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Lets see; this will now be the third time I have posted these exerpts on this thread.
I've posted 60 odd replies on this thread; I don't even want to think how many Cash & Trice have.
READ
THE
THREAD.
My words are quite clear and I grow weary of repeating them so that they can be ignored.
But for your enjoyment I shall once again post the sources that led me to believe that something untoward, in the form of cold blooded murder, happened at Ft Pillow.
Oh, BTW these are all CS sources...
Enjoy.
__________________ Few take the trouble to understand or to view the American scene with perspective. And we Americans love to find ourselves guilty of something. However, it is never I who am guilty, but those other Americans, the past or present government or the other political party. Americans almost never find other countries guilty. It is always ourselves or our fancied influence in other countries. Louis L'amour
Report by “Vidette,” Mobile [AL] Advertiser and Register, April 17, 1864
Fort Pillow, Tenn., April 12; via Holly Springs, April 16. Gen. Forrest attacked this place with Chalmer’s division yesterday. The garrison consisted of three hundred whites and four hundred negroes. They refused to surrender, and the place was carried by storm. … Indiscriminant slaughter followed—about a hundred prisoners were taken, the balance were slain. The fort ran with blood; many jumped into the river and drowned or [were] shot in the water. … Our loss was about seventy-five killed and wounded.
__________________ Few take the trouble to understand or to view the American scene with perspective. And we Americans love to find ourselves guilty of something. However, it is never I who am guilty, but those other Americans, the past or present government or the other political party. Americans almost never find other countries guilty. It is always ourselves or our fancied influence in other countries. Louis L'amour
General William T. Sherman and his committee decided that Forrest could not be held accountable for the deaths of the black soldiers at Ft. Pillow.
Not quite, Larry. Sherman had no committee. He was tasked with investigating the massacre and he in turn assigned another officer to do the actual investigation.
Sherman's recommendation was to let the soldiers handle any retaliation.
The idea that Sherman in any way exonerated Forrest is simply a mischaracterization of what Sherman said.
Report by ‘Marion,” Mobile Advertiser and Register, April 26, 1864
Camp of the 20 Tennessee Cavalry
Okalona, April 20th, 1864
….A feeble resistance is offered by those within [the fort], then the lines give way in confusion, and gunners, Yankees, and negroes, rush madly from the fort down an almost perpendicular bank towards the river, under a rapid and destructive fire from our rifles. The polluted “star-spangled banner” was torn from its fastenings and trampled in dust, and high above the ramparts of the conquered fort, proudly floated our own [l]oved ensign, flapping defiance at the ominous looking gunboats anchored above. For ten minutes death reigned in the fortification, and along the river bank, Our troops maddened by the excitement, shot down the ret[r]eating Yankees, and not until they had attained t[h]e water’s edge and turned to beg for mercy, did any prisoners fall in [t]o our hands—Thus the whites received quarter, but the negroes were shown no mercy.
__________________ Few take the trouble to understand or to view the American scene with perspective. And we Americans love to find ourselves guilty of something. However, it is never I who am guilty, but those other Americans, the past or present government or the other political party. Americans almost never find other countries guilty. It is always ourselves or our fancied influence in other countries. Louis L'amour
Letter of Sgt. Achilles V. Clark, Twentieth Tennessee Cavalry:
My Dear Sisters,
Camp near Brownsville April 14th 1864
I write you a few hurried lines to inform you that I am quite well and have just passed safely through the most terrible ordeal of my whole life. I guess that you know what I mean as you doubtless have before this heard of the taking of Fort Pillow. In as much as I am a member of Forrest’s Cavalry modesty would direct that I should say nothing in our praise nor will I but will tell you in as few words as possible what was done and leave you to judge whether or not we acted well or ill. … we marched on foot in sight of the fortifications which were said to be manned by about seven hundred renegade Tennesseans and negroes. … Gen. Forrest demanded a surrender and gave twenty minutes to consider. The Yankees refused threatening that if we charged their breast works to show no quarter. The bugle sounded the charge and in less than ten minutes we were in the fort hurling the cowardly villains howling down the bluff. Our men were so exasperated by the Yankees’ threats of no quarter that they gave but little.
