prisoners of War. [From the Richmond Enquirer.] The Plymouth Massacre. Gen. Hoke, judging from the large number of his prisoners, does not seem to have made such thorough work as that by which Forrest has so shocked the tender souls and frozen the warm blood of the Yankees. The resistance he encountered was, probably, not so desperate, and the blood of the victors was not so heated; though in a fortification carried by storm, the loss of the garrison must be inevitably large. The strict laws of civilized warfare acknowledge the power of the victor to put all to the sword in such cases. However severe such an example might seem, it would strike a salutary terror in the Yankees, which will be useful to them in the end, and their melancholy whine at meeting a part of the barbarities merit is absurd. In the rapid fall of these positions which the Yankees gained so easily, we see something like a revulsion of the gunboat mania. At that period they made most of the acquisitions which they have since held apparently in a firm grasp. The reflux of the tide is no less sudden than its advance. The year 1864 may undo the work of 1862, and suggest a solution of many difficulties which seemed almost insurmountable.

June 1, 1864 - Annual report of the superintendent of negro affairs in North Carolina, 1864: with an appendix containing the history and management of the freedmen in this department up to June 1st, 1865, by Rev. Horace James. Pg 35. It was a hard day for the poor negroes. The garrison, of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts troops, were taken prisoners. The few colored men found in uniform were treated with shocking barbarity, as were the colored employees of the government. Some few, who escaped by swimming and taking to the swamps, found their way at length to our gunboats, or to the Union lines. The remainder were remanded back to slavery in the interior. But many of the women and children were sent, by the thoughtful care of Gen. Wessells, to Roanoke Island, the evening before the fall of the town.

Three months after the battle, the Fort Pillow Massacre had been proven to be true, but not so with Plymouth. Union Gen. Benjamin Butler was in search of definitive proof of a massacre at Plymouth, and by July 1864 he still didn't have it. He wanted proof so that he could encourage retaliation against the Confederates involved at Plymouth. Then comes the testimony of Samuel Johnson, the supposed Orderly Sergeant of Co. D, 2nd U.S. Colored Cavalry. Although there is no way to determine exactly how many may have witnessed the atrocities, the only official sworn testimony regarding the reported massacre at Plymouth is that of Samuel Johnson. His account has been used ever since as proof of a massacre, but there are issues with his identity and his testimony.

Butler sends this testimony to Gen. Grant, but there has not been located any record that Grant replied and there is also no proof of governmental approval of retaliation.

July 12, 1864 - Official Records (O.R.) Ser. II, Vol VIII, p. 459-460. Hdqrs. Dept. of Va. & N.C. In the Field. Lieut. Gen. U. S. Grant, Commanding Armies of the United States: General – I have the honor to forward the sworn testimony of Samuel Johnson as to the occurrences at Plymouth after its capture. The man is intelligent; was examined by me and duly cautioned as to the necessity of telling the exact truth, and this is his reiterated statement, in which I have confidence as to its main features and substantial accuracy. It seems very clear to me that something should be done in retaliation for this outrage. Many prisoners have been taken from the 8^th N.C. Regiment. The 6^th is still at Plymouth. Were I commanding independently in the field I should take this matter into my own hands, but now deem it my duty to submit it to the better and cooler judgement of the lieutenant-general commanding. For myself, at the present moment I am too much moved by the detail of these occurrences to act in the matter. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Benjamin F. Butler, Major General, Commanding.

 [Inclosure]

Hdqrs. Dept. of Va. & N.C. In the Field, July 11, 1864. Samuel Johnson, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am orderly Sergeant of Co. D, 2^nd U.S. Colored Cavalry. In about April last I went to Plymouth, N.C. in company with Sergt. French, a white man, who acted as recruiting officer, to take charge of some recruits, and was there at the time of the capture of Plymouth by the rebel forces. When I found that the city was being surrendered I pulled off my uniform and found a suit of citizen’s clothes, which I put on, and when captured I was supposed and believed by the rebels to be a citizen. After being captured I was kept at Plymouth for some two weeks and was employed in endeavoring to raise the sunken vessels of the Union fleet. From Plymouth I was taken to Weldon and from thence to Raleigh, N.C. where I was detained about a month, and then was forwarded to Richmond, where I remained until about the time of the battles near Richmond, when I went with Lieut. Johnson, of the 6^th N.C. Regiment, as his servant, to Hanover Junction. I did not remain there over four or five days before I made my escape into the lines of the Union army and was sent to Washington, D.C. and then duly forwarded to my regiment in front of Petersburg. Upon the capture of Plymouth by the rebel forces all the negroes found in blue uniform, or with any outward marks of a Union soldier upon him, was killed. I saw some taken to the woods and hung. Others I saw stripped of all their clothing and then stood upon the bank of the river with faces riverward, and there they were shot. Still others were killed by having their brains beaten out by the butt-end of the muskets in the hands of the rebels. All were not killed the day of the capture. Those that were not were placed in a room with their officers, they (the officers) having previously been dragged through the town with ropes around their necks, where they were kept confined until the following morning, when the remainder of the black soldiers were killed. The regiments most conspicuous in these murderous transactions were the 8^th N.C. and, I think, the 6^th N.C. Samuel (his X mark) Witnessed by John I. Davenport, lieutenant and acting aid-de-camp. Sworn and subscribed to before me this 11^th day of July, 1864.

