A TASTE OF
THE OLDLINER MAGAZINE

ISSUE FIVE

Fascinating Articles from the American Civil War


Researched and written by Philip Day And Trevor Stevens
Of The 1st Maryland Infantry C.S.A. U/K
 

THE FIGHTING AT FORT DESPERATE

As one of the final Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi River, Port Hudson, Louisiana, drew increased Federal attention in the spring of 1863.  The Northerners at last managed to bring the bastion under siege, putting the Confederate defenders to a stern test.  Of the many instances of Southern bravery during the 48 day siege, few equalled that of the defence of "Fort Desperate".  This detached lunette standing on an exposed ridge at the north east angle of the Confederate entrenchments protected the approaches to the garrison's ordnance depot, grist mill and granary.
Men of the 15th Arkansas Infantry Regiment, commanded by Colonel Benjamin W. Johnson held this critical section of the battlefield.  Johnson had but 292 officers and men under him when the siege began and 2 twelve pounder howitzers of Company B, lst Mississippi Light Artillery.
On the morning of May 27th, six companies of the 15th Arkansas left the earthwork to support other troops trying to stall the Union armies advance.  Later the Arkansans fell back before the more numerous enemy and resumed their places inside the lunette.  During this early skirmishing, an enemy artillery shell disabled one of the howitzers.  Rather than risk injury to his remaining cannon, Johnson moved it to a ravine to the rear of the position, leaving his infantry to hold the line without close artillery support.
Most of the Arkansans held outdated smoothbore muskets, some of them altered flintlocks.
About 10 a.m. the Federals attacked the lunette with four regiments.  They struggled through deep ravines choked with felled trees whose branches had been sharpened to form an abatis.  Johnson's men held their fire until the enemy had approached to within 60 yards.  Only then did the Arkansans Jump up with a shout and delivered volleys of buck and ball into the Federals.  One Union soldier called it "a perfect storm of bullets." The Confederate fire broke the attack.  The Union soldiers charged again and the second assault failed.  The enemy advanced a third time.  Many northerners managed to get to the moat before the lunette this time, but after several bloody, unsuccessful attempts to get over the wall, the Federals contented themselves with the shelter of the ditch.  The two sides hurled dirt, sticks and abuse at each other over the parapet.  Finally, Union soldiers in the distant woods raised the white flag, and the Confederates held their fire to honour the truce.  Under cover of this ruse, the Federals in the moat, quickly made their escape to the safety of the woods.
Union losses amounted to some 420 men in killed and wounded.  Johnson's men suffered 76 men in killed, wounded and captured during the day.  So fierce had been the fighting, that the men of the 15th Arkansas christened their position "Fort Desperate," They refused to leave the lunette for rest during the entire siege and held it without rest or reinforcement.  By the time of the surrender of the garrison an July 9th, the 15th Arkansas had lost 35 men killed, 85 wounded and 11 missing - 46% of the men present for duty when the siege began.
According to Captain Richard McClung, the defence of the fort was "one succession of charges and repulses, we lived on fire and excitement.  We lay in the ditches, in the blood of fallen comrades".

THE ALLEDGED FORT PILLOW MASSACRE

The surrender ultimatum reached Federal General William F Bradford, commander of the Union garrison Fort Pillow, Tennessee, under a flag of truce shortly after 3.00 pm on 12 April 1864.  "Should my demand be refused, I cannot be responsible for your command", read the message from Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
The presence of several Union boats on the nearby Mississippi River within sight of the Confederate position, including a steamer, apparently filled with troops, possibly destined to reinforce the Federal stronghold, prompted Forrest to give Bradford only 20 minutes to make up his mind.
"If at the expiration of that time the Fort is not surrendered, I shall assault it", Forest warned.
Two days earlier Forrest embarked with his division from Jackson, Mississippi, on a raiding expedition aimed at Union operations in Tennessee and Kentucky.  Fort Pillow was once a Confederate stronghold constructed early in the War. it was about 40 miles north of Memphis, Tennessee, and sat on high bluffs overlooking the east bank of the Mississippi.  It had a length of 125 yards and was enclosed on three sides by a moat 6 feet deep and 12 feet wide.  The Fort's walls of packed dirt were 4 feet thick at the top and 8 feet at ground level.  Six cannon were mounted at embrasures cut. into the walls.  Rifle pits comprised an outer defence and the main aim of this bastion was to protect navigation along the Mississippi.
In Spring 1864, Fort Pillow was garrisoned by 557 Federal troops commanded by Major Lionel F Booth.  This force consisted of 262 black troops of the llth US Coloured Troops (6th US Coloured Artillery); Battery F. US Coloured Light Artillery, and 295 white soldiers of Major Bradford's Battalion of the 13th Tennessee Cavalry, enlisted from the Unionist population of East Tennessee. Supporting the Fort from the river was the US Navy tin clad, New Era.
In the pre dawn darkness of 12 April 1864, 1500 veteran cavalrymen of Forrest's command galloped up to the perimeter of Fort Pillow.  The Confederates drove the Federal pickets back to the main line, while dismounted sharpshooters fired into the Fort from some low hills.  Sheltered behind logs, the Confederates opened a long range fire fight with the Federals that lasted till mid morning.  At 9.15, Major Booth was

