Battle of Fort Pillow

Battle of Fort Pillow Fort Pillow Massacre Began: April 12, 1864 Ended: Same day Location: Lauderdale County, Tennessee Theater: Western Theater Campaign: Forrest’s Expedition into West Tennessee and Kentucky Outcome: Confederate victory Combatants Union garrison 1st Division, Forrest’s Cavalry Corps Commanders Lionel F. Booth Major, USA William F. Bradford Major, USA Nathan Bedford Forrest Major General, CSA Strength 557 2,500 Casualties 574 80

The Battle of Fort Pillow was a battle of the American Civil War, fought on April 12, 1864, at Fort Pillow, a Union-held fortification overlooking the Mississippi River in west Tennessee north of Memphis. The Union garrison, a mixture of white Union-loyal Tennesseans and United States Colored Troops, was attacked by Confederate cavalry under Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest in an action which lasted most of the day and ended in mid-afternoon with an assault that overran the fort, wiping out the garrison in the process. Union casualties were high, especially among the black soldiers, and many accused the Confederates of perpetrating a deliberate massacre, a controversy that continues today. On the Union side, the battle soon became known as the “Fort Pillow Massacre," a rallying cry especially popular among the U.S. Colored Troops units. (NPS summary)

Background

See also: West Tennessee Raid

In October 1863, Confederate cavalry general Nathan Bedford Forrest was detached from the Army of Tennessee and given an independent command that embraced the northern part of Mississippi and the westernmost portions of Kentucky and Tennessee. After heavy recruiting in the area during the autumn and early winter, Forrest had built up a division of some five to six thousand men, which he first led into combat at the Battle of Okolona the following February, breaking up a Union cavalry expedition into Mississippi. Following this victory, in mid-March the Confederates launched a raid northward into west Tennessee, partly to gain supplies (including horses for some of the more recent recruits, who had been unable to find mounts), partly to disrupt enemy forces in the region, and partly to gather information about more general Union operations for the coming spring.

During late March and early April, Forrest's cavalry fanned out throughout west Tennessee and north into Kentucky, gathering supplies and additional recruits, capturing a sizable enemy garrison at Union City, Tennessee, and making a brief and unsuccessful assault on a fort outside Paducah, Kentucky. By the first week in April, Forrest was able to report that he had inflicted nearly 800 casualties at a cost of fewer than 60 of his own, and that he felt able to hold west Tennessee against "three times my numbers." He also accurately reported that the Union armies were massing for campaigns against Richmond and Atlanta. In the meantime, he added, he would continue to gather supplies from the region for the Confederate soldiers' use.

Fort Pillow

In the above-quoted April 4 report to General Leonidas Polk, commanding the Department of Mississippi, Forrest had mentioned that "There is a Federal force of five or six hundred at Fort Pillow, which I shall attend to in a day or two, as they have horses and supplies which we need." On April 10, having already sent part of his division back toward Paducah under Brigadier General Abraham Buford to procure more of the badly-needed mounts, he ordered Brigadier General James Chalmers to take another large detachment to Fort Pillow and seize it and its materials.

Fort Pillow, overlooking the Mississippi River from the Tennessee bank and about forty miles north of Memphis, had originally been built by the Confederates in 1861, and was named for Brigadier General Gideon Pillow, one of the senior officers at the Battle of Fort Donelson the following year. Situated atop a high bluff overlooking the river, and flanked on the north by a small stream named Coal Creek, it originally consisted of three lines of fortifications, of which the innermost was by far the strongest: this was an earthen wall or parapet, about 120 yards in length and six feet in height and thickness, with a ditch some twelve feet wide and eight feet deep in front. This was generally reckoned a formidable defense, although the very width of the parapet presented a drawback when facing attackers at close range, as a defender could not get into position to fire upon them without exposing himself to enemy sharpshooters. However, the fort was also provided with artillery, and was placed so close to the river that gunboats could easily approach and provide supporting fire. For this reason, Fort Pillow was considered a valuable asset, and after the Union forces took control of the region in 1862, it was maintained with a sizable garrison at all times.

