Union Fort, and Battle of Fort Pillow
Because of its strategic location, controlling traffic on the Mississippi River, the fort was attacked and captured by the Union Army, which controlled it during most of the war. An exception to this control occurred for less than one day immediately after the Battle of Fort Pillow in 1864.
June 4, 1862 – American Civil War: Confederate troops evacuated Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River, leaving the way clear for Union troops to take Memphis, Tennessee.
The Confederate victory at the Battle of Fort Pillow (April 1864) ended in the killing of 229 black and white Union soldiers out of 262 engaged in the battle. This slaughter by the Southern troops under Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest has been labeled a massacre; Confederate apologists still debate how much "slaughter" actually took place, and some believe the reports were exaggerated. 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 any case, "Remember Fort Pillow!" became a battle cry among Black soldiers for the remainder of the Civil War.
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.
Read more about this topic: Fort Pillow State Park
Famous quotes containing the words union, battle, fort and/or pillow:
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“That we can come here today and in the presence of thousands and tens of thousands of the survivors of the gallant army of Northern Virginia and their descendants, establish such an enduring monument by their hospitable welcome and acclaim, is conclusive proof of the uniting of the sections, and a universal confession that all that was done was well done, that the battle had to be fought, that the sections had to be tried, but that in the end, the result has inured to the common benefit of all.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“You have created a monster and it will destroy you.”
—Garrett Fort (1900–1945)
“With the half of a broken hope for a pillow at night
That somehow the right is the right
And the smooth shall bloom from the rough:
Lord, if that were enough?”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)