killed by a sniper's bullet, and command fell to Major Bradford.  Due to an earlier skirmish, Forrest did not arrive until 10. 00 am and he was quick to act. His trained eye found flaws in the Federal defences, and Forrest manoeuvred his troops to positions from which they could attack the Fort without being exposed to counter fire from the Fort or gunboat. In fact the construction of the Fort itself worked to Forrest's advantage. In the words of a Confederate observer, "The thickness of the works across the top prevented the garrison from firing down on us, as it could only be done by mounting and exposing themselves to the fire of our sharpshooters". Another advantage was that the Federal cannon could not aim their guns low enough to blast the attackers at close range.  Another Confederate observer noted "We were as well fortified as they were, the only difference was that they were on one side and we were on the other of the same fortification". At 11.00 am, Forrest launched a general assault on the Fort that netted him the barracks compound, Just south of the earthworks.  From that position, Forrest's men delivered a blistering fire at the Fort's interior.  The steady exchange of gunfire through the morning and early afternoon began to tell on the ammunition supplies an both sides. At 1.00 pm, the New Era, its supply of shrapnel and canister exhausted, steered away from Fort Pillow to a re-supply point down river.
 At about the same time, the Confederate fire slackened as their supply diminished and a supply train failed to arrive. When the supply train finally arrived at about 3.00 pm, Forrest completed preparations for another attack and delivered his surrender ultimatum to MaJor Bedford.  While some members of the garrison shouted taunts and profanities at their enemies, Bradford issued his succinct reply,
"I will not surrender'.
The end came swift and hard. As Confederate sharpshooters on the hills outside the Fort kept up a deadly cover fire, the bulk of Forrest's troops moved forward to attack the main fortification.  Leaping into the ditch around the Fort, the brawnier men hoisted comrades on to the steep earth walls. Virtually unexposed to Union fire in this position, the Confederates rallied at the foot of the parapets and then swarmed en masse up and over the embankments. Federal defenders resisted against overwhelming odds. Except for scattered pockets of hand to hand combat, the Federal defence within the Fort collapsed after a brief melee.  The tumult spread beyond the confines of Fort Pillow as surviving blue coats broke and raced for the bluffs, leading down to the landing at the river's edge.  Like a blue wave the Federals spilled down the slope. From the bluffs above the landing, Forrest's men poured volley after volley into the fugitives below. As the fleeing Federals descended the cliff, their ranks were also torn by cross fire from Confederate units that had earlier shifted into positions along the riverbank.  Some desperate Federals dived into the water only to drown or become targets for Confederate marksmen.  Some tried to re-scale the sheer face on the bluff, once again exposing themselves to Confederate rifles.  Other Federals dropped their weapons and raised their hands to surrender.  At this point in the fight, a controversy arose that still rages today.  Some Federal soldiers claimed that black soldiers were gunned down while attempting to surrender and that both black and white wounded Federals were shot and killed where they lay, until Forrest and others managed to put a stop to the killing. Confederates claimed that the losses were inflicted during the Federal retreat to the riverbank, before any surrender signals were raised. Some Confederates claimed that many of the blacks picked up weapons and attempted to fight after they had surrendered. There are many unsubstantiated accounts of additional atrocities.  Certainly racial and sectional animosities stirred the passions of Forrest's victorious Confederates. The lopsided casualty lists are evidence for legitimate concern about what transpired at Fort Pillow.  Was there a massacre at the Fort on 12 April 1864?  The truth concerning what really happened that Spring afternoon on the steep bluffs along the Mississippi remains as elusive today as it was over 130 years ago.

Casualties at Fort Pillow:

Confederate killed 14; wounded 86; captured/missing 0.
Federal killed 231;   wounded 100; captured 226.

only 58 of the 262 black soldiers engaged were taken prisoner.


 

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