What was the Fort Pillow Massacre A Union

What were the questions surrounding the event? How were they settled? 1. Did Confederates

2. More controversy had to do with the treatment of black soldiers captured at

3. Another no brainer was the question of whether this incident was racially motivated.

Coincidence? ? . . . General who commanded the attack on the fort: Nathan

How did this affect the Union Campaign? • Take a moment to discuss this.

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What was the Fort Pillow Massacre? • A Union fort located on a bluff by the Mississippi River in Tennessee • Attacked by 1500 cavalry Confederates on April 12, 1864 • Union soldiers at the fort numbered 557, 226 of which were black. • Around 3 pm General Nathan Bedford Forest (Confederate) demanded the surrender of the fort, but Federal (Union) officer, Major William Bradford, refused. At this, General Forest ordered the raid of the fort which resulted in 231 dead Union soldiers and 100 gravely wounded.

What were the questions surrounding the event? How were they settled? 1. Did Confederates attack before or after the Union soldiers at the fort surrendered? If they had in fact surrendered ("unarmed”) this would have been considered a massacre and war crime. • The south maintained that the attack happened before they surrendered. The truth is that union troops had surrendered before the attack happened.

2. More controversy had to do with the treatment of black soldiers captured at the Fort. • Following the incident at Fort Pillow, a federal committee was created to investigate the events and details taken place at the Fort. The witness accounts revealed that black soldiers were brutally murdered by Confederate soldiers • Black soldiers were not taken as POWs, they were just killed. • Confederate policies toward black soldiers were: -killed -enslaved -Re-enslaved

3. Another no brainer was the question of whether this incident was racially motivated. • Black civilians were also killed during the massacre. Not just black soldiers.