Fort Pillow was the site of an 1864 massacre of mostly African-American Union soldiers by troops under the command of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest. Located 40 miles north of Memphis on the Chickasaw Bluffs, Fort Pillow was built in 1861 as a Confederate fortification overlooking the Mississippi River. Confederate troops abandoned the fort in June 1862 after Union victories in the area jeopardized their position. For the next two years Union troops intermittently occupied the site.
On April 12, 1864, Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest led about 1,500 troops in an attack on the fort, then garrisoned by just over 500 Union soldiers, nearly half of them black. During the initial fighting, Forrest’s sharpshooters killed Maj. Lionel F. Booth, the fort’s commander. Forrest then demanded that the fort surrender, guaranteeing the safety of Union soldiers inside—an offer which, Forrest’s representatives avowed, included black soldiers as well. Maj. William E. Bradford, who took command on Booth’s death, refused to give up the fort. Forrest’s men, positioned in well-protected ravines below the fortification’s low earth walls, now attacked. In about 20 minutes they had overrun the works.
As Union soldiers surrendered, Bedford ordered that they be cut down. Wrote one Confederate soldier, “The poor deluded Negroes would run up to our men, fall upon their knees. . . for mercy, but they were ordered to their feet and then shot down. . . . The fort turned out to be a great slaughter pen. . . . Gen. Forrest ordered them shot down like dogs. . . . Finally our men became sick of blood and the firing ceased.” By the end of the battle, 64 percent of black and 33 percent of white Union soldiers had been killed. Bedford had lost 14 men.
The massacre instantly outraged Northerners. Congressman Benjamin Wade demanded an investigation, while President Abraham Lincoln considered executing selected Southern prisoners of war. Fearing a cycle of retaliatory violence, Lincoln decided against that extremity; even so, the phrase “Remember Fort Pillow!” became a battle cry among white soldiers as well as black.
Forrest later denied any massacre had taken place, claiming that his troops faced gunfire even after the fort had raised the white flag of surrender and that he had acted accordingly. Some historians have argued that Forrest and his soldiers were enraged at the extortion, lawlessness, and destruction they believed that Union soldiers had visited on Tennessee. Some of the worst offenders, Forrest believed, were Tennessee Unionists at Fort Pillow. Others argue that Forrest himself tried to halt the bloodshed but was unsuccessful.
Historians note that it was Confederate policy to execute African Americans wearing the Union blue. Though enforced inconsistently, many Confederate officials believed the policy was a necessary defense against “servile rebellion” and a rebuke to Northerners intent on sending “savages” against the South. The policy extended to white officers commanding black regiments, a fact that may explain the shooting death of Major Bradford in Confederate custody a few days after the battle.
No one disputes that it was Forrest’s practice to offer protection to besieged adversaries if they surrendered, while promising dire consequences if they refused. At Fort Pillow, Forrest was true to his word.
Further reading: Andrew Ward, River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War (New York: Viking, 2005).
—Tom Laichas
World History
