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Objective and Approach
This book assumes that you know close to nothing about Machine Learning. Its goal is to give you the
concepts, the intuitions, and the tools you need to actually implement programs capable of learning from
data.
We will cover a large number of techniques, from the simplest and most commonly used (such as linear
regression) to some of the Deep Learning techniques that regularly win competitions.
Rather than implementing our own toy versions of each algorithm, we will be using actual production-
ready Python frameworks:
Scikit-Learn is very easy to use, yet it implements many Machine Learning algorithms efficiently, so
it makes for a great entry point to learn Machine Learning.

TensorFlow is a more complex library for distributed numerical computation using data flow graphs.
It makes it possible to train and run very large neural networks efficiently by distributing the
computations across potentially thousands of multi-GPU servers. TensorFlow was created at Google
and supports many of their large-scale Machine Learning applications. It was open-sourced in
November 2015.

The book favors a hands-on approach, growing an intuitive understanding of Machine Learning through
concrete working examples and just a little bit of theory. While you can read this book without picking up
your laptop, we highly recommend you experiment with the code examples available online as Jupyter
notebooks at https://github.com/ageron/handson-ml.
Prerequisites
This book assumes that you have some Python programming experience and that you are familiar with
Python’s main scientific libraries, in particular NumPy, Pandas, and Matplotlib.
Also, if you care about what’s under the hood you should have a reasonable understanding of college-
level math as well (calculus, linear algebra, probabilities, and statistics).
If you don’t know Python yet, http://learnpython.org/ is a great place to start. The official tutorial on
python.org is also quite good.
If you have never used Jupyter, Chapter 2 will guide you through installation and the basics: it is a great
tool to have in your toolbox.
If you are not familiar with Python’s scientific libraries, the provided Jupyter notebooks include a few
tutorials. There is also a quick math tutorial for linear algebra.
Roadmap
This book is organized in two parts. Part I, The Fundamentals of Machine Learning, covers the
following topics:
What is Machine Learning? What problems does it try to solve? What are the main categories and
fundamental concepts of Machine Learning systems?

The main steps in a typical Machine Learning project.

Learning by fitting a model to data.

Optimizing a cost function.

Handling, cleaning, and preparing data.

Selecting and engineering features.

Selecting a model and tuning hyperparameters using cross-validation.

The main challenges of Machine Learning, in particular underfitting and overfitting (the
bias/variance tradeoff).

Reducing the dimensionality of the training data to fight the curse of dimensionality.

The most common learning algorithms: Linear and Polynomial Regression, Logistic Regression, k-
Nearest Neighbors, Support Vector Machines, Decision Trees, Random Forests, and Ensemble
methods.

Part II, Neural Networks and Deep Learning, covers the following topics:
What are neural nets? What are they good for?

Building and training neural nets using TensorFlow.

The most important neural net architectures: feedforward neural nets, convolutional nets, recurrent
nets, long short-term memory (LSTM) nets, and autoencoders.

Techniques for training deep neural nets.

Scaling neural networks for huge datasets.

Reinforcement learning.

The first part is based mostly on Scikit-Learn while the second part uses TensorFlow.

CAUTION
Don’t jump into deep waters too hastily: while Deep Learning is no doubt one of the most exciting areas in Machine Learning,
you should master the fundamentals first. Moreover, most problems can be solved quite well using simpler techniques such as
Random Forests and Ensemble methods (discussed in Part I). Deep Learning is best suited for complex problems such as image
recognition, speech recognition, or natural language processing, provided you have enough data, computing power, and patience.
Other Resources
Many resources are available to learn about Machine Learning. Andrew Ng’s ML course on Coursera and
Geoffrey Hinton’s course on neural networks and Deep Learning are amazing, although they both require a
significant time investment (think months).
There are also many interesting websites about Machine Learning, including of course Scikit-Learn’s
exceptional User Guide. You may also enjoy Dataquest, which provides very nice interactive tutorials,
and ML blogs such as those listed on Quora. Finally, the Deep Learning website has a good list of
resources to learn more.
Of course there are also many other introductory books about Machine Learning, in particular:
Joel Grus, Data Science from Scratch (O’Reilly). This book presents the fundamentals of Machine
Learning, and implements some of the main algorithms in pure Python (from scratch, as the name
suggests).

Stephen Marsland, Machine Learning: An Algorithmic Perspective (Chapman and Hall). This book
is a great introduction to Machine Learning, covering a wide range of topics in depth, with code
examples in Python (also from scratch, but using NumPy).

