Blogging Through the Alphabet: F is for Fort Pillow

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On April 12, 1864, one of the worst massacres in the American Civil War took place at Fort Pillow, Tennessee. The attack on the Union-controlled Fort was initiated by General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who is a vilified figure in the North as he was involved in several controversial attacks and battles and then became one of the founding members of the Ku Klux Klan. Even though it was counted as a Confederate victory, the attack would be classified as a massacre shortly after the events. 

Background History of Fort Pillow 

Fort Pillow was built by the Confederates in 1861 approximately 40 miles north of Memphis on the Mississippi River. The fort, named for Confederate General Gideon Pillow, itself stood on a high bluff with three lines of entrenchments and a parapet. It would serve to help in the Confederate river defense system until its capture by the Unions in 1862. The Unions would then incorporate it into their own defense system to protect communication and supply lines along the Mississippi River. The Union would even improve upon the defenses at the fort.  

By 1864, Fort Pillow was stationed by mainly recently emancipated and newly trained African American soldiers. The men would come from the 2nd U.S. Colored Light Artillery and the 6th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery. The other half of the 600 men were white troops from the 13th U.S. West Tennessee Cavalry. (Many of these men were also Southerners who had joined the Union cause.) Fort Pillow was under the Union command of Major Lionel Booth on the morning of April 12, 1854. 

Confederate authorities were not pleased with the enlistment of the newly emancipated slaves joining the Union army. In fact, they threatened to execute any African Americans in Federal or Union uniforms. So, while Fort Pillow as not necessary to the success of the Confederate cause, it was seen as the perfect place to attack to teach the Union a lesson. The Confederates saw the fort as filled with runaway slaves and traitors. So, General Forrest set out to attack Fort Pillow.  

The Attack 

On April 12, 1864, 1,500 cavalrymen began the attack on the Union fort. Confederate sharpshooters opened fire from high ground and soon Fort Pillow was on fire. During the early hours of the battle, Major Lionel Booth was killed by a sharpshooter's bullet as he was cheering his men on in the battle. This left the inexperienced Major William Bradford in charge. 

With the surrounding of Fort Pillow by Forrest's men, the Confederate General demanded an unconditional surrender from the Union. So, by the afternoon, Bradford had to make a decision. Keep fighting or surrender and trust that the men of Fort Pillow would be treated as prisoners of war. Bradford, hoping that Union boats would be bringing reinforcements, requested a delay in responding to the surrender. Forrest refused to give Bradford more time, so Bradford sent his refusal to surrender. 

Forrest gave the order for the Confederate troops to swarm Fort Pillow. The 600 Union soldiers fell to one of three fates: 

• Some Union men died or fell wounded fighting.
• Some Union men fled downriver to escape the Confederates. 
• The Union men who attempted to surrender received no mercy. 

After the Massacre

There would be disagreements as to why the men who surrendered were shown no mercy. A Congressional investigation would take place and the actions at Fort Pillow would lead the Union to refuse to participate in future prisoner of war exchanges with the Confederacy.

Forrest would later state that he was not close enough to the action to be able to control his men and that is why they acted the way they did. He also stated that he and his men did nothing wrong, as Bradford had refused to surrender. And supposedly, the men who were surrendering when the Confederates swarmed Fort Pillow were not easy to distinguish between those who were continuing to fight. 

Eyewitness accounts of the day shared that the Union were being shot or bayoneted in cold blood. Even after the Union soldiers surrendered, the Confederates continued to gun down the Union men. They not only attacked the two African American regiments, but also the white Tennesseans whom the Confederates considered to be turncoats. Fort Pillow would turn out to be a slaughter pen in the end. Of the 262 African Soldiers, only 58 would be alive at the end of the fighting.

It was not just the Union men who shared the brutality of the events at Fort Pillow. Confederate Sergeant Achilles Clark of Forrest's command shared with his sister: "I with others tried to stop the butchery...but General Forrest ordered them shot down like dogs and the carnage continued."

Whether or not Forrest gave a clear command to slaughter the Union men at Fort Pillow, it is clear he lost control of his troops that day, leading to it being called a massacre. Historians still debate exactly what happened but it doesn't really matter because "Remember Fort Pillow" became a rallying cry and helped encourage many Union troops for the remainder of the war. 

Do You Want to Learn More? 

History Resources: The Fort Pillow Massacre 

Nathan Bedford Forrest Biography 

Tennessee State Parks: History of Fort Pillow