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The
Massacre at Fort Pillow |
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| THE MASSACRE AT FORT
PILLOW |
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We give on page 284 a sketch of the horrible
Massacre at Fort Pillow. The annals of savage warfare nowhere record a more inhuman,
fiendish butchery than this, perpetrated by the representatives of the "superior civilization" of the States
in rebellion. It can not be wondered at that our officers and soldiers in the West are determined to
avenge, at all opportunities, the cold-blooded murder of their comrades; and yet we can but
contemplate with pain the savage practices which rebel inhumanity thus forces upon the service. The
account of the massacre as telegraphed from Cairo is as follows:
On the 12th inst. the rebel General Forrest appeared before Fort Pillow, near Columbus, Kentucky, attacking
it with considerable vehemence. This was followed up by frequent demands for its surrender, which were refused
by Major Booth, who commanded the fort. The fight was then continued up until 3 P.M., when Major Booth was killed,
and the rebels, in large numbers, swarmed over the intrenchments.
Up to that time comparatively few of our men had been killed; but immediately upon occupying
the place the rebels commenced an indiscriminate butchery of the whites and blacks, including the wounded.
Both white and black were bayoneted, shot, or sabred; even dead bodies were horribly mutilated, and children of
seven and eight years, and several negro women killed in cold blood. Soldiers unable to speak from wounds were
shot dead, and their bodies rolled down the banks into the river. The dead and wounded negroes were piled in heaps
and burned, and several citizens, who had joined our forces for protection, were killed or wounded. Out of the
garrison of six hundred only two hundred remained alive. Three hundred of those massacred were negroes; five were
buried alive. Six guns were captured by the rebels, and carried off, including two 10-pound Parrotts, and two 12-pound howitzers. A large amount of stores was destroyed
or carried away. |
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During Reconstruction, Harper’s Weekly
cartoonist Thomas Nast used Fort Pillow as a symbol
of the violent barbarism of former-Confederates who
dominated the Southern wing of the Democratic party.
The artist particularly associated Fort Pillow with
General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who had been in
charge of Confederate troops at the massacre.
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