Battle of Fort Pillow

The Battle of Fort Pillow, also known as the Fort Pillow Massacre, particularly in the North, was fought on April 12 1864, at Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River in Henning, Tennessee, during the American Civil War. The battle has caused great controversy about whether a massacre of surrendered African-American troops was conducted or condoned by Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest. "Fort Pillow marked one of the bleakest, saddest events of American military history."Eicher, p. 657.

Background

Fort Pillow, 40 miles north of Memphis, was built by Brigadier General Gideon Johnson Pillow in early 1862 and was used by both sides during the war. With the fall of New Madrid and Island No. 10 to Union forces, Confederate troops evacuated Fort Pillow on June 4 1862, in order not to be cut off from the rest of the Confederate Army. Union forces occupied Fort Pillow on June 6 1862, and used it to protect the river approach to Memphis. It stood on a high bluff and was protected by three lines of entrenchments arranged in a semicircle, with a protective parapet four feet thick and six to eight feet high surrounded by a ditch. (During the battle, the thick parapet would prove to be a disadvantage to the defenders because they could not fire upon approaching troops without mounting the top of the parapet, subjecting them to enemy fire. Similarly, the six artillery pieces of the fort found it difficult to depress their barrels enough to fire on attacking troops.) A Federal gunboat, the USS New Era, commanded by Captain James Marshall, was also available for the defense.U.S. Congress JCCW, p. 3.

On March 16 1864, Forrest launched a month-long cavalry raid with 7,000 troopers into western Tennessee and Kentucky. Their objectives were to capture Union prisoners and supplies and to demolish posts and fortifications from Paducah, Kentucky, south to Memphis. Forrest's Cavalry Corps, which he called "the Cavalry Department of West Tennessee and North Mississippi", consisted of the divisions led by Brig. Gens. James R. Chalmers (brigades of Brig. Gen. Robert V. Richardson and Col. Robert M. McCulloch) and Abraham Buford (brigades of Cols. Tyree H. Bell and A. P. Thompson). The first of the two significant engagements in the expedition was the Battle of Paducah on March 25 and Forrest's men did considerable damage to the town and its military supplies. Numerous skirmishes occurred throughout the region in late March and early April. Needing supplies, Forrest planned to move on Fort Pillow with about 1,500Foote, p. 108. to 2,500NPS website men; he had detached part of his command under Buford to strike Paducah again. He wrote on April 4, "There is a Federal force of 500 or 600 at Fort Pillow, which I shall attend to in a day or two, as they have horses and supplies which we need."Eicher, p. 655.

The Union garrison at Fort Pillow consisted of about 600 men, roughly half black and half white men. The black soldiers belonged to the 2nd U.S. Colored Light Artillery and the 6th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery, under the overall command of Major Lionel F. Booth. Many were former slaves and understood the personal consequences of a loss to the Confederates. The white soldiers were predominantly new recruits from the 13th Tennessee Cavalry, a Federal regiment from eastern Tennessee, commanded by Maj. William F. Bradford.

Battle

Forrest arrived at Fort Pillow at 10 a.m. on April 12. By this time Chalmers had already surrounded the fort. A stray bullet struck Forrest's horse, felling the general, bruising him, and putting him in a disagreeable mood. (This would be the first of three horses he lost that day.Foote, p. 109.) He deployed sharpshooters around the higher ground that overlooked the fort, bringing many of the occupants into their direct line of fire. Major Booth was killed by a sharpshooter's bullet to the chest and Bradford assumed command. By 11 a.m., the Confederates had captured two rows of barracks about 150 yards from the southern end of the fort. The Union soldiers had failed to destroy these buildings before the Confederates occupied them and they were subjected to a murderous fire.

Rifle and artillery fire continued until 3:30 p.m. Forrest sent a note demanding surrender: "I now demanding unconditional surrender of your forces, at the same time assuring you that you will be treated as prisoners of war. ... I have received a new supply of ammunition and can take your works by assault, and if compelled to do so you must take the consequences." Bradford replied, concealing his identity as he did not wish the Confederates to realize that Booth had been killed, requesting an hour for consideration. Forrest, who believed that reinforcing troops would soon arrive by river, replied that he would only allow 20 minutes, and that "If at the expiration of that time the fort is not surrendered, I shall assault it." Braddford's final reply was "I will not surrender." Forrest ordered his bugler to sound the charge.

