'', May 7, 1864, "The war in Tennessee: Confederate massacre of black Union troops after the surrender at Fort Pillow, April 12, 1864" On June 4, 1862,
Confederate troops evacuated Fort Pillow, enabling Union troops to take
Memphis, Tennessee. Because of its strategic location controlling traffic on the Mississippi River, the
fort was
occupied by the
Union Army, which controlled it during most of the war. An exception to Union control of the fort took place for less than one day immediately after the Confederate victory in the
Battle of Fort Pillow on April 12, 1864. The battle resulted in the massacre of 229 of the 262
U.S. Colored Troops engaged in the
battle. The white Union soldiers numbered 285. An examination of regimental records showed that "less than 36 percent of the men from white units died in battle or of wounds, while the death toll for black units was 66 percent." A Confederate wrote in a letter home that "Forrest ordered them [negroes] shot down like dogs, and the carnage continued." In addition to regimental records, contemporary accounts by troops on both sides, as well as journalists, describe it as appalling slaughter. Within about three weeks, as political controversy grew, Confederates began to dispute accounts of a massacre. Subsequent reports after the battle from Union officers to the Department of War countered much that was reported in the popular press and some of the testimony given before Congress. This slaughter by the Confederate troops under Gen.
Nathan Bedford Forrest has been classified by historians as a
massacre. "Remember Fort Pillow!" became a
battle cry among black Union soldiers for the remainder of the
Civil War. While the Union
casualty count for the battle does not indicate that the Confederate forces took many prisoners, Confederate records show about 200 prisoners were shipped south. In 1866, the
Union Army created a cemetery for both Confederate and Union soldiers south of the battle site. In 1867, they moved about 250 bodies of Confederate and Union soldiers from that cemetery to the
Memphis National Cemetery. ==See also==