In the good ole day’s this didn’t happen, because we’d treat them very, very rough. And when they protested once, you know, they would not do it again so easily.” Donald Trump – February 26, 2016
That wasn’t all that they were doing in the good old days. On April 12, 1864, one of the most heinous war crimes ever perpetrated on African American soldiers took place at Fort Pillow in Henning, Tennessee. The commanding officer was none other than General Nathan Bedford Forrest. After the Civil War, Forrest would go on to become the Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan. In the racist organizations 155 year history, he is the only one to have held that title. That’s right, big daddy Forrest was also the Butcher of Fort Pillow.
After President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, African American men joined the Union Army by the tens of thousands. All told, about 180,000 black men served in the Union blue and another 20,000 joined ranks with the Union Navy. They represented 10% of the Union forces. More than 40,000 lost their lives, one out of about every 4 men that joined. In all there were 622,000 men killed in the Civil War. To put that into perspective, of all the wars combined, WWI, WWII, Korean War and Vietnam, it wasn’t until after Vietnam that the number of American soldiers killed during all those previous wars surpassed the number of soldiers killed in the Civil War.
“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” President Abraham Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address – March 4, 1865
On the morning of April 12, 1864, Confederate soldiers attacked the garrison at Fort Pillow, which was occupied by 600 Union soldiers. Their ranks were evenly divided between black and white soldiers. The fort was commanded by Major Lionel F. Booth. Booth had arrived just two weeks earlier after he was ordered to support the cavalry stationed there. He brought with him the 6th U.S. Regiment Colored Heavy Artillery. The regiment had formerly been called the 1st Regiment Alabama Siege Artillery (African Descent) but the name was changed after Booth took command. Now I am grateful for the sacrifices the North made in our fight to gain our freedom, but to be so enlightened and at war in the name equality, they sure did make certain the “colored troops,” tag was on every black soldier fighting. I mean it’s not like nobody wouldn’t notice… anywho…
“I demand the unconditional surrender of the entire garrison, promising that you shall be treated as prisoners of war. My men have just received a fresh supply of ammunition, and from their present position can easily assault and capture the fort. Should my demand be refused, I cannot be responsible for the fate of your command.” – General Nathan Bedford Forrest
Now, this is a classic case of ” liar, liar, pants on fire.” In response to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, Confederate President Jefferson Davis stated that any black troops caught as prisoners of war would be returned to slavery or executed on the spot and that any white officer commanding black troops would be summarily executed as a traitor to his race. Okay.. he didn’t say as a traitor to his race, but Davis was the HRIC, ( Head Racist In Charge,) we know what he meant. They said he meant the white officer would be put to work at hard labor in a prisoner of war camp as a remedy for being enslaved or executed. Neither prospect was inviting. Andersonville was the largest and most infamous of the Confederate prisoner of war camps. Although it was open for only 14 months, 13,000 of the estimated 45,000 Union soldiers housed there died before the camp was liberated. The commander of the camp, Captain Henry Wirz, was tried and executed for war crimes.
“As we entered the place, a spectacle met our eyes that almost froze our blood with horror, and made our hearts fail within us. Before us were forms that had once been active and erect;—stalwart men, now nothing but mere walking skeletons, covered with filth and vermin. Many of our men, in the heat and intensity of their feeling, exclaimed with earnestness. “Can this be hell?” “God protect us!” and all thought that he alone could bring them out alive from so terrible a place. In the center of the whole was a swamp, occupying about three or four acres of the narrowed limits, and a part of this marshy place had been used by the prisoners as a sink, and excrement covered the ground, the scent arising from which was suffocating. The ground allotted to our ninety was near the edge of this plague-spot, and how we were to live through the warm summer weather in the midst of such fearful surroundings, was more than we cared to think of just then.” – Sergeant Major Robert Kellogg, Andersonville, May 2, 1864
There is a reason I brought up the subject about Confederate prisoner of war camps and we will revisit this topic shortly. As I said earlier, Booth had just arrived at the camp some two weeks earlier. On the day of the battle, he was shot and killed. Major Bradford took command. To tell the truth, the soldiers in the fort never had a chance. Forrest had brought 70,000 men to the party. He was fighting the Union soldiers at Paducah, when as an afterthought he sent some 2000 men to take Fort Pillow to secure horses and supplies. The fort was already surrounded by Forrest men who were firing down on them from the heights above the fort. Outnumbering Bradford’s men by a margin of 4-1, it was then Forrest gave him the ultimatum. I quoted the ultimatum earlier and if you’ve forgotten, I will paraphrase it for you, “Surrender unconditionality or we will kill all the ni**ers and officers and take the rest of you to Andersonville.” Bradford asked for one hour to consider his proposal. They gave him twenty minutes.
Bradford refused and told them he would not surrender. A minute later they heard the bugle sound the charge… and them rebels wasn’t playing neither. They were frustrated because they were not able to take Paducah, an almost impenetrable fort just a few miles away and whose commander Col. Stephen G. Hicks, when told about Forrest threat of no quarter if he has to storm it, replied, come and get me, nah nah boo boo.. Anywho it was a bloodbath at Pillow. Although the soldiers at Pillow fought valiantly they were outnumbered and outgunned. They eventually tried to surrender or escape. Most of the black soldiers who tried to surrender were shot or bayoneted, most with their hand up. Those attempting to flee were shot in the back and bayoneted. Only 58 black soldiers were marched away as prisoners out of 300, whereas 168 of the white soldiers were taken prisoner out of 300. Not all of the prisoners who were shot were black. Major Bradford was among those shot after surrendering.
“The affair at Fort Pillow was simply an orgy of death, a mass lynching to satisfy the basest of conduct… intentional murder… for the vilest of reasons, racism and personal enmity.” – Historian Richard Fuchs
Remember the piece where I said something about prisoner of war camps? Well after word of the massacre of black soldiers reached Washington, all hell broke loose. General Ulysses Grant told his subordinate who was in charge of prisoner of war exchanges that if the Confederates did not treat black soldiers the same as white soldiers, there would be no more exchanges. President Lincoln had foreseen such circumstances and had in 1863 issued his Order of Retaliation:
“It is therefore ordered that for every soldier of the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public works, and continued at such labor until the other shall be released and receive the treatment due to a prisoner of war.”
I call it the “I For An I Doctrine.” The Confederates read the order as “Yes, I saw it and Yes I ain’t paying it no attention.” The same thing happened at the Battle Of the Crater in July 1864, just 3 months later. As a consequence of the Fort Pillow Massacre, prisoner exchanges between the North and the South ceased for the remainder of the war. The crime also served as a rallying cry for the North and deepened the resolve to defeat the South. Fort Pillow State Historic Park, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974. There was a statue dedicated to Nathan Bedford Forrest in Memphis Tennessee less than 40 miles from the massacre, but was taken down in 2018. He is buried at the Health Sciences Park, Memphis Tennessee, formerly known as Forrest Park in his honor. Although the city park in Memphis has changed the name of the park which honored the Butcher of Fort Pillow and the spiritual head of the Grand Knights Of The Klu Klux Klan, there will always be those that place heritage above humanity. There is a state park named after Forrest in Eva, Tennessee.
5 Trackbacks / Pingbacks