Sebastian Raschka, Python Machine Learning (Packt Publishing). Also a great introduction to
Machine Learning, this book leverages Python open source libraries (Pylearn 2 and Theano).

Yaser S. Abu-Mostafa, Malik Magdon-Ismail, and Hsuan-Tien Lin, Learning from Data
(AMLBook). A rather theoretical approach to ML, this book provides deep insights, in particular on
the bias/variance tradeoff (see Chapter 4).

Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 3rd Edition
(Pearson). This is a great (and huge) book covering an incredible amount of topics, including
Machine Learning. It helps put ML into perspective.

Finally, a great way to learn is to join ML competition websites such as Kaggle.com this will allow you
to practice your skills on real-world problems, with help and insights from some of the best ML
professionals out there.
Conventions Used in This Book
The following typographical conventions are used in this book:
Italic
Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and file extensions.
Constant width
Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to program elements such as
variable or function names, databases, data types, environment variables, statements and keywords.
Constant width bold
Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user.
Constant width italic
Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values or by values determined by context.

TIP
This element signifies a tip or suggestion.

NOTE
This element signifies a general note.

WARNING
This element indicates a warning or caution.
Using Code Examples
Supplemental material (code examples, exercises, etc.) is available for download at
https://github.com/ageron/handson-ml.
This book is here to help you get your job done. In general, if example code is offered with this book, you
may use it in your programs and documentation. You do not need to contact us for permission unless
you’re reproducing a significant portion of the code. For example, writing a program that uses several
chunks of code from this book does not require permission. Selling or distributing a CD-ROM of
examples from O’Reilly books does require permission. Answering a question by citing this book and
quoting example code does not require permission. Incorporating a significant amount of example code
from this book into your product’s documentation does require permission.
We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually includes the title, author, publisher,
and ISBN. For example: “Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn and TensorFlow by Aurélien
Géron (O’Reilly). Copyright 2017 Aurélien Géron, 978-1-491-96229-9.”
If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or the permission given above, feel free to
contact us at [email protected].
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my Google colleagues, in particular the YouTube video classification team, for
teaching me so much about Machine Learning. I could never have started this project without them.
Special thanks to my personal ML gurus: Clément Courbet, Julien Dubois, Mathias Kende, Daniel
Kitachewsky, James Pack, Alexander Pak, Anosh Raj, Vitor Sessak, Wiktor Tomczak, Ingrid von Glehn,
Rich Washington, and everyone at YouTube Paris.
I am incredibly grateful to all the amazing people who took time out of their busy lives to review my book
in so much detail. Thanks to Pete Warden for answering all my TensorFlow questions, reviewing Part II,
providing many interesting insights, and of course for being part of the core TensorFlow team. You should
definitely check out his blog! Many thanks to Lukas Biewald for his very thorough review of Part II: he
left no stone unturned, tested all the code (and caught a few errors), made many great suggestions, and his
enthusiasm was contagious. You should check out his blog and his cool robots! Thanks to Justin Francis,
who also reviewed Part II very thoroughly, catching errors and providing great insights, in particular in
Chapter 16. Check out his posts on TensorFlow!
Huge thanks as well to David Andrzejewski, who reviewed Part I and provided incredibly useful
feedback, identifying unclear sections and suggesting how to improve them. Check out his website!
Thanks to Grégoire Mesnil, who reviewed Part II and contributed very interesting practical advice on
training neural networks. Thanks as well to Eddy Hung, Salim Sémaoune, Karim Matrah, Ingrid von
Glehn, Iain Smears, and Vincent Guilbeau for reviewing Part I and making many useful suggestions. And I
also wish to thank my father-in-law, Michel Tessier, former mathematics teacher and now a great
translator of Anton Chekhov, for helping me iron out some of the mathematics and notations in this book
and reviewing the linear algebra Jupyter notebook.
And of course, a gigantic “thank you” to my dear brother Sylvain, who reviewed every single chapter,
tested every line of code, provided feedback on virtually every section, and encouraged me from the first
line to the last. Love you, bro!
Many thanks as well to O’Reilly’s fantastic staff, in particular Nicole Tache, who gave me insightful
feedback, always cheerful, encouraging, and helpful. Thanks as well to Marie Beaugureau, Ben Lorica,
Mike Loukides, and Laurel Ruma for believing in this project and helping me define its scope. Thanks to
Matt Hacker and all of the Atlas team for answering all my technical questions regarding formatting,
asciidoc, and LaTeX, and thanks to Rachel Monaghan, Nick Adams, and all of the production team for
their final review and their hundreds of corrections.
Last but not least, I am infinitely grateful to my beloved wife, Emmanuelle, and to our three wonderful
kids, Alexandre, Rémi, and Gabrielle, for encouraging me to work hard on this book, asking many
questions (who said you can’t teach neural networks to a seven-year-old?), and even bringing me cookies
and coffee. What more can one dream of?