The slaughter was awful. Words cannot describe the scene. The poor deluded negroes would run up to our men fall upon their knees and with uplifted hands scream for mercy but they were ordered to their feet and then shot down. The white men fared but little better. Their fort turned out to be a great slaughter pen. Blood, human blood stood about in pools and brains could have been gathered up in any quantity. I with several others tried to stop the butchery and at one time had partially succeeded. but Gen. Forrest ordered them shot down like dogs and the carnage continued. Finally our men became sick of blood and the firing ceased. The result. The report kept in the Post Adjutants office shows that there were seven hundred and ninty men for duty on the morning of the fight. We brought away about one hundred and sixty white men and about seventy five negroes. Two transports came down the morning after the fight and took off the badly wounded Yankees and negroes about thirty or forty in all. The remainder were thrown into the trench before which two hours previous they had stood and bade open defiance to Forrest and all his ragged hounds, and were covered up about two feet deep.
__________________ Few take the trouble to understand or to view the American scene with perspective. And we Americans love to find ourselves guilty of something. However, it is never I who am guilty, but those other Americans, the past or present government or the other political party. Americans almost never find other countries guilty. It is always ourselves or our fancied influence in other countries. Louis L'amour
Letter of Surgeon Samuel H. Caldwell, Sixteenth Tennessee Cavalry
Camp Near Brownsville, April 15, 1864.
My Dear Darling Wife,
…..
We are just from Fort Pillow which fort we attacked on Tuesday the 13th 1864 & carried by storm. It was garrisoned by 400 white men and 400 negroes & out of the 800 only 168 are now living So you can guess how terrible was the slaughter. It was decidedly the most horrible sight that I have ever witnessed— They refused to surrender—which incensed our men & if General Forrest had not run between our men & the Yanks with his pistol and sabre drawn not a man would have been spared—We took about a hundred & 25 white men & about 45 negroes the rest of the 800 are numbered with the dead—They sure [lay] heaped upon each other 3 days—…
Nothing more but remain your devoted husband.
S. H. Caldwell.
__________________ Few take the trouble to understand or to view the American scene with perspective. And we Americans love to find ourselves guilty of something. However, it is never I who am guilty, but those other Americans, the past or present government or the other political party. Americans almost never find other countries guilty. It is always ourselves or our fancied influence in other countries. Louis L'amour
Report by “Memphis,” Atlanta Memphis Appeal, May 2, 1864
Jackson, Tenn., April 18, 1861
… The enemy announced their determination not to surrender, and were accordingly defiant and insolent in their demeanor. They ridiculed the idea of taking the fort, and intimated that the last man would die before surrendering. Gen. Forrest told them that in order to prevent the effusion of blood he had demanded the surrender, but now the consequences were upon their own heads. Then the work of slaughter and death commenced. The sight of negro soldiers stirred the bosoms of our soldiers with courageous madness. The moment our men were seen upon the wall, the foe, which a few minutes ago was so defiant and insolent, turned to cowards. Still they would not surrender. Those that were hid or protected still kept firing upon and killing our brave boys; but our troops still rushed upon them, all the time fighting and killing. The sight was terrific—the slaughter sickening. Wearied with the slow process of shooting with guns, our troops commenced with their repeaters, and every fire brought down a foe, and so close was the fight, that the dead would frequently fall upon the soldier that killed. Still the enemy would not or knew not how to surrender. The Federal flag, that hated emblem of tyranny was still proudly waving over the scene.
