age to justice, the world will not fail
to believe that it had your sanction.

I am, General, your obedient servant,
C. C. WASHBURN, _Major-General Commanding_.

GENERAL FORREST TO GENERAL WASHBURN.

HEADQUARTERS FORREST'S CAVALRY, }
TUPELO, MISS., June 20, 1864.}

Major-General C. C. WASHBURN, _Commanding U. S. Forces, Memphis,
Tenn_.

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt (per flag of
truce) of your letter of the seventeenth instant, addressed to
Major-General S. D. Lee, or officer commanding Confederate forces
near Tupelo. I have forwarded it to General Lee, with a copy of
this letter.

I regard your letter as discourteous to the commanding officer of
this department, and grossly insulting to myself.

You seek by implied threats to intimidate him, and assume the
privilege of denouncing me as a murderer, and as guilty of the
wholesale slaughter of the garrison at Fort Pillow, and found
your assertion upon the _ex parte_ testimony of (your friends)
the enemies of myself and country. I shall not enter into the
discussion, therefore, of any of the questions involved, nor
undertake any refutation of the charges made by you against
myself; nevertheless, as a matter of personal privilege alone, I
unhesitatingly say that they are unfounded and unwarranted by the
facts. But whether those charges are true or false, they, with
the question you ask, as to whether negro troops, when captured,
will be recognized and treated as prisoners of war, subject to
exchange, etc., are matters which the governments of the United
States and Confederate States are to decide and adjust, not their
subordinate officers. I regard captured negroes as I do other
captured property, and not as captured soldiers; but as to how
regarded by my government, and the disposition which has been and
will hereafter be made of them, I respectfully refer you, through
the proper channel, to the authorities at Richmond. It is not the
policy or the interest of the South to destroy the negro; on the
contrary to preserve and protect him, and all who have
surrendered to us have received kind and humane treatment.

Since the war began I have captured many tho