1 Available on Hinton’s home page at http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hinton/.

2 Despite the fact that Yann Lecun’s deep convolutional neural networks had worked well for image recognition since the 1990s, although
they were not as general purpose.
Part I. The Fundamentals of Machine Learning
Chapter 1. The Machine Learning Landscape

When most people hear “Machine Learning,” they picture a robot: a dependable butler or a deadly
Terminator depending on who you ask. But Machine Learning is not just a futuristic fantasy, it’s already
here. In fact, it has been around for decades in some specialized applications, such as Optical Character
Recognition (OCR). But the first ML application that really became mainstream, improving the lives of
hundreds of millions of people, took over the world back in the 1990s: it was the spam filter. Not exactly
a self-aware Skynet, but it does technically qualify as Machine Learning (it has actually learned so well
that you seldom need to flag an email as spam anymore). It was followed by hundreds of ML applications
that now quietly power hundreds of products and features that you use regularly, from better
recommendations to voice search.
Where does Machine Learning start and where does it end? What exactly does it mean for a machine to
learn something? If I download a copy of Wikipedia, has my computer really “learned” something? Is it
suddenly smarter? In this chapter we will start by clarifying what Machine Learning is and why you may
want to use it.
Then, before we set out to explore the Machine Learning continent, we will take a look at the map and
learn about the main regions and the most notable landmarks: supervised versus unsupervised learning,
online versus batch learning, instance-based versus model-based learning. Then we will look at the
workflow of a typical ML project, discuss the main challenges you may face, and cover how to evaluate
and fine-tune a Machine Learning system.
This chapter introduces a lot of fundamental concepts (and jargon) that every data scientist should know
by heart. It will be a high-level overview (the only chapter without much code), all rather simple, but you
should make sure everything is crystal-clear to you before continuing to the rest of the book. So grab a
coffee and let’s get started!

TIP
If you already know all the Machine Learning basics, you may want to skip directly to Chapter 2. If you are not sure, try to
answer all the questions listed at the end of the chapter before moving on.
What Is Machine Learning?
Machine Learning is the science (and art) of programming computers so they can learn from data.
Here is a slightly more general definition:
[Machine Learning is the] field of study that gives computers the ability to learn without being
explicitly programmed.
Arthur Samuel, 1959
And a more engineering-oriented one:
A computer program is said to learn from experience E with respect to some task T and some
performance measure P, if its performance on T, as measured by P, improves with experience E.
Tom Mitchell, 1997
For example, your spam filter is a Machine Learning program that can learn to flag spam given examples
of spam emails (e.g., flagged by users) and examples of regular (nonspam, also called “ham”) emails. The
examples that the system uses to learn are called the training set. Each training example is called a
training instance (or sample). In this case, the task T is to flag spam for new emails, the experience E is
the training data, and the performance measure P needs to be defined; for example, you can use the ratio
of correctly classified emails. This particular performance measure is called accuracy and it is often
used in classification tasks.
If you just download a copy of Wikipedia, your computer has a lot more data, but it is not suddenly better
at any task. Thus, it is not Machine Learning.
Why Use Machine Learning?
Consider how you would write a spam filter using traditional programming techniques (Figure 1-1):
1. First you would look at what spam typically looks like. You might notice that some words or
phrases (such as “4U,” “credit card,” “free,” and “amazing”) tend to come up a lot in the subject.
Perhaps you would also notice a few other patterns in the sender’s name, the email’s body, and
so on.

2. You would write a detection algorithm for each of the patterns that you noticed, and your
program would flag emails as spam if a number of these patterns are detected.