Seeing that nothing could be gained by further fight the enemy rushed to the Coldwater for the purpose of swimming across; but the troops stationed here by Gen. Forrest opened upon them, and hundreds were killed in the water endeavoring to escape. Others rushed to the passage between the fort and the river for the purpose of passing down the river towards Memphis. But the troops stationed here by Gen. Forrest to guard this very contingency, opened fire upon them, and the enemy rushed upon a coal barge and endeavored to push it off; but a concentrated fire from our whole column, soon put an end to this experiment. Several hundred were shot in this boat and in Coldwater, while endeavoring to escape. The number in the water was so great, that they resembled a drove of hogs swimming across the stream. But not a man escaped in this way. The head above the water was a beautiful mark for the trusty rifle of our unerring marksmen. The Mississippi River was crimsoned with the red blood of the flying foe. Our soldiers grew sick and weary in the work of slaughter, and were glad when the work was done. General Forrest begged them to surrender, but he was told with an air of insulting defiance that he could not take the place, and that they asked for no quarter. Not the first sign of surrender was ever given. Gen. Forrest expected a surrender after entering the fort, and anxiously looked for it, as he witnessed the carnage; but no token was given.
__________________ Few take the trouble to understand or to view the American scene with perspective. And we Americans love to find ourselves guilty of something. However, it is never I who am guilty, but those other Americans, the past or present government or the other political party. Americans almost never find other countries guilty. It is always ourselves or our fancied influence in other countries. Louis L'amour
"Our research indicates that of the 585 to 605 men present on April 12, 1864, between 277 and 297 Federals, 47-49 percent of the garrison, were killed or mortally wounded at Fort Pillow. Clearly the death rate was higher than that calculated in any previous study.
"More important, the tables also reveal a different casualty rate for the black and white units. Black troops suffered a casualty rate nearly double that of their white counterparts (64 percent compared to 31-34 percent)." [John Cimprich and Robert C. Mainfort, Jr., "The Fort Pillow Massacre: A Statistical Note," _The Journal of American History,_ Vol. 76, No., 3, Dec., 1989, p. 835]
There is a lot of good info on this thread, lots of stuff I didn't know(I had zero background on Fort Pillow). What I gleaned from this, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that a massacre of black troops took place, but Forrest didn't order a massacre and in fact stopped the killing when he was aware of it. In one of the above accounts, Forrest in dramatically rushes between the sides waving his saber, and in others, he is on the wall observing Union gunboats, is informed, and orders it stopped.
In all the Confederate accounts, while sometimes excusing the killing, don't lay the responsibility at Forrest's door.
Trice earlier gave an interesting "backstory" about the Tennessee Unionist unit, and the long simmering conflicts in the areas between them and their secessionist neighbors, which gives some context to the violence at the fort.
There were Union accounts describing Confederates armed with bayonets, and some questioned why a cavalry unit would be armed with bayonets, which is a fair point, but not a decisive one.
There is a lot of good info on this thread, lots of stuff I didn't know(I had zero background on Fort Pillow). What I gleaned from this, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that a massacre of black troops took place, but Forrest didn't order a massacre and in fact stopped the killing when he was aware of it. In one of the above accounts, Forrest in dramatically rushes between the sides waving his saber, and in others, he is on the wall observing Union gunboats, is informed, and orders it stopped. Pretty much sums it up.
In all the Confederate accounts, while sometimes excusing the killing, don't lay the responsibility at Forrest's door.
Trice earlier gave an interesting "backstory" about the Tennessee Unionist unit, and the long simmering conflicts in the areas between them and their secessionist neighbors, which gives some context to the violence at the fort.
There were Union accounts describing Confederates armed with bayonets, and some questioned why a cavalry unit would be armed with bayonets, which is a fair point, but not a decisive one.
Some used the charge that bayonets were used at Ft Pillow by CS cav troops as proof of some sort that there were no murders at Ft Pillow. I posted I believe two seperate CS ordnance returns showing CS Cav w/ bayonets. Initially never made sense to me until I understood that Forrest did not use Cav in the conventional manner but as mounted Infantry... then suddenly bayonets make much more sense. Now add that by the spring of 64 Forrests command consisted of quite a few former infantrymen gleaned (poached) from other units and it makes more sense still. There is not only precedence for it but it makes sense.
__________________ Few take the trouble to understand or to view the American scene with perspective. And we Americans love to find ourselves guilty of something. However, it is never I who am guilty, but those other Americans, the past or present government or the other political party. Americans almost never find other countries guilty. It is always ourselves or our fancied influence in other countries. Louis L'amour
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