A Refutation of Yankee Slanders

Abstract

As with any war, the American Civil War had numerous atrocities and gory battles. Fort Pillow was just one of countless battles fought during the war, but it caught the attention of both the North and the South in 1864. Union newspapers ripped into the Confederacy and Major-General Nathan Bedford Forrest, claiming that he and his cavalry had massacred the Union garrison at Fort Pillow in western Tennessee. Northern newspapers used the Battle of Fort Pillow as just another example of the depravity of the South and its military leaders. Although the North reviled Nathan Bedford Forrest, to much of the Confederacy he was the “Wizard of the Saddle.” The Union garrison stationed on the Mississippi River represented all that the South abhorred, so Northern threats of revenge or retribution for the massacre did not cow the South. Instead Southern citizens and soldiers alike lauded this Confederate victory. Even those Confederates who were not overjoyed at the news did not express fear of reprisal. However, few today remember Fort Pillow and Forrest’s involvement. As Jack Hurst wrote, “Fort Pillow, for better or for worst, is all but forgotten.”^{<a href="https://philologiavt.org/index.php/philologia/article/view/97/63#note1">1</a>}