en, and you say further
"you have no doubt they went to the battle-field expecting to be
slaughtered," and admit, also, the probability of their having
proclaimed on their march that no quarter would be shown us. Such
being the case, why do you ask for the disavowal on the part of
the commanding general of this department of the government, in
regard to the loss of life at Tishemingo Creek? That your troops
expected to be slaughtered, appears to me, after the oath they
took, to be a very reasonable and natural expectation. Yet you
who sent them out, knowing and now admitting that they had sworn
to such a policy, are complaining of atrocities, and demanding
acknowledgments and disavowals on the part of the very men you
sent forth sworn to slay whenever in your power.

I will, in all candor and truth, say to you that I had only heard
these things, but did not believe them; indeed, did not attach to
them the importance they deserved, nor did I know of the
threatened vengeance as proclaimed along the line of march until
the contest was over. Had I and my men known it, as you admit it,
the battle of Tishemingo Creek would have been noted as the
bloodiest battle of the war. That you sanctioned this policy is
plain, for you say now "that if the negro is treated as a
prisoner of war, you will receive with pleasure the announcement,
and will explain the facts to your colored troops, and _desire_
(not _order_) that they recall the oath; but if they are to be
either slaughtered or returned to slavery, let the oath stand."
Your rank forbids a doubt as to the fact that you and every
officer and man of your department are identified with the policy
and responsible for it, and I shall not permit you,
notwithstanding by your studied language in both your
communications you seek to limit the operations of your unholy
scheme, and visit its terrible consequences alone upon that
ignorant, deluded, but unfortunate people, the negroes, whose
destruction you are planning in order to accomplish ours. The
negroes have our sympathy, and, so far as consistent with safety,
we will spare them at the expense of those who are alone
responsible for the inauguration of a worse than savage warfare.

Now, in conclusion, I demand a plain and unqualified answer to
two ques