July 16, 1864 - Official Records (O.R.) Ser. II, Vol VIII, p. 468. Robert Ould, Confederate Agent of Exchange of Prisoners of War - This is a villainous lie, and badly told at that. Samuel Johnson is a bad affidavit man, whatever may be his other excellencies. If the truth is wanted, let inquiry be made of Col. Beach [16th CT], or other captured officers, always excepting the chaplains.

There are no records of anyone by the name of Samuel Johnson ever serving in the 2nd U.S. Colored Cavalry, or any USCT regiment at Plymouth. Henry Williams was the Orderly Sergeant of Co. D, and he was in Virginia at that time. I do feel Johnson was at Plymouth during the battle, but it is very suspect whether he was a soldier. Possibly portraying himself as an NCO would lend more credence to his testimony. He mentions in his testimony that he was later a servant to a Lieut. Johnson of the 6th NC, which is one of the regiments he claimed caused atrocities at Plymouth. No record has been found of a Lieut. Johnson in that regiment.

Some of the items in his testimony are simply not true. He states, "Upon the capture of Plymouth by the rebel forces all the negroes found in blue uniform, or with any outward marks of a Union soldier upon him, was killed." This is proven incorrect by the number of USCTs who were captured in uniform and survived the battle. He also states, "All were not killed the day of the capture. Those that were not were placed in a room with their officers, they (the officers) having previously been dragged through the town with ropes around their necks, where they were kept confined until the following morning, when the remainder of the black soldiers were killed." My research shows that all but one or maybe two of the white officers disguised themselves and were not captured as USCT. There is no other reference of this event anywhere and it appears to be concocted to show mistreatment of the white officers. As to his other testimony, there may be some validity, but unfortunately as a whole it seems suspect.

There were other escaped USCT and those that survived the war who had opportunity to give similar testimony, but no records have been found. Samuel Johnson's testimony is the only official army testimony found anywhere and there are certainly issues with it.

"Massacre at Plymouth" agrees on page 185 that there are issues with his testimony and they go as far as to say,"In short, the initial atrocity rumors may have produced a piece of bogus evidence that has been cited ever since as positive proof a massacre." They also state earlier beginning on page 181 that other accounts were exaggerated.

July 12, 1864 – The Los Angeles Tri Weekly News, CA. At the request of the President, each member of the cabinet has submitted his written opinion upon the policy of retaliation, on account of the Fort Pillow and Plymouth massacres. Attorney General Bates is said to be opposed to retaliation.

1866 – Color Corporal, Ira E. Forbes, 16^th CT Infantry. To my knowledge, no outrages were committed upon any of our white troops, though I believe the small negro force with us fared very hard.

1875 - History of the Sixteenth Connecticut Volunteers, by Bernard F. Blakeslee, late 2nd Lieut., Co. G, 16th C.V., pg 60. The shooting in cold blood of three or four hundred negroes and two companies of North Carolina troops who had joined our army, and even murdering peaceable citizens (as I have the personal knowledge of the killing, with the butt-end of a musket, of Mr. Spruell, the man whom I boarded with, and by the way, a secessionist, for objecting to the plundering of a trunk which he had packed), were scenes of which the Confederates make no mention, except the hanging of one person, but of which many of us were eye-witnesses, was but the Fort Pillow massacre re-enacted. It would appear that Blakeslee was using the New York Herald, April 26, 1864 newspaper article (which was included on the next page of the 16th CT history) in making his statements rather than a personal experience. It is already proven that there were not 300 "negroes" and two companies (approximately 200) of the 2nd NC killed during or after the battle. The killing of Mr. Spruell is probably accurate.

