Adjutant’s Call - September 2021
Circular Memorandum #528 - September 2021
“The River Was Dyed with Blood: Nathan Bedford Forrest and Fort Pillow” Presented by Brian Steel Wills
Meet Our Speaker – Brian Steel Wills
Brian Steel Wills is the Director of the Center for the Study of the Civil War Era and Professor of History at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga. Dr. Wills is a member of the Georgia Civil War Commission and immediate past President of the Atlanta Civil War Round Table. He is also the author of numerous works relating to the American Civil War. His latest publication is Inglorious Passages: Noncombat Deaths in the American Civil War (Kansas, 2017) received the 2018 Richard Barksdale Harwell Award winner for the best book on a Civil War topic for the year 2017 presented by the Atlanta Civil War Round Table.
His biography of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, A Battle From the Start: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest (HarperCollins) is currently in reprint as The Confederacy’s Greatest Cavalryman: Nathan Bedford Forrest (Kansas). This work was chosen as both a History Book Club selection and a Book of the Month Club selection.
His other titles include The River was Dyed with Blood: Nathan Bedford Forrest and Fort Pillow (Oklahoma, 2014); Confederate General William Dorsey Pender: The Hope of Glory (Louisiana State University, 2013); George Henry Thomas: As True as Steel (Kansas, 2012), which was the recipient of the 2013 Harwell Award; Gone with the Glory: The Civil War in Cinema (Rowman and Littlefield, 2006); The War Hits Home: The Civil War in Southeastern Virginia, (Virginia, 2001) and an updated edition of the James I. “Bud” Robertson, Jr., Civil War Sites in Virginia (Virginia, 2011).
In 2000, Dr. Wills received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Commonwealth of Virginia, one of eleven recipients from all faculty members at public and private institutions across the state. He has also received the Charles L. Dufour Award from the Civil War Round Table of New Orleans in 2013 and just named the recipient of the Frank E. Vandiver Award of Merit in 2020 by the Houston Civil War Round Table.
“The River Was Dyed with Blood: N.B. Forrest and Fort Pillow”
As the campaigning season for 1864 got underway, Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest prepared to assert his presence in the western theater of the Civil War once more. He had established a powerful reputation as “the Wizard of the Saddle” through the earlier course of the conflict and demonstrated his prowess in raids, pursuits, traditional cavalry roles and departmental operations. Forrest enjoyed a solid record of besting his opponents and making the most of limited resources to accomplish impressive ends.
Now, General Forrest looked to ground that had already proven to be lucrative for his command in western Tennessee and Kentucky. Raids through the region had secured him supplies and recruits, thrown his opponents into nervous turmoil and challenged the impressive string of successes Federal arms had secured at Vicksburg and Port Hudson in the previous summer. Forrest was determined to make his mark once more.
This foray into Kentucky led to a mixed reception at Paducah, where a stout defense from the garrison of Fort Anderson and gunboats thwarted Confederate intentions. Forrest turned back into Western Tennessee, identified a new target, and proceeded toward it. Fort Pillow lay on the Mississippi River, approximately fifty miles north of Memphis. A Union garrison of between 557 and 580 black and white troops held the post under Major Lionel Booth. Booth anticipated no immediate threat but had the gunboat New Era nearby to augment his firepower, should one arise. What followed became one of the most controversial episodes of the Civil War. Brian Wills’ presentations will explain in detail what happened at Fort Pillow and the aftermath.