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Battle Of Fort Pillow Essay

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The Battle of Fort Pillow Throughout the course of the Civil War there have been many horrific battles but none as controversial as The Battle of Fort Pillow. Due to the Confederates opinions, the men who fought for the Union, and the color of their skin left many wondering whether Ft. Pillow was really a battle or a massacre. On April 12th, 1864, 3,000 rebels under Nathan Bedford Forrest’s a Confederate leader and Lieutenant General Forrest and his troops attacked Fort Pillow where Lionel Booth a Union Major and 600 union soldiers were stationed. Fort Pillow was a former Confederate bluff on the Tennessee bank of Mississippi where a garrison of around 600 Union soldiers were stationed including free and enslaved black men. With Forrest leading …show more content…

McPherson, “ In some instances, rebel officers or soldiers refused to take black prisoners or murrerderd them after they surrendered,”(McPherson, James mrlincolnandfreedom.org). Which is exactly what happened at Ft. Pillow when Major Booth and his Garrison surrendered in their escape on the banks of Tennessee and Mississippi. Lieutenant General Forrest accepted the captured white mens’ surrender and took them as prisoners of war but would not accept the black mens and ordered his men to kill them leaving the river red. For a long time after Forrest and his men enjoyed bragging about the massacre seeing it as an accomplishment but as the Civil War came to an end they felt more and more guilty leading them to deny what they had …show more content…

During the summer of 1862, he began lightning raids that made him the single most feared cavalry commander of the entire war and earned him the nickname “the Wizard of the Saddle”(civilwar.org), because he was constantly on the move, bold on the attack, and swift in retreat. During the spring of 1864 Forrest attacked the Union garrison at Fort Pillow executing over 200 black men after they had surrendered. Lieutenant General Forrest never surrendered until Confederate leader Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant ending the Civil War, when he then became a prominent founder and leader of the KKK. An organization often referred to as a cult who worshiped men like Adolf Hitler and burned people who they believed were not deemed fit to live in our society such as free or enslaved black

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