"he would never reach
there."

You call attention, apparently as an offset to this affair of
Major Bradford, to outrages said to have been committed by
Colonel Fielding Hurst and others of his regiment (Sixth
Tennessee Cavalry). The outrages, if committed as stated by you,
are disgraceful and abhorrent to every brave and sensitive mind.

On receiving your letter I sent at once for Colonel Hurst, and
read him the extract pertaining to him. He indignantly denies the
charge against him, and until you furnish me the names of the
parties murdered, and the time when, and the place where, the
offence was committed, with the names of witnesses, it is
impossible for me to act. When you do that, you may rest assured
that I shall use every effort in my power to have the parties
accused tried, and if found guilty, properly punished.

In regard to the treatment of colored soldiers, it is evidently
useless to discuss the question further.

Your attempt to shift from yourself upon me the responsibility of
the inauguration of a "worse than savage warfare," is too
strained and far-fetched to require any response. The full and
cumulative evidence contained in the Congressional Report I
herewith forward, points to _you_ as the person responsible for
the barbarisms already committed.

It was _your_ soldiers who, at Fort Pillow, raised the black
flag, and while shooting, bayoneting, and otherwise maltreating
the Federal prisoners in their hands, shouted to each other in
the hearing of their victims that it was done by "Forrest's
orders."

Thus far I cannot learn that you have made any disavowal of these
barbarities.

Your letters to me inform me confidently that you have always
treated our prisoners according to the rules of civilized
warfare, but your disavowal of the Fort Pillow barbarities, if
you intend to make any, should be full, clear, explicit, and
published to the world.

The United States Government is, as it always has been, lenient
and forbearing, and it is not yet too late for you to secure for
yourself and your soldiers a continuance of the treatment due to
honorable warriors, by a public disclaimer of barbarities already
committed, and a vigorous effort to punish the wretches who
committed them.

But I say to yo