1886 - Army Experience of Capt. John Donaghy, 103d Penn'a Vols., published 1926, pg. 150. We came into the works [April 20] at a point to the right of the fort [Williams], where there was posted a company of colored soldiers who had been recruited in North Carolina; their dark eager faces looking over their gleaming bayonets, made a striking picture. I saluted them with the words of a camp song of that time, "Look out dar now, for we's a gwan to shoot," they grinned in appreciation. pg. 155-156. There was considerable musketry firing heard after the surrender, and we learned that it meant the slaughter of the poor negro soldiers. They were shot down in cold blood after they had laid down their arms; some rushed to the river and tried to escape by swimming across, but few, if any, succeeded. There were some white natives who had enlisted in our army as North Carolina state volunteers, and they had only too good reason to know that they would receive no mercy from their captors, so they distributed themselves among the other organizations. One came to me, his uniform was the same as ours, but his cap had no distinguishing letters on it, so I directed one of my men to trade caps with him, thus making him appear as a member of Co. F 103rd Pennsylvania Volunteers. I took his name - E. Baker, intending to include him in my company roll if one should be asked of me. I afterwards saw the name in a list of deaths that occurred in the prison pen at Andersonville. Fifteen of his comrades were identified at Tarbore a few days afterwards and were hanged as traitors to the South. that was a sample of the cruel disposition of the defenders of the "Lost Cause."

1888 – In and Out of Rebel Prisons, 1^st Lieut. Alonzo Cooper, 12^th NY Cavalry, page 33. While at the Johnson Farm we could hear the crack, crack, crack of muskets, down in the swamp where the negroes had fled to escape capture, and were being hunted like squirrels or rabbits, I can think of no better comparison, and the Johnnies themselves laughingly said (when questioned about where they had been after their return), "They'd been out gunning for n----s." Page 34. The negro soldiers who had surrendered were drawn up in line at the breastwork and shot down where they stood. This I plainly saw from where we were held under guard, not over five hundred yards distant. There were but few who saw this piece of atrocity, but my attention was attracted to it and I watched the whole brutal transaction; when the company of rebels fired, every negro dropped at once, as one man. It is important to note that he witnessed this from 500 yards away!

September 3, 1907 - The Hartford Daily Times, Hartford CT. HISTORY OF SIXTEENTH; NO BUTCHERY OF NEGROES. Some Important Corrections of Early Writings Which Have Stood for Many Years.

The twenty first of October has been agreed upon as the date for completion of the Andersonville monument which has been authorized by the State of Connecticut in memory of the Connecticut soldiers who died in the Andersonville prison during the civil war. Nearly one third of the prisoners of war from this state who died at Andersonville were captured at Plymouth, N.C. April 20, 1864. In consequence of that fact, deep interest is felt in having the history of the capture given with accuracy. In 1875, eleven years after the surrender of Plymouth, the history of the Sixteenth Connecticut, which belonged to the captured garrison, was published by Lt. Bernard F . Blakeslee of the regiment. In the Connecticut catalogue of Volunteers, which was issued in 1889 from the adjutant-general's office Lt. Blakeslee appears as the historian of the Sixteenth. The histories accompanying the rosters in the catalogue were given as written, there being no revision except a verification of dates by comparison with official records. In the history of the capture furnished by Lt. Blakeslee for the Connecticut catalogue, he says:

The rebels raised 'the black flag' against the negroes found in uniform and mercilessly shot them down.      Fort Pillow was re-enacted.

Going back to the history of the Sixteenth by Lt. Blakeslee , which was published in 1875, the statement will be found that:

Many of us were eye-witnesses of the shooting by the rebels in cold blood of three or four hundred negroes and of two companies of North Carolina troops who had joined our army.

The only basis for this statement is to be found in frenzied headlines in the New York Tribune, which were reproduced in the Richmond Examiner of April 30, 1864 and a paragraph in the Tribune which was also reproduced in the examiner. The headline and paragraph were:

NORTH CAROLINA TROOPS  TAKEN OUT AND  SHOT  AFTER  SURRENDERING .ALL NEGROES IN UNIFORM ALSO MURDERED .

It is positively affirmed that the rebels taking possession of Plymouth ordered out the North Carolina (Union) troops who formed part - of the garrison and shot them,- and that all negroes found in uniform were murdered. We presume the account is correct and it only proves that what was supposed to be an exceptional barbarity at Fort Pillow has been adopted as the deliberate policy of the rebels.

This story, unsupported by any authority or historical writer, was the basis of Lieutenant Blakeslee's version in the history of the Sixteenth regiment. There is not the least historical authority to be found sustaining the charge of massacre by the rebels at the capture of Plymouth. Horace Greely, who was the editor of the New York Tribune, has not the slightest reference to such a charge in "The American Conflict". In that work he gives the history of the capture in specific details. Lessing?, who incorporated in his story of Plymouth the narrative of Mr. Greely to a large extent, also fails to make reference of any kind to the charge of massacre. Hedley is equally unconscious of such a charge. The war reports, which have been published by the United States government, must be the final authority.

