12 April 1864

Confederate troops massacre soldiers at Fort Pillow

Fort Pillow, Tennessee

Confederate forces under Nathan Bedford Forrest attacked Fort Pillow, whose Union garrison included Black troops and white Tennessee Unionists. Black soldiers were killed during the collapse of resistance and after attempts to surrender.

Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.

Context / qualification

Accounts and casualty totals differ. The massacre should not be represented as an ordinary battle with identical treatment of Black and white soldiers, nor as proof that every member of the garrison was killed.

Sources

• Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 9, pp. 194–195; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
• National Park Service: Hard Reality of Fort Pillow ↗

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