In early April 1864, the fort was garrisoned by the First Battalion, Sixth United States Heavy Artillery (Colored), with a total strength of 221 officers and men; one section of Company D, Second United States Light Artillery (Colored), with 41 officers and men; and the First Battalion, Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry, with 295 officers and men. Major Lionel F. Booth was in overall command, with Major William F. Bradford, commander of the First Battalion, Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry, the next-ranking officer. The total complement for Fort Pillow came to 557 officers and men, and six pieces of artillery. Of the fort's garrison, slightly over half (the Thirteenth Tennessee) were pro-Union white Southerners (often dubbed "Tennessee Tories" by the Confederates); the rest were ex-slaves now serving in the Union Army. Both groups were despised by Confederate soldiers, the former for betraying their countrymen, the latter for having been armed against their former masters, and there were cases before and after Fort Pillow of their being mistreated or even killed when taken prisoner, though this was never official policy of the Confederate government or military leadership.

Battle: April 12

Morning Preliminaries

On April 11, Chalmers' detachment, consisting of most of the brigades of Colonels Robert McCulloch and Tyree Bell (close to 2,000 effectives in all), moved toward Fort Pillow from the east, guided in the latter stage of their march by a local who had recently been imprisoned in the fort. By dawn on the 12th, the two brigades were approaching its outermost fortifications, McCulloch moving up a road from the south, while Bell advanced westward along Coal Creek.

At daybreak, the 2nd Missouri Cavalry, of McCulloch's brigade, was sent forward to drive in the pickets, rushing them so quickly that the entire outer defense line was soon abandoned. Part of the Thirteenth Tennessee then moved out to contest the Confederate advance, backed by fire from the fort's artillery and from a nearby gunboat, the New Era. However, taking advantage of the thick underbrush that lay between the outer and middle lines, the Rebel soldiers were by mid-morning able to gain the second line of defense, bringing them within 300 yards of the main fortification, within which all the Union troops now withdrew. In the course of this early fighting, Major Booth, the post commander, was shot and killed; Major Bradford, described by a senior officer as "a good officer, though not of much experience," now took command.

At about 11:00 a.m., Forrest himself arrived on the field and took over direction of the operations. He promptly ordered McCulloch's brigade to press forward again and seize several barracks and other outbuildings that lay between the middle line and the fort's thick earthen parapet, which it succeeded in doing despite heavy fire from the fort. At this point, the Confederates were at such close range that the fort's artillery could not be sufficiently depressed in elevation to be of further effect against them; the remaining fighting would be done chiefly via small arms.

Demand for Surrender

At midday, with the Confederates now covering most of the landward approaches to Fort Pillow, a temporary lull ensued, broken only by periodic long-range fire. More ammunition was brought up for the attackers from the rear, while Forrest undertook a more thorough reconnaissance of the field (being slightly injured in the process when his horse was shot from under him). Finally, at about 1:00 p.m., Forrest directed Colonel Bell to advance the balance of his brigade towards the fort, via the deep ravine formed by Coal Creek on its northern side. Though a lengthy maneuver, this movement, covered by a large body of sharpshooters to suppress concentrated fire from the fort, was ultimately successful, and by 3:00 p.m. or so, Bell's men, like McCulloch's, were close enough and at a low enough angle that the Union defenders could not easily fire on them.

Despite the fort's inner defenses being still intact to this point, and despite the presence of the New Era that continued to periodically fire on the Confederates, Forrest now felt confident that he could seize Fort Pillow without much difficulty. Towards 3:30 p.m. he called a cease-fire and sent forward under a flag of truce a demand for the garrison's surrender. As was typical in his messages under such conditions, he promised that if the Union troops surrendered at once, they would be given proper treatment as prisoners of war, but if the Confederates were forced to take the fort by mass assault, "I cannot be responsible for the fate of your command." He addressed this to "Major Booth," not knowing that officer had been killed in the morning's fighting.

As the demand for surrender was delivered, lookouts on both sides spotted a steamer coming downriver with Federal troops on board, followed by two more coming upriver from Memphis. Major Bradford (responding to the message in Booth's name) requested from Forrest one hour in which to consult with his officers and the officers of the gunboat and make a decision. Suspecting this was a ploy to gain time in which to be reinforced from the approaching steamers, Forrest replied, allowing no more than twenty minutes; "if at the expiration of that time the fort is not surrendered, I shall assault it."