3. You would test your program, and repeat steps 1 and 2 until it is good enough.

Figure 1-1. The traditional approach

Since the problem is not trivial, your program will likely become a long list of complex rules — pretty
hard to maintain.
In contrast, a spam filter based on Machine Learning techniques automatically learns which words and
phrases are good predictors of spam by detecting unusually frequent patterns of words in the spam
examples compared to the ham examples (Figure 1-2). The program is much shorter, easier to maintain,
and most likely more accurate.
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
would receive aid, directing him to "fortify and keep well prepared."
About 4-1/2 o'clock of the morning of the 24th, I was satisfied that
Union City was the point of attack. Boats were impressed, four
regiments were embarked, and I left at ten; disembarked at
Columbus, and arriving within six miles of Union City at four p. m.,
where I learned that a surrender had taken place at 11 a. m., and
the garrison marched off. I turned back, and at three the next
morning turned over General Veatch's men, ready to go up the
Tennessee.
Question. Why did you not pursue Forrest?
Answer. For three reasons: First, his force was all cavalry; mine all
infantry. Second, he was moving on Paducah, and, while I could not
overtake him by land, I could head him by the rivers. Third, another
despatch from General Sherman reached me as I was going out
from Columbus, prohibiting me from diverting the troops bound up
the Tennessee from that movement on account of the presence of
Forrest. My purpose was to save Union City, bring in its garrison, and
have General Veatch's men back in time for their boats. While I was
willing to risk much to secure a garrison supposed to be yet engaged
in gallant defence, I could do nothing to mitigate the accomplished
misfortune of a surrender.
Question. Do you think the surrender premature?
Answer. The garrison was within fortifications; the enemy had no
artillery. A loss of one man killed and two or three wounded does not
indicate a desperate case. The rebels were three times repulsed. A
flag of truce followed, and a surrender.
Question. How large was the attacking party?
Answer. I judge fifteen hundred, the largest portion of Forrest's force
being evidently on the way to Paducah.
Question. How large was his entire force?
Answer. Apparently 6,500.
Question. When was Paducah attacked?
Answer. About 3 p. m. the next day, March 25.
Question. Was Paducah re-enforced previous to the attack?
Answer. It was not. I had no men to send, but sent supplies.
Question. Where was General Veatch's command?
Answer. Embarking for the Tennessee.
Question. Was Paducah well defended?
Answer. Most gallantly, and with success. The conduct of Colonel
Hicks and his entire command was noble in the highest degree.
Question. How did his colored troops behave?
Answer. As well as the rest. Colonel Hicks thus refers to them in his
official report: "I have been one of those men who never had much
confidence in colored troops fighting, but those doubts are now all
removed, for they fought as bravely as any troops in the fort."
Question. Why was the city shelled and set on fire?
Answer. Our small force retired within the fort; the rebels took
possession of the town, and from adjacent buildings their
sharpshooters fired upon us. It was necessary to dislodge them. The
gunboats Peosta, Captain Smith, and Paw Paw, Captain O'Neal, and
the fort drove them out, necessarily destroying property. Most of the
inhabitants being still rebel sympathizers, there was less than the
usual regret in performing the duty.
Question. What became of the enemy after the repulse?
Answer. They went south, and on the 26th I was notified by Colonel
Hicks and by Colonel Lawrence that they were approaching
Columbus.
Question. What was done?
Answer. I went to Columbus again, with such men as could be
withdrawn from Cairo, and awaited an attack, but none was made.
We were too strong, of which rebels in our midst had probably
advised them.
Question. Do you permit rebels to remain within your lines?
Answer. Of course; after they have taken the oath.
Question. What is done in case they violate, by acting as spies, for
instance?
Answer. I don't like to acknowledge that we swear them over again,
but that is about what it amounts to.
Question. What became of your garrison at Hickman?
Answer. It was but 14 miles from Union City; too weak for defence,
and unimportant. Having no re-enforcements to spare, I brought
away the garrison.
Question. Was Union City important as a military post?
Answer. I think not, except to keep the peace and drive out guerillas.
The railroad was operated to that point at the expense of the
government, being used in carrying out supplies, which went mostly
into disloyal hands, or were seized by Forrest. The road from
Paducah to Mayfield was used by its owners. Enormous quantities of
supplies needed by the rebel army were carried to Mayfield and
other convenient points, and passed into the hands of the rebel
army. I found this abuse so flagrant and dangerous that I made a
stringent order stopping all trade. I furnish a copy herewith, making
it part of my answer, (Exhibit A.)
Question. What, in your opinion, is the effect of free trade in western
Kentucky and Tennessee?
Answer. Pernicious beyond measure; corrupting those in the public
service, and furnishing needed supplies to enemies. I am in
possession of intercepted correspondence, showing that while the
trader who has taken the oath and does business at Paducah gets
permits to send out supplies, several wagons at a time, his partner is
receiving them within the rebel lines under permits issued by
Forrest. A public officer is now under arrest and held for trial for
covering up smuggling of contraband goods under permits, and
sharing the profits. Pretended loyal men and open enemies thus
combined, and the rebel army gets the benefit. We are supplying our
enemies with the means of resistance.
Question. Could not the rebels have been sooner driven out of your
neighborhood?
Answer. They could by withdrawing men from duties which are
presumed to be of greater importance. That point was settled by my
superior officers. Forrest's force was near Mayfield, about equidistant
from Paducah, Cairo, and Columbus, only a few hours from either.
He was at the centre, I going round the edge of a circle. I could only
watch the coming blow and help each weak point in turn. One
evening, for instance, I sent 400 men to Columbus, expecting
trouble there, and the next morning had them at Paducah, 75 miles
distant.
Question. Had you instructions as to the presence of that force so
near you?
Answer. Not specific. General Sherman, on the 23d of March,
telegraphed that he was willing that Forrest should remain in that
neighborhood if the people did not manifest friendship, and on April
13 he expressed a desire that Forrest should prolong his visit until
certain measures could be accomplished. I think General Sherman
did not purpose to withdraw a heavy force to pursue Forrest, having
better use for them elsewhere, and feeling that we had force enough
to hold the important points on the river. It may be that the strength
of the enemy and the scattered condition of our small detachments
was not fully understood. We ran too great a risk at Paducah.
Nothing but great gallantry and fortitude saved it from the fate of
Fort Pillow.
Question. What information had you of the attack of Fort Pillow?
Answer. Fort Pillow is 170 miles below here, not in my district, but
Memphis. On April 13, at 6 p. m., I telegraphed General Sherman as
follows:

