The Hard Reality of Fort Pillow: Interpreting the Massacre of US Colored Troops in 1864

Cold Creek during the Civil War. This was part of the Mississippi River before 1908. This location begins the pontoon boat tour.

Fort Pillow State Historic Park Staff

Recipient: Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (Lauderdale County, TN)
Amount: $50,000.00

Following the Emancipation Proclamation, the United States War Department issued General Order No. 143, creating the United States Colored Troops (USCT) on May 22, 1863. By the end of the Civil War, over 170,000 men had fought in USCT regiments, approximately 7% of the Union Army. While between 38 – 40,000 colored troops died from combat, disease, and other causes. A death rate 35% higher than white regiments, and a stark reality made grimmer by the fact that the US Colored Troops did not fight for the first 18 months of the war.

There were multiple reasons for this higher death toll on USCT soldiers, but the most prevalent was racism. In response to General Order No 143, the Confederacy issued a law that any black soldiers or white officers captured from a USCT regiment would be tried as slave insurrectionists – not prisoners of war. A charge that was seen as a capital offense in Confederate Courts, making their capture an automatic death sentence. But few colored troops were captured during the war. Instead, they were often massacred at battles like the Crater, Saltville, and Fort Pillow.

Located on a bluff above the Mississippi River, Fort Pillow was primarily a supply depot for the Union and Confederate armies, changing hands bloodlessly during the first years of the Civil War. However, in 1864 the fort became the target of Confederate raiders under Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest, because his men needed fresh horses. Attacked and quickly overwhelmed by Forrest’s larger force, the Fort’s garrison of USCT and Tennessee Unionists attempted to retreat but were massacred in large numbers without the option to surrender. The exact number of casualties are still being debated by historians to this day, but of the approximately 300 USCT soldiers stationed at Fort Pillow, only 58 are believed to have been captured alive. The rest killed or listed as missing, most likely drowned trying to escape over the river. Severe facts that state agencies in Tennessee are now trying to interpret at the Fort Pillow State Historical Park.

Using the financial support of a Battlefield Interpretation Grant, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation will develop and install new interpretive panels, museum exhibits, and augmented reality (AR) options at Fort Pillow. Updated educational tools that the department intends to facilitate a deeper understanding of the complexities of the Massacre. Telling the stories of USCT soldiers stationed at the fort, and highlighting the forts use as a contraband camp earlier in the war.

Battlefield Interpretation Grants from the NPS American Battlefield Protection Program support preservation partners efforts to modernize and enhance battlefield interpretation. Helping to create learning environments that inspire diverse audiences to visit, understand, and empathize with the soldiers and civilians that witnessed some of our nation’s most challenging events. In addition to this grant opportunity, the program also provides financial assistance through Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants, Battlefield Restoration Grants, and Preservation Planning Grants, to help generate community-driven stewardship of historic resources at the state, tribal and local levels.