The Confederate assault was furious. While the sharpshooters maintained their fire into the fort, a first wave entered the ditch and stood while the second wave used their backs as stepping blocks. These men then reached down and helped the first wave scramble up a ledge on the embankment. All of this proceeded flawlessly, as if rehearsed, and with very little firing, except from the sharpshooters and around the flanks. Their fire against the New Era caused the sailors to button up their gun ports and hold their fire. As the sharpshooters were signaled to hold their fire, the men on the ledge went up and over the embankment, firing now for the first time into the massed defenders, who fought briefly, but then broke rearward for a race to the landing at the foot of the bluff, where they had been told that the Union gunboat would cover their withdrawal by firing grape and canister. The gunboat did not fire because its gun ports were sealed and there probably would have been more Union casualties than Confederate if they had fired. The fleeing soldiers were subjected to fire both from the rear and from the flank, from the soldiers who had been firing at the gunboat. Many were shot in the back, others reached the river to drown, or to be picked off in the water by marksmen on the bluff.

Massacre

Conflicting reports of what happened next, from 4 p.m. to dusk, are the source of controversy. Union sources claimed that despite the fact that the Union troops surrendered, Forrest's men massacred them in cold blood. Surviving members of the garrison said that most of their men surrendered and threw down their arms, only to be shot or bayoneted in cold blood by the attackers, who repeatedly shouted, "No quarter! No quarter!"Bailey, p. 25. Several accounts support the charge of massacre. The Joint Committee On the Conduct of the War immediately investigated the incident and concluded that the Confederates shot most of the garrison after it had surrendered. The report also states that after the fighting had ceased, several of the wounded were intentionally burned to death in their barracks or buried alive.U.S. Congress JCCW, pp. 1-128. A 1958 study by Albert Castel concludes that the Union forces were indiscriminately massacred after Fort Pillow "had ceased resisting or was incapable of resistance."Castel, pp. 37-50.

On the other hand, Forrest's men insisted that the Federals, although fleeing, kept their weapons and frequently turned to shoot, forcing the Confederates to keep firing. The flag was still flying over the fort, indicating that the force had not formally surrendered. A contemporary newspaper account from Jackson, Tennessee, states that "General Forrest begged them to surrender," but "not the first sign of surrender was ever given." Similar accounts were reported in many Southern newspapers at the time.Cimprich and Mainfort, pp. 293-306.

Aftermath

Whatever the truth may be, Confederate casualties were low (14 killed and 86 wounded) and Union casualties were high. Of the 585 to 605 men present, the Union losses were reported as 277 to 297 dead. It is obvious that the race of the soldiers was a consideration in the casualties. Of the black members of the garrison, only 58 (around 20%) were marched away as prisoners; 168 (almost 60%) whites were taken. Not all of the prisoners who were shot were black—Major Bradford was among those shot after he surrenderedEicher, p. 657; U.S. Congress JCCW, p. 103.—but Confederate anger at the thought of blacks fighting and their initial reluctance to surrender (because many of the black troops believed they would only be killed if they surrendered in Federal uniform) resulted in a tragedy. The Confederates evacuated Fort Pillow that evening, so they gained little except a temporary disruption of Union operations. The "Fort Pillow Massacre" was thereafter used as a Union rallying cry and cemented resolve to see the war through to its conclusion.

In the aftermath of this incident, Abraham Lincoln demanded that Confederates treat captured black Union soldiers as prisoners of war, even if they happened to be runaway slaves. This demand was refused, and as a result, the exchanges of prisoners that had gone on during the war came to a halt.

In popular culture

In 2006, Harry Turtledove published an historical novel (in contrast to his many alternative history novels) about the events, entitled Fort Pillow.

References

Bailey, Ronald H., and the Editors of Time-Life Books, Battles for Atlanta: Sherman Moves East, Time-Life Books, 1985, ISBN 0-8094-4773-8.
Castel, Albert, "The Fort Pillow Massacre: A Fresh Examination of the Evidence," Civil War History 4 (March 1958).
Cimprich, John, and Mainfort, Robert C., Jr., eds. "Fort Pillow Revisited: New Evidence About An Old Controversy", Civil War History 4 (Winter, 1982).
Eicher, David J., The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War, Simon & Schuster, 2001, ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
Foote, Shelby, The Civil War, A Narrative: Red River to Appomattox, Random House, 1974, ISBN 0-394-74913-8.
U.S. Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, "Fort Pillow Massacre", House Report No. 65, 38th Congress, 1st Session.
Ward, Andrew, River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War, Viking Adult, 2005, ISBN 0670034401.
National Park Service battle description

Notes

External links

Battles of Forrest's Expedition into West Tennessee and Kentucky of the American Civil War | Massacres of the American Civil War | Confederate victories of the American Civil War

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