"The surrender of Columbus was demanded and refused at six

this morning. Women and children brought away. Heavy artillery
firing this afternoon. I have sent re-enforcements. Paducah also
threatened. No danger of either, but I think that Fort Pillow, in
the Memphis district, is taken. General Shepley passed
yesterday and saw the flag go down and thinks it a surrender. I
have enough troops now from below, and will go down if
necessary to that point. Captain Pennock will send gunboats. If
lost, it will be retaken immediately."

I was informed, in reply, that Fort Pillow had no guns or garrison;

had been evacuated; that General Hurlbut had force for its defence,
&c. I understand that Fort Pillow had been evacuated and
reoccupied, General Sherman not being aware of it. On the 14th he
again instructed me as follows:

"What news from Columbus? Don't send men from Paris to Fort
Pillow. Let General Hurlbut take care of that quarter. The Cairo
troops may re-enforce temporarily at Paducah and Columbus,
but should be held ready to come up the Tennessee. One object
that Forrest has is to induce us to make these detachments and
prevent our concentrating in this quarter."

Question. Did you have any conversation with General Shepley in

relation to the condition of the garrison at Fort Pillow when he
passed by that point? If so, state what he said. What force did
General Shepley have with him? Did he assign any reason for not
rendering assistance to that garrison? If so, what was it?
Answer. General Shepley called on me. He stated that as he
approached Fort Pillow, fighting was going on; he saw the flag come
down "by the run," but could not tell whether it was lowered by the
garrison, or by having the halliards shot away; that soon after
another flag went up in another place. He could not distinguish its
character, but feared that it was a surrender, though firing
continued. I think he gave the force on the boat as two batteries
and two or three hundred infantry. When he came away the firing
was kept up, but not as heavily as at first. He was not certain how
the fight was terminating. In answer to a question of mine, he said
the batteries on board could not have been used, as the bluff was
too steep for ascent or to admit of firing from the water's edge, and
the enemy above might have captured them. This was about the
substance of our conversation.
Question. What information have you relative to the battle and
massacre at Fort Pillow, particularly what transpired after the
surrender?
Answer. That place not being in my district, official reports did not
come to me. However, under instructions from General Sherman, I
detailed officers, and collected reports and sworn proofs for
transmission to him, also to the Secretary of War. Having furnished
the Secretary of War with a duplicate copy for the use of your
committee if he so desired, I refer to that for the information I have
on the subject.
Question. Do you consider the testimony thus furnished entirely
reliable?
Answer. "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every work be
established." Here are scores of them living and dying. There are
doubtless errors as to time and place, and scenes witnessed from
different points of observation, but in the main I regard the
witnesses honest and their accounts true.
Question. What did you learn concerning violations of the flag of
truce?
Answer. I learn from official sources that at Paducah, Columbus,
Union City, and Fort Pillow, the rebels moved troops, placed
batteries, formed new lines, advanced, robbed stores and private
houses, stole horses and other property while protected by flags of
truce. J. W. McCord and Mrs. Hannah Hammond state, in writing,
that at Paducah they forced five women nurses at the hospital out in
front of their line, and kept them there for an hour, thus silencing
our guns. Mrs. Hammond was one of the five. Reference is made to
testimony furnished on the subject, and to official reports when
transmitted to the War Department.
Question. What information have you as to the intention of the
enemy to perpetrate such acts as the massacre at Fort Pillow?
Answer. I furnish the correspondence growing out of demands to
surrender at Union City, Paducah, and Columbus, showing
premeditation on the part of officers in command of the rebel army.
[Take in from reports of Lieutenant Gray, Colonel Hicks and Colonel
Lawrence, with which the committee is furnished.—See Appendix.]
Question. Has there been co-operation and harmony among
commanders since these troubles began?
Answer. Entire and in every respect, so far as I know. Officers of the
army in charge of troops temporarily here gave all the aid possible.
They were under orders which prevented their going out in pursuit
of Forrest, but they gave me detachments to guard our river posts
when threatened.
Question. What have been the relations existing generally between
you and Captain Pennock, of the navy, fleet captain of the Mississippi
squadron?
Answer. Captain Pennock is commandant of the naval station at
Cairo and Mound City, and I understand represents Admiral Porter in
his absence. Our relations have been cordial, and we have co-
operated in all movements. The aid given by his gunboats has been
prompt, ample, and very efficient. His admirable judgment and
ready resources have always been available.
Question. During the operations consequent upon the movements of
Forrest, did you or did you not receive cordial co-operation and
support from Lieutenant Commander Shirk, commanding the 7th
division Mississippi squadron?
Answer. I can only repeat my answer to the last question. Lieutenant
Shirk is an admirable officer, vigilant, brave, and of exceedingly safe
judgment.

