Fort Pillow massacre: Confederate forces kill surrendering African American soldiers
- When
- 1864
- Where
- Fort Pillow; United States Congress
- Episodes
- 2
The Battle of Fort Pillow, fought on April 12, 1864, involved Confederate forces under Nathan Bedford Forrest attacking a Union fort on the Mississippi River. After the fort ceased resistance, a large number of Union troops, predominantly African American soldiers, were killed. The event became the subject of congressional inquiry and prompted discussion within Lincoln's cabinet.
Episodes
- Battle of Fort Pillow
Confederate forces under Forrest attacked Fort Pillow on April 12, 1864, resulting in the death of many Union troops after resistance ceased.
- Congressional Inquiry
The massacre at Fort Pillow was investigated by the United States Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War.
Background and detail
Background. Fort Pillow was constructed in early 1862 by Confederate General Gideon Johnson Pillow on the Mississippi River bluffs near Henning, Tennessee. Union forces took control of the fort in 1862 after Confederate evacuation. In March 1864, Forrest launched a month-long cavalry raid with 7,000 troopers into West Tennessee and Kentucky, in the same period as the April engagement at the fort.
The Battle. On April 12, 1864, Confederate forces under Forrest's command attacked Fort Pillow. The fort effectively ceased resistance, yet a large number of Union troops were killed, most of them black soldiers. The event was immediately followed by a brief exception to Union control of the fort, lasting less than one day.
Aftermath. The massacre at Fort Pillow became the subject of a congressional inquiry. On May 3, 1864, President Lincoln asked his cabinet for opinions on how the United States should respond. The Confederacy had previously passed a law in May 1863 stating that captured black soldiers would be tried under state laws.
People involved
- Nathan Bedford Forrest · Confederate Major General
- Gideon Johnson Pillow · Confederate Brigadier General who built Fort Pillow in early 1862
- Abraham Lincoln · President of the United States who consulted his cabinet on the response to the massacre
Sources
- Battle of Fort Pillow Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-19
- Nathan Bedford Forrest Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-01
- Fort Pillow State Historic Park Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-05
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.