Fort Pillow, April 12, 1864: the committee's own words
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet provenDisputed: argued, often by a hostile witness
Year: 1864 · Places: Tennessee, Gulf Coast
SUMMARYFort Pillow, April 12, 1864: the committee's own words (Nov 8, 2026; TANASI line research). RECORD (Fort Pillow Massacre, Reports of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, 38th Congress, 1st Session, Rep. Com. No. 63; "May 5, 1864.—Ordered to be printed"; Project Gutenberg text): garrison "amounted to 19 officers and 538 enlisted men, of whom 262 were colored troops," including "one battalion of the 6th United States heavy artillery, (formerly called the 1st Alabama artillery" (p. 3); "Major Booth was the ranking officer"; on his death "Major Bradford succeeded to the command" (p. 3); "The rebels commenced an indiscriminate slaughter, sparing neither age nor sex, white or black, soldier or civilian" (p. 4); "men, women, and even children, wherever found, were deliberately shot down, beaten, and hacked with sabres" (p. 4); "The huts and tents in which many of the wounded had sought shelter were set on fire, both that night and the next morning, while the wounded were still in them"; "another was nailed to the side of a building outside of the fort, and then the building set on fire and burned"; "the rebels buried some of the living with the dead" (p. 5); "at least, 300 were murdered in cold blood after the post was in possession of the rebels" (p. 6). Forrest's own demand at Paducah, quoted in the report: "If you surrender you shall be treated as prisoners of war, but if I have to storm your works you may expect no quarter" (p. 2)
RECORD (National Archives, Rediscovering Black History, Apr. 8, 2014)"more than 300 black soldiers were killed"; records: Senate Report 63 (Serial 1178), House Report 65 (Serial 1278)
PATTERNthe terms "prisoners of war" were on offer in Forrest's own words; at Fort Pillow they were not honored for the Black troops
DISPUTEDConfederate accounts and later defenders deny a planned massacre (the NARA post quotes Confederate sources calling Forrest "utterly devoid of wrong doing")
LENS (WW9)PRISONERS OF WAR: memorial wording only (no figures, no gore on garments)
OPENForrest's April 1864 report in the Official Records (the "river was dyed" line is NOT in the committee text; do not quote it until the OR page is opened); muster rolls of the 6th USCHA and 2nd USCLA (NARA) for names; Henning/Lauderdale County site. Connects: P847, P849, P868.