Mound City, Illinois, April 22, 1864.

Surgeon Horace Wardner sworn and examined.

By the chairman:
Question. Have you been in charge of this hospital, Mound City
hospital?
Answer. I have been in charge of this hospital continually since the
25th of April, 1863.
Question. Will you state, if you please, what you know about the
persons who escaped from Fort Pillow? And how many have been
under your charge?
Answer. I have received thirty-four whites, twenty-seven colored
men, and one colored woman, and seven corpses of those who died
on their way here.
Question. Did any of those you have mentioned escape from Fort
Pillow?
Answer. There were eight or nine men, I forget the number, who did
escape and come here, the others were paroled. I learned the
following facts about that: The day after the battle a gunboat was
coming up and commenced shelling the place; the rebels sent a flag
of truce for the purpose of giving over into our hands what wounded
remained alive; a transport then landed and sent out details to look
about the grounds and pick up the wounded there, and bring them
on the boat. They had no previous attention.
Question. They were then brought under your charge?
Answer. They were brought immediately to this hospital.
Question. Who commanded that boat?
Answer. I forget the naval officer's name.
Question. How long after the capture of the place did he come
along?
Answer. That was the next day after the capture.
Question. Did all who were paroled in this way come under your
charge, or did any of them go to other hospitals?
Answer. None went to other hospitals that I am aware of.
Question. Please state their condition.
Answer. They were the worst butchered men I have ever seen. I
have been in several hard battles, but I have never seen men so
mangled as they were; and nearly all of them concur in stating that
they received all their wounds after they had thrown down their
arms, surrendered, and asked for quarters. They state that they ran
out of the fort, threw down their arms, and ran down the bank to
the edge of the river, and were pursued to the top of the bank and
fired on from above.
Question. Were there any females there?
Answer. I have one wounded woman from there.
Question. Were there any children or young persons there?
Answer. I have no wounded children or young persons from there.
Question. Those you have received were mostly combatants, or had
been?
Answer. Yes, sir, soldiers, white or colored.
Question. Were any of the wounded here in the hospital in the fort,
and wounded while in the hospital?
Answer. I so understand them.
Question. How many in that condition did you understand?
Answer. I learned from those who came here that nearly all who
were in the hospital were killed. I received a young negro boy,
probably sixteen years old, who was in the hospital there sick with
fever, and unable to get away. The rebels entered the hospital, and
with a sabre hacked his head, no doubt with the intention of splitting
it open. The boy put up his hand to protect his head, and they cut
off one or two of his fingers. He was brought here insensible, and
died yesterday. I made a post-mortem examination, and found that
the outer table of the skull was incised, the inner table was
fractured, and a piece driven into the brain.
Question. This was done while he was sick in the hospital?
Answer. Yes, sir, unable to get off his bed.
Question. Have you any means of knowing how many were
murdered in that way?
Answer. No positive means, except the statement of the men.
Question. How many do you suppose from the information you have
received?
Answer. I suppose there were about four hundred massacred—
murdered there.
Question. What proportion white, and what proportion colored, as
near as you could ascertain?
Answer. The impression I have, from what I can learn, is, that all the
negroes were massacred except about eighty, and all the white
soldiers were killed except about one hundred or one hundred and
ten.
Question. We have heard rumors that some of these persons were
buried alive; did you hear anything about that?
Answer. I have two in the hospital here who were buried alive.
Question. Both colored men?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. How did they escape?
Answer. One of them I have not conversed with personally, the other
I have. He was thrown into a pit, as he states, with a great many
others, white and black, several of whom were alive; they were all
buried up together. He lay on the outer edge, but his head was
nearer the surface; he had one well hand, and with that hand he
was able to work a place through which he could breathe, and in
that way he got his head out; he lay there for some twenty-four
hours, and was finally taken out by somebody. The others, next to
him, were buried so deep that they could not get out, and died.
Question. Did you hear anything about any of them having been
thrown into the flames and burned?
Answer. I do not know anything about that myself. These men did
not say much, and in fact I did not myself have time to question
them very closely.
Question. What is the general condition now of the wounded men
from Fort Pillow under your charge?
Answer. They are in as good condition as they can be, probably
about one-third of them must die.
Question. Is your hospital divided into wards, and can we go
through and take the testimony of these men, ward by ward?
Answer. It is divided into wards. The men from Fort Pillow are
scattered through the hospital, and isolated to prevent erysipelas. If
I should crowd too many badly wounded men in one ward I would
be likely to get the erysipelas among them, and lose a great many of
them.