Based on later testimony, Bradford and the other officers believed that even if the main fortification was overrun--which they deemed unlikely, given the stoutness of the parapet--and the garrison forced to abandon the fort, the gunboat New Era could easily cover their retreat with volleys of canister (short-range artillery) and break up the Rebel pursuit. After a short consultation, Bradford responded to Forrest's demand with the simple message, "I will not surrender." On receiving this refusal, shortly before 4:00 p.m., Forrest gave orders to begin the attack.

Capture

On receiving the signal to attack, the Confederate main body rushed forward and into the ditch outside the parapet, with sharpshooters continuing to provide suppressing fire against the fort's defenders. Once in the ditch, the first wave of attackers gained the narrow ledge between ditch and parapet by using the backs of those in the second wave as stepping-stones, then pulling those soldiers up alongside them. They were now fully protected from Union small-arms fire; meanwhile, Forrest had silenced the gunboat by sending detachments to the river bank north and south of the fort with orders to take aim at the New Era and "shoot everything blue betwixt wind and water," so that the ship was forced to close its gunports and provide no artillery support, as Bradford and the garrison had been expecting.

Once the main body had completed scaling the ditch, the sharpshooters held their fire and the attackers launched themselves atop and over the parapet, delivering a massive volley into the Union troops at close range. After some brief resistance, most of the defenders turned and fled the fort, making their way to the bank at the foot of the bluff and southward toward the gunboat; it continued to keep itself sealed up, though, and the Confederates nearby fired into their ranks, causing them to fall back in panic and flee northward, only to be met by the detachment coming from that direction as well. Order among the garrison's survivors completely broke down at this point, with some continuing to fight back, others jumping into the river to escape and either drowning or being shot, and others throwing down their weapons and attempting to surrender. Some of these were indeed taken prisoner, while others were shot down, some of Forrest's soldiers believing this was in line with the implicit threat in his demand to the garrison. However, Forrest had already given orders to cease firing, and he and other senior officers quickly put an end to the action and set to work rounding up survivors.

Under continuing fire, the New Era sailed upriver, while the Confederates gathered up the fort's supplies and the able-bodied prisoners; the dead were buried, and the Union wounded were left on the scene in the care of their surgeon. By nightfall Forrest and his troops had left the area.

Aftermath

The decisive nature of the Confederate victory at Fort Pillow was reflected in the final casualty totals. Of around 2,000 Rebel soldiers engaged in the fight, total losses came to an even 100--fourteen killed, eighty-six wounded--remarkably light, given their attack on a fixed position with artillery and naval support. The Union garrison, by contrast, was completely wiped out. Of its 557 members at the start of the battle, 226 were listed as prisoners sent south to Mississippi under escort, including twenty able to walk despite their wounds. Estimates on the number of killed and wounded vary, but one commonly-cited figure lists 221 killed and 130 wounded. Major William Bradford was among those captured uninjured at Fort Pillow; however, he was murdered by some soldiers of Forrest's command outside Brownsville, Tennessee, two days later.

After departing Fort Pillow, Forrest and his cavalrymen remained in West Tennessee for some days. Eventually, Union forces in the region were able to coordinate and use their superior numbers to drive him back into Mississippi during the last week of April and the beginning of May, as a prelude to further actions in that region during the summer of 1864.

Controversy

The attack on and capture of Fort Pillow, though it had no large-scale effects on the progress of the war in general, was regarded as a significant event in multiple ways. It was a well-publicized incident of a cavalry unit seizing a fortified position backed by artillery and naval support, a relatively uncommon event that added to Forrest's reputation as a brilliant and innovative tactician. It was also one of the first pitched battles largely fought between Confederate soldiers and former slaves. However, it was the question of Confederate conduct during and after the battle, especially towards those ex-slaves, which made Fort Pillow controversial in many quarters.

