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I have acquired a copy of the article and the answers are-
Quote:
Originally Posted by Battalion
In their [Cimprich and Mainfort] article- "The Fort Pillow Massacre: A Statistical Note" -do they list the names of the soldiers that were missing, killed, etc?
No.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Battalion
Also- do they have any explanation for the difference in their total for the 6th Heavy artillery (270) and the totals reported by Adjutant Harris (221) and Col. Jackson (212)?
Nothing other than- "hints in Federal reports that recruiting took place at the post" (no source given).
Weakens his case significantly.
I have seen these "hints" of recruiting and I believe they were by persons who were not at the fort. Will check it out.
__________________ POWER & MONEY
"Your New-York bankers and merchants are shrewd people, but I never gave them credit for so much sagacity as when they took the Government Loan. It was not merely patriotism, it was a high stroke of policy. It has saved the Government, and what they will regard as equally important, saved them from a great financial disaster."
I know there were some strong pro-Union elements in East TN, but to be recruiting on the Mississippi in Western TN? Seems a little strange that they would be recruiting for the Federal army there?
This is the lone mention of any recruiting by the USCT-
"There were 221 officers and men [6th Heavy Artillery] left Memphis to go to Fort Pillow....I understand, unofficially, that the colored troops were recruited, to some extent, after they arrived at Fort Pillow; but I have no official knowledge of that fact."
Lieutenant Colonel (& Adjutant) Thomas H. Harris, Congressional Report, p.97
The 6th Heavy Artillery was ordered to Fort Pillow on March 28th. This would give them no more than two weeks to do any recruiting.
__________________ POWER & MONEY
"Your New-York bankers and merchants are shrewd people, but I never gave them credit for so much sagacity as when they took the Government Loan. It was not merely patriotism, it was a high stroke of policy. It has saved the Government, and what they will regard as equally important, saved them from a great financial disaster."
Cimprich and Mainfort- "All men missing in action were considered killed; the only alternative--an unlikely one--would have been for such men to have escaped capture and then to have deserted without leaving a trace." Fort Pillow Massacre: A Statistical Note, p.834
Some of those listed as MIA at Ft. Pillow... ...were never there-
Thomas Jefferson, Pvt., Co. B, 6th Heavy Art. Company Roll- Missing in action at Fort Pillow, 12 April 1864. Hospital Roll- Died of disease, 9 March 1864
Robert McClellan, Pvt., Co. B, 6th Heavy Art. Company Roll- Missing in action at Fort Pillow, 12 April 1864. Hospital Roll (Memphis)- Died of disease, 11 March 1864.
John Patterson, Pvt., Co. B, 6th Heavy Art. Company Roll- Missing in action at Fort Pillow, 12 April 1864. Hospital Roll- Died of disease, 15 March 1864.
__________________ POWER & MONEY
"Your New-York bankers and merchants are shrewd people, but I never gave them credit for so much sagacity as when they took the Government Loan. It was not merely patriotism, it was a high stroke of policy. It has saved the Government, and what they will regard as equally important, saved them from a great financial disaster."
The recruiting (if there was recruiting) would have been done among the Tennessee Tories, not for the 6th Heavy. And they wouldn't have necessarily been included on official rolls.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
The recruiting (if there was recruiting) would have been done among the Tennessee Tories, not for the 6th Heavy. And they wouldn't have necessarily been included on official rolls.
ole
Tennessee Tories?
__________________ Ancestors in US Army: 13th TN Cav; 10th TN Cav; 3rd NC Inf
Ancestors in CSA Army: 48th VA; 63rd VA, 5th NC Cav; 37th NC
Wife and Grandson's CSA: 15th AL, 51st GA, 41st TN; 36th TN; GA Mil 1197 Dist
There was considerable unionist activity in NW Tennessee. These were the "Tories." They were troublesome, if not murderous, and complaints of the secesh reached the ears of Forrest.
The "punishment" aspect of that battle outweighed any strategic value the fort had. Forrest wasn't after the 6th Heavy, he wanted the 13th Tennessee.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Cimprich and Mainfort- "All men missing in action were considered killed; the only alternative--an unlikely one--would have been for such men to have escaped capture and then to have deserted without leaving a trace." Fort Pillow Massacre: A Statistical Note, p.834
There is another alternative that Cimprich and Mainfort do not consider-
There were reported by the Confederates over 200 prisoners taken at Fort Pillow. These were sent either to POW camps or labor camps.
The mortality rates for such camps vary from 15 to 25%.
This means that from 30 to 50 (15-25% of 200) may have died of sickness or disease while in captivity...and not killed at Fort Pillow as they presume.
__________________ POWER & MONEY
"Your New-York bankers and merchants are shrewd people, but I never gave them credit for so much sagacity as when they took the Government Loan. It was not merely patriotism, it was a high stroke of policy. It has saved the Government, and what they will regard as equally important, saved them from a great financial disaster."
"Tories" was a common term Confederates used for Unionists from Confederate states. M. Jeff Thompson in Missouri was using it for those who supported Freemont in 1861, and I think the aliteration of "Tennessee Tories" probably made it stick a bit more there.
Here's an example of how it was used, from Wyeth's biography of Forrest Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest in 1908.
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It is difficult for those who did not live through this unhappy period, and in this immediate section, to appreciate the bitterness of feeling which then prevailed. Three years of civil war had passed, not without a deplorable effect upon the morals of the rank and file of either army. War does not bring out the noblest traits in the majority of those who from choice or necessity follow its blood-stained paths. Too often the better qualities hide away, and those that are harsh and cruel prevail. Some of Forrest's men treasured a deep resentment against some of the officers and soldiers of this garrison. They had been neighbors in times of peace, and had taken opposite sides when the war came on. These men had suffered violence to person and property, and their wives and children, in the enforced absence of their natural protectors, had suffered various indignities at the hands of the " Tennessee Tories," as the loyal Tennesseeans were called by their neighbors who sided with the South. When they met in single combat, or in scouting parties, or in battle, as far as these individuals were concerned, it was too often a duel to the death. Between the parties to these neighborhood feuds the laws of war did not prevail. Here, in this melee, in the fire and excitement of the assault, they found opportunity and made excuse for bloody vengeance. No official surrender ; their flag still flying ; some of the Federals, no matter how few, still firing back, and they shot them down regardless of the cry for quarter.
Some of those high in authority on the Union side may, in a measure, be justly held accountable for the deep hatred which existed among these men. General William Sooy Smith, the chief of cavalry of the military division of the Mississippi, no later than January 17, 1864, had, in writing to General Grant, said: "We have given Colonel Hurst a roving commission with his regiment (the Sixth Tennessee Union Cavalry), and directed him to ' grub up ' west Tennessee. I think he will reduce that district to order."
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Wyeth was a young Confederate cavalryman from Tennesse during the war who rode for a while under Forrest's command. After the war, he went on to become a doctor and head of the AMA, living in New York but still having a feel for his native state.
Tim
__________________ "Let us, then, consider all attempts to weaken this Union, by maintaining that each state is separately and individually independent, as a species of political heresy, which can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most serious distresses."
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, 1740-1824, Revolutionary War soldier, one of the authors of the US Constitution in 1787, speaking at the South Carolina Ratifying Convention in 1788.
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