By Mr. Gooch:
Question. Are the wounds of these men such as men usually receive
in battle?
Answer. The gunshot wounds are; the sabre cuts are the first I have
ever seen in the war yet. They seem to have been shot with the
intention of hitting the body. There are more body wounds than in
an ordinary battle.
Question. Just as if they were close enough to select the parts of the
body to be hit?
Answer. Yes, sir; some of them were shot with pistols by the rebels
standing from one foot to ten feet of them.

The committee then proceeded to the various wards and took the
testimony of such of the wounded as were able to bear the
examination.
The testimony of the colored men is written out exactly as given,
except that it is rendered in a grammatical form, instead of the
broken language some of them used.

Mound City Hospital,

Illinois, April 22, 1864.

Elias Falls, (colored,) private, company A, 6th United States heavy

artillery, or 1st Alabama artillery, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:
Question. Were you at Fort Pillow when the battle took place there,
and it was captured by the rebels?
Answer. I was there; I was a cook, and was waiting on the captain
and major.
Question. What did you see done there? What did the rebels do after
they came into the fort?
Answer. They killed all the men after they surrendered, until orders
were given to stop; they killed all they came to, white and black,
after they had surrendered.
Question. The one the same as the other?
Answer. Yes, sir, till he gave orders to stop firing.
Question. Till who gave orders?
Answer. They told me his name was Forrest.
Question. Did you see anybody killed or shot there?
Answer. Yes, sir; I was shot after the surrender, as I was marched up
the hill by the rebels.
Question. Where were you wounded?
Answer. In the knee.
Question. Was that the day of the fight?
Answer. The same day.
Question. Did you see any men shot the next day?
Answer. I did not.
Question. What did you see done after the place was taken?
Answer. After peace was made some of the secesh soldiers came
around cursing the boys that were wounded. They shot one of them
about the hand, aimed to shoot him in the head, as he lay on the
ground, and hit him in the hand; and an officer told the secesh
soldier if he did that again he would arrest him, and he went off
then.
Question. Did they burn any buildings?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Was anybody burned in the buildings?
Answer. I did not see anybody burned; I saw them burn the
buildings; I was not able to walk about; I staid in a building that
night with some three or four white men.
Question. Do you know anything about their going into the hospital
and killing those who were there sick in bed?
Answer. We had some three or four of our men there, and some of
our men came in and said they had killed two women and two
children.
Duncan Harding, (colored,) private, company A, 6th United States
heavy artillery, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:
Question. Were you in Fort Pillow at the time it was captured?
Answer. Yes, sir; I was a gunner No. 2 at the gun.
Question. What did you see there?
Answer. I did not see much until next morning. I was shot in the arm
that evening; they picked me up and marched me up the hill, and
while they were marching me up the hill they shot me again through
the thigh.
Question. Did you see anybody else shot after they had
surrendered?
Answer. The next morning I saw them shoot down one corporal in
our company.
Question. What was his name?
Answer. Robert Winston.
Question. Did they kill him?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. What were you doing at the time?
Answer. I was lying down.
Question. What was the corporal doing?
Answer. When the gunboats commenced firing he was started off
with them, but he would not go fast enough and they shot him
dead.
Question. When you were shot the last time had you any arms in
your hands?
Answer. No, sir.
Question. Had the corporal any arms in his hands?
Answer. No, sir; nothing.

