Massacres, just so passé!
Richard Law, UTC 2026-04-12 16:15
Years ago I had a phase when I took an interest in the American Civil War (1861-1865). Most British know or knew little about that brutal conflict – we had plenty of our own wars to think about.
Today, some relatively aimless surfing about the war produced some serendipity: on this day, 12 April 1864, the Battle of Fort Pillow in Tennessee was fought. The fort was held at the time by the Union Army. The Confederate attack was extremely violent and bloodthirsty. The Confederate attackers had made it clear that – to use a phrase that has become notoriously current in recent weeks (©P.Hegseth) – 'no quarter' would be given.
Illustration of the Fort Pillow attack from 'Frank Leslie's Newspaper', May 1864. Text: Fort Pillow State Historic Park. Image: Library of Congress.
They were as good as their word: the result was a massacre carried out with extreme ferocity. The broad, flat tops of the protective earthworks, intended as a defence, became a comfortable firing stand from which the Confederate riflemen could pick off the defenders with easy impunity. A particular feature of the attack was the hatred of the Confederates for the numerous black troops fighting for the Union Army, who were shot, stabbed or clubbed to death even as they surrendered.
General Nathan Bedford Forrest commanded Confederate forces during the April 12, 1864 attack on Fort Pillow. Forrest remained a controversial figure after the war for his association with groups such as the Klu Klux Klan. Controversy over his role in the events of the Fort Pillow attack and its aftermath followed him until his death in 1877. Text: Fort Pillow State Historic Park. Image: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Brady-Handy Collection.
Poking about a little bit more we find that, according to the website of Fort Pillow State Historic Park, the scene of this gruesome slaughter is now just a place to take the family camping or sightseeing. The website itself offers only the most oblique allusion to the battle: 'There is a 12-minute video on the 1864 Battle shown by request as well as tours of the museum and restored fortifications.' The list of forthcoming attractions offers no commemoration of the battle. Some persistence in clicking around the website will take you to 'About', from whence a button marked 'Read park history' will take you to a full, quite well-written account of the massacre.
With the American Civil War we are still in the age of mano a mano warfare that had been the case since the dawn of human history, an age when massacre was the rule and prisoner-taking the exception, unless in the cause of holding the rich to ransom.
The legacy of the events a Fort Pillow remains powerful. Prints by publishers such as Kurz and Allen, produced decades after the war continued to depict the 1864 events at the fort. Text: Fort Pillow State Historic Park. Image: Courtesy Tennessee State Library and Archives.
Down the centuries the basic mano a mano was supplemented by some technological devilry such as guns, but that age is now long past. Nowadays, a Tomahawk missile launched from a thousand or more kilometres away would obliterate every person – the just and the unjust, every living thing, in fact – in Fort Pillow. No one speaks of 'surrendering' or 'prisoner-taking'. Secretary Hegseth said the quiet part out loud: 'no quarter'.
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