renew it, provided it is
desired, as it would be better than to subject them to the long
and fatiguing delay necessary to a regular exchange at City
Point, Virginia.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
N. B. FORREST, _Major-General_.

GENERAL WASHBURN TO GENERAL LEE.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE, }
MEMPHIS, TENN., June 17, 1864. }

Major-General S. D. LEE, _Commanding Confederate Forces near
Tupelo, Miss._:

GENERAL: When I heard that the forces of Brigadier-General
Sturgis had been driven back, and a portion of them probably
captured, I felt considerable solicitude for the fate of the two
colored regiments that formed a part of the command, until I was
informed that the Confederate forces were commanded by you. When
I learned that, I became satisfied that no atrocities would be
committed upon those troops, but that they would receive the
treatment which humanity as well as their gallant conduct
demanded.

I regret to say that the hope that I entertained has been
dispelled by facts which have recently come to my knowledge.

From statements that have been made to me by colored soldiers who
were eye-witnesses, it would seem that the massacre at Fort
Pillow had been reproduced at the late affair at Bryce's
Cross-roads. The detail of the atrocities there committed I will
not trouble you with. If true, and not disavowed, they must lead
to consequences too fearful to contemplate. It is best that we
should now have a fair understanding upon this question, of the
treatment of this class of soldiers. If it is contemplated by the
Confederate government to murder all colored troops that may by
chance of war fall into their hands, as was the case at Fort
Pillow, it is but fair that it should be freely and frankly
avowed. Within the last six weeks I have, on two occasions, sent
colored troops into the field from this point. In the expectation
that the Confederate government would disavow the action of their
commanding general at the Fort Pillow massacre, I have forborne
to issue any instructions to the colored troops as to the course
they should pursue toward Confederate soldiers. No disavowal on
the part of the Confed