By the chairman:
Question. What do you know about any buildings being burned?
Answer. I saw them burn the buildings; and that morning as I was
going to the boat I saw one colored man who was burned in the
building.
Question. When was that building burned?
Answer. The next morning.
Question. The morning after the capture?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. How did you get away?
Answer. I started off with the rebels; we were all lying in a hollow to
keep from the shells; as their backs were turned to me I crawled up
in some brush and logs, and they all left; when night come I came
back to the river bank, and a gunboat came along.
Question. Were any officers about when you were shot last?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Did you know any of them?
Answer. No, sir.
Question. Did they say anything against it?
Answer. No, sir; only, "Kill the God damned nigger."

Nathan Hunter, (colored,) private, company D, 6th United States

heavy artillery, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:
Question. Were you in Fort Pillow when it was captured?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. What did you see done there?
Answer. They went down the hill, and shot all of us they saw; they
shot me for dead, and I lay there until the next morning when the
gunboat came along. They thought I was dead and pulled my boots
off. That is all I know.
Question. Were you shot when they first took the fort?
Answer. I was not shot until we were done fighting.
Question. Had you any arms in your hands when you were shot?
Answer. No, sir.
Question. How long did you lie where you were shot?
Answer. I lay there from three o'clock until after night, and then I
went up in the guard-house and staid there until the next morning
when the gunboat came along.
Question. Did you see any others shot?
Answer. Yes, sir; they shot down a whole parcel along with me. Their
bodies were lying there along the river bank the next morning. They
kicked some of them into the river after they were shot dead.
Question. Did you see that?
Answer. Yes, sir; I thought they were going to throw me in too; I
slipped away in the night.

By the chairman:
Question. Did you see any man burned?
Answer. No, sir; I was down under the hill next the river.
Question. They thought you were dead when they pulled your boots
off?
Answer. Yes, sir; they pulled my boots off, and rolled me over, and
said they had killed me.

Sergeant Benjamin Robinson, (colored,) company D, 6th United

States heavy artillery, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:
Question. Were you at Fort Pillow in the fight there?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. What did you see there?
Answer. I saw them shoot two white men right by the side of me
after they had laid their guns down. They shot a black man clear
over into the river. Then they hallooed to me to come up the hill,
and I came up. They said, "Give me your money, you damned
nigger." I told them I did not have any. "Give me your money, or I
will blow your brains out." Then they told me to lie down, and I laid
down, and they stripped everything off me.
Question. This was the day of the fight?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Go on. Did they shoot you?
Answer. Yes, sir. After they stripped me and took my money away
from me they dragged me up the hill a little piece, and laid me down
flat on my stomach; I laid there till night, and they took me down to
an old house, and said they would kill me the next morning. I got up
and commenced crawling down the hill; I could not walk.
Question. When were you shot?
Answer. About 3 o'clock.
Question. Before they stripped you?
Answer. Yes, sir. They shot me before they said, "come up."
Question. After you had surrendered?
Answer. Yes, sir; they shot pretty nearly all of them after they
surrendered.
Question. Did you see anything of the burning of the men?
Answer. No, sir.
Question. Did you see them bury anybody?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Did they bury anybody who was not dead?
Answer. I saw one of them working his hand after he was buried; he
was a black man. They had about a hundred in there, black and
white. The major was buried on the bank, right side of me. They
took his clothes all off but his drawers; I was lying right there
looking at them. They had my captain's coat, too; they did not kill
my captain; a lieutenant told him to give him his coat, and then they
told him to go down and pick up those old rags and put them on.
Question. Did you see anybody shot the day after the battle?
Answer. No, sir.
Question. How did you get away?
Answer. A few men came up from Memphis, and got a piece of plank
and put me on it, and took me down to the boat.
Question. Were any rebel officers around when the rebels were
killing our men?
Answer. Yes, sir; lots of them.
Question. Did they try to keep their men from killing our men?
Answer. I never heard them say so. I know General Forrest rode his
horse over me three or four times. I did not know him until I heard
his men call his name. He said to some negro men there that he
knew them; that they had been in his nigger yard in Memphis. He
said he was not worth five dollars when he started, and had got rich
trading in negroes.
Question. Where were you from?
Answer. I came from South Carolina.
Question. Have you been a slave?
Answer. Yes, sir.

Daniel Tyler, (colored,) private, company B, 6th United States heavy

artillery, sworn and examined.
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