Because of the width of the parapet, operators of the six artillery pieces of the fort found it difficult to depress their barrels enough to fire on the attackers once they got close.)

[7] On March 16, 1864, Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest launched a month-long cavalry raid with 7,000 troopers into West Tennessee and Kentucky.

The first of the two significant engagements in the expedition was the Battle of Paducah on March 25, where Forrest's men did considerable damage to the town and its military supplies.

Many of the regiment were formerly enslaved people who understood the personal cost of a loss to the Confederates—at best, an immediate return to slavery rather than being treated as a prisoner of war.

The white soldiers were predominantly recruits from Bradford's Battalion, a U.S. Army unit from west Tennessee commanded by Maj. William F.

[citation needed] Rifle and artillery fire continued until 3:30 when Forrest sent a note demanding surrender: "The conduct of the officers and men garrisoning Fort Pillow has been such as to entitle them to being treated as prisoners of war.

[14][15] Forrest, who believed that reinforcing troops would soon arrive by a river, replied that he would only allow 20 minutes, and that "If at the expiration of that time the fort is not surrendered, I shall assault it.

The garrison fought briefly but then broke and ran to the landing at the foot of the bluff, where they had been told that the U.S. Navy gunboat would cover their withdrawal by firing grapeshot and canister rounds.

[citation needed] Although Confederate sources say that Forrest's forces kept firing in self-defense,[20] official U.S. reports emphasize that a deliberate massacre occurred.

Surviving members of the garrison said that most of their men surrendered and threw down their arms, only to be shot or bayoneted by the attackers, who repeatedly shouted, "No quarter!

Stories appeared April 16 in The New York Times, New York Herald, New-York Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Cincinnati Gazette, and St. Louis Missouri Democrat, based on telegraph reports from Cairo, Illinois, where the steamer Platte Valley, carrying survivors, had called so that they could be taken to a hospital at nearby Mound City, Illinois, and those that had expired on the ship could be buried.

A letter from one of Forrest's sergeants, Achilles V. Clark, writing to his sisters on April 14, reads in part: Our men were so exasperated by the Yankee's threats of no quarter that they gave but little.

The poor deluded negros would run up to our men fall on their knees and with uplifted hands scream for mercy but they were ordered to their feet and then shot down.

[25] Historian Andrew Ward in 2005 concluded that an atrocity in the modern sense occurred at Fort Pillow, but that the event was not premeditated nor officially sanctioned by Confederate commanders.

Historian Richard Fuchs, the author of An Unerring Fire, concludes, "The affair at Fort Pillow was simply an orgy of death, a mass lynching to satisfy the basest of conduct—intentional murder—for the vilest of reasons—racism and personal enmity.

Forrest's men insisted that the U.S. soldiers, although fleeing, kept their weapons and frequently turned to shoot, forcing the Confederates to keep firing in self-defense.

They read headlines announcing "Attack on Fort Pillow—Indiscriminate Slaughter of the Prisoners—Shocking Scenes of Savagery"; dispatches from Sherman's army declaring "there is a general gritting of teeth here"; reports from the Missouri Democrat detailing the "fiendishness" of rebel behavior; and editorials like that in the Chicago Tribune condemning the "murder" and "butchery".

[33]The New York Times reported on April 24: The blacks and their officers were shot down, bayoneted and put to the sword in cold blood. ...

[39] Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, Commander of the Military Division of the Mississippi, which included Tennessee, wrote: The massacre at Fort Pillow occurred April 12, 1864, and has been the subject of congressional inquiry.

[43] The Confederates evacuated Fort Pillow that evening and gained little from the battle except causing a temporary disruption to U.S. Army operations.

"[45] This demand was refused; Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon in June 1864 wrote: I doubt, however, whether the exchange of negroes at all for our soldiers would be tolerated.

[48] Nevertheless, the same merciless behavior was exhibited by Southern troops after the Battle of the Crater in July 1864, where surrendering black U.S. soldiers were shot rather than taken prisoner.

[52][53] Secretary of the Interior John P. Usher wrote that it was "inexpedient to take any extreme action" and wanted the officers of Forrest's command to be held responsible.

Blair cited page 445 of the book International Law; or, Rules Regulating the Intercourse of States in Peace and War, written by Henry W. Halleck (the U.S. Chief of Staff), as justification for retaliation.

[56] Welles wrote of the cabinet meeting on May 6: Stanton fell in with my suggestion, so far as to propose that, should Forrest, or Chalmers, or any officer conspicuous in this butchery be captured, he should be turned over for trial for the murders at Fort Pillow.

[58] Ultimately, Lincoln chose no action on the issue, as he sadly noted to Frederick Douglass: "if once begun, there was no telling where [retaliation] would end."

Lincoln further stated that only victory would genuinely bring justice, as the perpetrators "can only be effectually reached by a successful prosecution of the war".

As the signage at the Fort Pillow site makes little reference to the black soldiers killed, a wreath-laying ceremony, with color guard and a 21-gun salute, was held on April 12, 2017, at the cemetery to commemorate them.

[61] James Lockett compared the Confederacy's policy toward colored U.S. Army troops—"no quarter"—with the lynching and other violence against blacks after the war.

[62] Numerous novelists have included the Fort Pillow story, including Frank Yerby's The Foxes of Harrow, James Sherburne's The Way to Fort Pillow; Allen Ballard, Where I'm Bound; Jesse Hill Ford, The Raider; and Charles Gordon Yeager, Fightin' with Forest.