Official Correspondence

These reports show that General Grant had the charge brought to his attention through the instrumentality of General Benjamin F. Butler, but dismissed it as undeserving of credence. In the government war reports, Series 2, Volume VII, pages 459 and 468, the record is given as follows: [Omitted here are the citations they presented which include the above testimony of Samuel Johnson (Official Records (O.R.) Ser. II, Vol VIII, p. 459-460) which is the only sworn testimony in military records. Also the reply from Robert Ould (Official Records (O.R.) Ser. II, Vol VIII, p. 468) is presented.]

Robert Ould, whose indorsement on the affidavit of Samuel Johnson is given, was the rebel commissioner on exchange of prisoners of war. The indorsement was made four days after the affidavit was sent from General Butler's headquarters to General Grant. Colonel Beach, referred to by Commissioner Ould, was Colonel Francis Beach of the Sixteenth Connecticut, second in command of the Union forces at Plymouth when the capture took place. Colonel Beach had been exchanged in May and could be readily reached. The presumption is not unreasonable that General Grant made the necessary inquiries concerning the Johnson affidavit and that it was dismissed. General Robert F. Hoke, who commanded the rebel troops at the capture of Plymouth, was under orders from the confederate authorities in Richmond to have the negroes who were captured held for "their owners" in North Carolina and elsewhere. As a matter of fact, there were no colored troops in Plymouth when the place was captured. There was a colony of colored people there and a school for the contraband. A considerable number of these negroes were in the government employ, which gave origin to the notion they were colored troops. The report of General H.W. Wessells, a Connecticut man, who commanded the garrison at Plymouth when the capture took place, does not contain any reference whatever to barbarities on the part of the rebels. He would have been derelict in duty in omitting from his report violation of the laws of civilized warfare by the rebels had such violations occurred at the downfall of Plymouth.

No Butcheries

The charge that the captors of Plymouth shot down North Carolina troops in cold blood after the capture is a baseless as the charge of negro butcheries. There were North Carolinians serving in the Union ranks at Plymouth. Some of them had deserted from the rebel regiments. On the march from Plymouth to Tarboro where cars were provided for the trip to Andersonville, the prisoners were formed in open ranks for the rebels to pass through and pick out the North Carolina deserters. Upwards of twenty men were removed from the columns and executed by the rebel troops. The execution was not witnessed by the Union prisoners of war. They were only eye-witnesses of the removal of the unfortunate men from the ranks. Execution for desertion was authorized by the laws of civilized warfare and was carried out in the Union armies not less than in the confederate. There are hundreds of veterans in New England who witnessed the execution of deserters during their three years of service at the front.

The charges that Union troops and negroes were massacred under General Hoke at Plymouth is wholly without foundation. It should be removed from the Catalogue of Connecticut Volunteers which was published at great expense by the state in 1889.

1909 – History of the 103d Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Luther S. Dickey, pages 268-270.  

     In justice to Gen. Hoke and his command, who treated their captives with more than ordinary chivalry and magnanimity at this stage of the war, the writer has felt it incumbent on him to call attention here to charges that have been made by captives, and reply to them before the final actors in the battle of Plymouth have passed away. At a meeting of the 103d Penna. Regimental Association held at Pittsburgh, Pa., during the first week of January, 1909, to consider the manuscript of the Regimental history, at which a number of the 101^st Penna. Regiment were also present, who were at Plymouth at the capitulation, attention was called to the charge that the Confederate soldiers had brutally murdered the Negro soldiers who surrendered. Attention was called to the published statements, from the official records of the War Department and also, in histories written by two officers, who were captured at Plymouth.

[Omitted here are the citations they presented which include the above testimony of Samuel Johnson, Lieut. Alonzo Cooper, 12^th NY Cavalry and 2^nd Lieut. B. F. Blakeslee, 16^th CT which I have already posted in the timeline.]