One minor point concerned the question of whether Forrest and his soldiers had properly respected the flag of truce during the unsuccessful negotiations for the fort's surrender. Survivors among the garrison later reported seeing movement in and out of the ravine around the fort's northern face while the white flags flew, and alleged that Forrest had used the truce and negotiations to seize this close-up position, which the Confederates had not previously possessed, as a preliminary for assaulting the fort--a violation of the acknowledged rules of war. Forrest's senior officers, however, countered that the Union garrison had itself violated the truce by not signaling the approaching ships that negotiations were under way (in which case they should have halted their progress), and that, regardless, they had in fact gained control of the ravine before a truce was called; the movements seen by the garrison were those of detachments sent to observe the ships' progress. Other testimony, including after-action reports on both the Union and the Confederate side, tend to confirm the view that no violations of the truce were made by the attackers.

The main point of contention, however, was the Confederate treatment of the garrison's survivors after the fort was taken. The high number of fatalities--221 out of 557, or approximately 40%, an uncommonly-high death rate--drew attention almost at once, as did the disparity in the fates of white and black Union troops. Of the 295 soldiers in the (white) Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry, 127 had been killed or too seriously wounded to be escorted south as prisoners, compared to 204 of the 262 in the black artillery units (including their white officers). Given the much lower survival rate among the black soldiers, and the well-known fury of the Confederates at the arming of former slaves, many in the Union military and political leadership swiftly concluded that they had been deliberately murdered while trying to surrender. The battle was soon popularly dubbed "The Fort Pillow Massacre," and representatives from the U.S. Congress's Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War had arrived in Tennessee by April 21 to gather testimony. Their official report subsequently alleged that "an indiscriminate slaughter" of white and black soldiers as well as women and children had followed the fort's capture, and that the Union wounded had been "intentionally burned to death" and even buried alive. "Many other instances of equally atrocious cruelty might be enumerated," their report concluded, but they felt "compelled to refrain from giving here more of the heart-sickening details."

Though most of the specific charges made by the Congressional report have since been refuted, debate continues today on the extent to which deliberate atrocities did occur at Fort Pillow, with pro-Confederate sources expressing far more skepticism than pro-Union sources. Most have agreed that, on the one hand, at least some soldiers, of both races, had been shot down while genuinely attempting to surrender; on the other hand, neither Forrest himself (despite the implied threat in his demand for surrender that a massacre might occur) nor any other Confederate officer gave any order to conduct a general slaughter. Confederate historians have further argued that a breakdown of military discipline had occurred on the Union side following Major Booth's death, and that some of the soldiers, especially the blacks, had become intoxicated by the time of the final assault, and had acted too wildly to be taken prisoner (though they also acknowledge that some of Forrest's troops had themselves been drinking before the attack).

Given all the evidence on hand, it would appear that multiple factors played a role in the high death count. Antagonism toward the Union troops (white "Tennessee Tories" as well as black) was certainly running high among the Confederates, and the bellicose tone of Forrest's demand for surrender may have been taken by some as permission to commit unnecessary killings--though it is worth remembering that Forrest had ordered a cease-fire almost immediately after his soldiers entered the fort. Additionally, the garrison at no time made a formal surrender, first retreating towards the riverbank and then breaking apart once its escape routes were closed, with some continuing to resist while others tried to give themselves up: a state of confusion that would have encouraged the Confederates to continue firing on them. A possible aggravating factor (apart from the allegations of drunkenness) was the black soldiers' fear of what would happen to them if taken prisoner, whether death, ill-treatment, or return to their former masters; they may have fought more desperately and suffered higher casualties for this reason.

Taking these factors into account, most historians have concluded that while the Confederates' behavior at Fort Pillow was hardly above reproach, it did not meet the standard of a deliberate massacre, nor was it entirely racially motivated, and can be attributed more to the heat of battle than to a premeditated decision to kill unarmed prisoners. Historian Shelby Foote noted that Union general William Tecumseh Sherman, ordered by Ulysses S. Grant to conduct his own investigation of Fort Pillow and conclude whether Confederate conduct had been such as to demand retaliation, ultimately did not recommend any harsh counter-measures: "proof in itself that none was justified, since no one doubted that otherwise, with Sherman in charge, retaliation would have been as prompt as even Grant could have desired."