The Ft. Pillow Myth

By Jeff Paulk, 22 July, 2026

By now it should be no surprise to us that the “official report” on most anything given to us by the government has a long history of not being true. At least most of what it says anyway. That holds true with the subject of the “Ft. Pillow Massacre”, as well as with the “Lawrence Massacre”. In both cases, there was no massacre. That’s right. You’ve been lied to yet again. Will it never stop? Probably not. All we can do is refute the lies with truth. That’s why I’m here, and it’s what I do.

You can Google The History Channel, the U.S. National Park Service, The NY Times, and a host of other sources and you will get pretty much the same story; Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his men “massacred in large numbers” the Union forces overtaken at Ft. Pillow, the majority of those killed being black. In all fairness, The History Channel does not come down firmly on the side of the Yankees, and does say the subject is still debated.

The “official story” of what took place at Ft. Pillow has more to do with fabricating some re-election propaganda for Lincoln than it does with telling the truth. Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest is probably the most slandered of our Confederate heroes. The top two WWII generals, Patton and Rommel, were admirers of Forrest, and his tactics are studied in military academies worldwide today. One of the greatest slanders against Forrest is that he killed black Union soldiers who were trying to surrender at Ft. Pillow. Not only is this not true, but he rode his horse in between black soldiers and some of his men who were about to fire on them, saving their lives. But we never get informed of that version. We only get the Yankee-fabricated one.

The fact is, Forrest had such a reputation among the Union soldiers for the generosity he showed towards his captives that it is recorded by both sides that many times the Union prisoners would applaud Forrest when they read the terms, as they were usually paroled for prisoner exchange.

In April of 1864, General Forrest led 1,500 Confederates to Ft. Pillow along the Mississippi River. The Union forces had only 557 men, with 262 of those being a Negro militia unit. During the entire battle, Negro troops yelled taunts and profanities at the attacking Confederates. Forrest thought that the Union command would see that their defense of the fort was useless and surrender. Forrest was known for intimidating Union forts into surrender with little or no fight.

In the Battle of Ft. Pillow, Forrest had his horse shot out from under him while carrying a flag of truce. This was a clear violation of the rules of engagement. As General Forrest tried a number of times to get the inhabitants of the fort to surrender, he had a second horse killed, and a third one was badly injured.

The Yankees knew they had three steamships coming down the Mississippi with reinforcements and sent notes to Forrest begging for more time to consider surrendering. Forrest had already positioned troops to block the steamboats from landing. As Forrest’s men attacked the fort, 14 Confederates were killed and 86 were wounded. Both commanders of the fort were killed. 228 of the 557 Union troops were taken prisoner and 32 or more wounded were allowed medical care at the fort hospital. The rest of the Yankee troops either died, drowned in the river, or deserted. When the Confederates charged the fort, only the white troops resisted. As was common in so many battles, the black troops broke rank and panicked. Many escaped out of the back of the fort and jumped into the Mississippi River. It is believed that many drowned, and some deserted.

During a truce, 228 Union prisoners, black and white, were turned over to the Union army in good condition. The entire battle was over in less than 20 minutes, as opposed to the fort being “under siege for days” as sometimes reported. Nearly 1,000 Confederate soldiers stormed the fort after making human ladders to breach the earthworks.

Lincoln needed to boost his chances of re-election and needed to vilify the South. He didn’t want the word of this humiliating defeat getting out to the public, so the “massacre” was invented. Pro-Lincoln Congressmen decided that it would be good for Lincoln’s campaign if the word was put out that General Forrest massacred black troops who were trying to surrender.

In Cairo, IL, about 100 eyewitness accounts were taken of what actually took place at the battle. Almost all were thrown out because they did not align with the story that the pro-Lincoln committee wanted. Officers of the Negro regiment admitted there was no effort to surrender to the Confederates.

A slanderous report was drawn up and 40,000 copies printed for distribution. It stated that it was the Confederates, not the Union soldiers, who violated the flag of truce at Ft. Pillow, and that the Confederates yelled “no quarter” and “black flag” as they stormed the fort. It also stated that Forrest gave the order to kill the black troops. Of course, none of this is true, but it became the “official report”.

General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s tactics and training were extremely effective. This is why the Confederacy repeatedly changed his command so he would continually have new soldiers. The Confederacy knew that under his command, he would continually be producing elite fighting men.

So, there is another Yankee myth, “The Ft. Pillow Massacre”, that never happened. As the famous comedian, Jerry Clower, used to tell about Nugene Ledbedder; “he would climb a tree to get to tell you a lie when he could stand on the ground and tell you the truth”. That seems to be the way it is with “those people”, as General Robert E. Lee called them. They will go through great extremes to lie to us rather than tell the truth.