     These charges were discussed at some length by those present who were at the Plymouth capitulation and it was the unanimous opinion of all present so far as an expression was given that the authors of these articles were mistaken. It was agreed that many negroes and native North Carolina Union soldiers were killed, and perhaps an occasional one brutally murdered, by individual soldiers, but the victims, apprehending cruel treatment, were attempting to make their escape, when by the laws of war, the victors are justified in shooting to kill even an unarmed man. Gen. Wessells, in his official report of the battle, says a considerable number of North Carolina soldiers, many of them deserters from the enemy, attempted their escape before the capitulation. Negroes, and whites also, taking refuge in the wooded swamps surrounding Plymouth, after the capitulation, would, no doubt, be hunted for as sport by many well meaning men. Had the conditions been reversed, would not many Yankees enjoyed the same kind of sport? It was not the opinion of those exonerating the Confederates at Plymouth to charge willful misrepresentation of the parties making the charges, but they knew full well the tendency for the imagination to have full sway in times of such excitement as follows a surrender after a continued strife of four days. They were exceptional characters, indeed, who maintained their mental equipoise and normal judgement after undergoing the experiences that befell the besieged garrison at Plymouth. To reconcile the statements of the negro sergeant, and Lieut. Cooper, there must have been wholesale slaughter of the blacks. Gen. Wessells and his staff, and many officers, and enlisted men, wounded, were present during this time. Such a holocaust could not have occurred in the hearing of such an astute and humane a man as Gen. Wessells, without coming to his knowledge, and those who know him, also know that he would have instantly taken issue with the Confederates, had he had any suspicion of such atrocities. Many negroes who were captured, subsequently made their escape and went to Roanoke Island, among them Richard West, cook of Co. I, 103d Penna. Regiment, who was enrolled and mustered into the service of the U.S. as an enlisted man. He was put to work at Plymouth, but soon took an opportunity to escape, and rejoined the detachment of the Regiment at Roanoke Island, N.C.

     If negroes were shot down as stated by Johnson and Cooper, in such a wholesale manner, these negro prisoners must have known it. It would require a stretch of credulity to imagine that such witnesses would have remained silent had they witnessed such brutal atrocity as charged against the Plymouth captors. These troops represented the highest type of southern manhood, as is evidenced by their treatment of the officers and men of Wessells’ brigade. That there were here and there among them of brutal proclivities, who took advantage of the excitement and chaos of the time to give vent to their passion and hatred for the unfortunate negro, there can be no doubt; but to charge the deeds of a few against all is evidence of such bigotry as to condemn the witness.

     The kind treatment accorded Wessells’ men by their captors makes it imperative on them to answer this baseless charge. The writer addressed a note to Gen. R. F. Hoke, and also to Hon. Walter Clark, chief justice of the supreme court of North Carolina, and editor of North Carolina Regiments. Judge Clark replied as follows “No armed prisoners of any color were killed at Plymouth.” Judge Clark referred the matter to Hon. John W. Graham, of the 56^th N.C. Regiment, a gentleman whom the Judge commends in the highest terms for his integrity. Maj. Graham writes: “I have no hesitation in saying that the reputed killing of any colored troops the day after the capture of Plymouth, N.C., April 20, 1864, is entirely untrue. I heard of nothing of the kind at that time nor have I ever heard of it since until the receipt of your letter.”

     No reply was received from Gen. Hoke, but the writer was informed that Gen. Hoke’s health was in a precarious condition at the time of the writing. To kill negroes was contrary to the policy of the Confederate Government. Slaves were regarded as property, a position always held by the Confederacy, and when the Federal government began to enlist ex-slaves they were, on capture, ordered to be returned to their former owners. That this policy was in force at the time of the capture of Plymouth is evident from the following dispatch from Gen. Bragg, dated Richmond, April 21, 1864, to Gov. Vance of North Carolina. Gen Bragg says:

     “The President directs that the negroes captured by our forces be turned over to you for the present, and he requests of you that if, upon investigation, you ascertain that any of them belonging to citizens of North Carolina, you will cause them to be restored to their respective owners. If any are owned in other states, you will please communicate to me their number and names and places of residence of their owners, and have them retained in strict custody until the President’s views in reference to such may be conveyed to you. To avoid as far as possible all complications with the military authorities of the United States in regard to the disposition which will be made of this class of prisoners, the President respectfully requests Your Excellency to take the necessary steps to have the matter of such disposition kept out of the newspapers of the State, and in every available way to shun its obtaining any publicity as far as consistent with the proposed restoration.” (O.R., Ser. II, Vol. VII, p. 78.)

     When the writer began his investigation it was with the expectation of, in a measure, verifying the affidavit of the negro, Sergeant Johnson. It was not with the motive of doing justice, especially to the victorious Confederates of Plymouth, but merely to tell the whole truth bearing on the battle of Plymouth, in which he knew his Regiment had done its full duty. In his careful research for the truth he became fully convinced that an injustice had been done the Confederates who had captured this regiment, and that as an impartial historian, these facts should be recorded in this volume.