What happened at the fort pillow massacre?

Answer 1

Answer 1

Forrest captures Fort Pillow, causing extremely high casulities.

Do not believe the people who say that something else happened, it has alyays been a confederate win.

This battle has been debated for a long time. Most of the publicity that was in the newspapers were stories told by the Union. There were very few records from the Confederate side until much later.

My research of the casuatlies

Confederate (approx 2200 men): 100 casualties: 21 Killed and 79 Wounded.

Union (force of 557 men)

Wounded transferred to ship: ~70 Officers and Men

Prisoners (un-wounded): 7 Offices & 219 Enlisted Men

(or 56 Blacks and 163 Whites = 226)

Escaped: ~ 25 unknown

Total Survivors accounted for: 296 or about half the garrison.

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Fort Pillow was an important fort on the Mississippi River located on one of the Chickasaw Bluffs, just north of Memphis. Fort Randolph was the first fort built north of Memphis for use by the Confederates early in the war. However, they soon recognized that Fort Pillow was a better location as had higher bluffs and was located in the bend of a river. Eventually, the Confederates dismantled Fort Randolph and moved to Fort Pillow.

1862

The Confederates built defensive positions at Fort Pillow that included 3 rings of trenches that could be defended by 10,000 men. However only about 6,000 to 7,000 Confederate troops manned the fort at the peak of its operation. After the Battle of Shiloh, the Union troops began to approach Memphis from the East. In June 1862, the Union river fleet defeated the Confederate river boats at the Battle of Memphis and occupied the city. Fort Pillow was evacuated and the Union forces manned the fort.

1864

General Sherman ordered many of the river forts be evacuated so that the troops could be sent to Chattanooga where the battle lines were located. Fort Pillow was evacuated. The last regiment to occupy it was the 52 Indiana Regiment. However, the 13 Tennessee Cavalry(US) requested to use the fort for operations and to continue recruiting men for service in the Union cavalry. General Hurlbut granted permission to re-occupy the fort, which was against the orders of General Sherman. This action seems to prove that General Hurlbut was using the fort to ship black market cotton and contraband up North.

General Hurlbut sent the 6 US Colored Heavy Artillerywith 4 cannons to strengthen the fort. Later a section of 40 men from the 2 US Colored Heavy Artillery, along with 2 additional cannon, arrived at the fort. This brought the strength to about 550 men.

Forrest's West Tennessee Raid

On March 16, 1864, Major General Nathan Bedford Forrestlaunched a month-long cavalry raid into western Tennessee and Kentucky with 7,000 troops of his cavalry division. During this time, he sent various brigades and regiments on different attacks. He had also received reports of attrocities committed by Union cavalry. Based upon reports and his investigation, General Forrest announced that Col. Isaac Hawkins and his 7 Tennessee Cavalry(US) were operating as a band of thugs and they would not be treated as prisoners of war if captured.

After attacking the forts at Union City, TN and Paducah, KY, General Forrest made plans to attack Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River. The local citizens had complained of how the fort's troops had mistreated them and stole from them. General Forrest probably thought that Col. Fielding Hurst was there.

General Forrest ordered General James R. Chalmers to take two brigades to attack the fort. They rode all night in the rain and arrived at the fort on April 12, 1864. General Forrest also went along and eventually took over the command of the battle. The fort was defended by the 6 cannon and the tinclad gunboat "New Era". The Confederates had 2 small cannon that was used to drive the gunboat upstream and prevented it from getting a direct shot at the Confederate troops.

General Forrest attempted to negotiate a surrender and offered to treat the black soldiers as prisoners of war. The commander of the fort had been killed and his replacement had little experience in battle. The surrender terms were rejected. The Confederates charged the fort and easily overran it. The Union defenders fled down the bluffs where they had hoped the "New Era" would rescue them. But the gunboat was being held back by small arms fire and the captain feared his boat would be captured.

The Confederates caught the retreating Union soldiers in a cross fire from both sides of the bluff and from on top of the bluff. Many did not surrender. However there were many who did and they were shot. There were many accusations of wanton killing after the fort fell. It is hard to say when the fort surrendered as no one was in command.

I have searched through the records for all the soldiers of all major units at the battle, that included:

(a) Bradford's 13 Tennessee Cavalry(US) {officially called the 14 Tennessee Cavalry},

(b) 6 US Colored Heavy Artillery {later renamed the 11 US Colored Troops}

(c) 2 US Colored Heavy Artillery.

Total US Strength ----- 588

Prisoners 226 (named in an official List)

Additional Prisoners 28 (captured outside fort area)

TOTAL Prisoners ----- 254

KIA - Killed in battle ----------- 45

MIA - Supposed Killed--------- 18

WIA - Survived battle ----------- 88

Escaped or Returned to unit---- 13

Unknown ------------------ 2

TOTAL KIA-MIA-WIA ----- 334

General Forrest returned to Jackson, TN. He returned to Mississippi on May 1, 1864. The white Union prisoners were sent to Andersonville Prison where a majority of them died. (I have located names of 102 who died there and 10 who died after the prisoners were moved to Florence, SC.) The black prisoners were either returned to their Owner or most likely placed into force labor.

****** Was this a Massacre? *****

This question has been debated for 150 years. It is hard to understand what goes on in war. Once a battle starts, it is hard to stop it. Usually the term massacre refers to a total obliteration of your enemy. It can mean an act of complete destruction or on a more personal level, an act of killing helpless or un-resisting soldiers under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty.

There is no doubt there were atrocities were committed against many Union soldiers. Medical reports describe horrendous wounds at close range. Some soldiers where shot multiple times. This could be expected for a large battle where many guns were firing into a enemy position where a body was not removed for hours. That was not the case in this quick battle at Fort Pillow.

How many deaths are considered a complete destructive massacre? For many battles, a 30-40% Death Rate would be expected for a defeated enemy. For a massacre, the death rate should be more than 50% or at least 75%.

Reviewing the records of the 580 soldiers (records could not be found for all of them), I have calculated the number of Union soldiers who Survived the battle for at least a few hours. Some would die the next day---maybe of their wounds or shot while escaping. The estimate below assumes that the ALL 70 wounded (who were transferred to the Union steamer for transport to the hospital) died ---which is not the case. There were several soldiers reported Missing in Action who survived and returned to their unit.

Total Survivors

Official Prisoners...................226

Captured Stragglers................28

Paroled at end of war..............30

Escaped capture ...................10

WIA - Survived battle .............19 (excludes the 70 at Hospital)

Escaped or Returned.................13

TOTAL SURVIVORS........ 326

Percentage of Killed in Battle = 55%

These statistics disagree with many reports of the battle. Some even go so far to say 70% of the 550 men were killed. I believe many of the death rate was over estimated in many of the reports during the War and in many of the books written after the War.

Custermen