Muskets and Applejack by Mark Will-Weber

Author:Mark Will-Weber
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781621575597
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
Published: 2017-07-11T16:00:00+00:00

THE FORT PILLOW MASSACRE: WHISKEY ON THE WALLS

Perhaps one of the most controversial incidents of the war involved CSA cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest and the so-called “Fort Pillow Massacre”—a dark day in American history in which whiskey most certainly played a role.

Forrest himself was not a drinker; in fact, one of his staff officers once stated that he only observed the general drink “liquor” (which is what Forrest apparently called it, whether it was brandy or whiskey or rum) on two occasions—both times when he was wounded and advised to take a few swallows by an army surgeon.

Forrest’s troops had recently conducted a series of successful raids in both western Kentucky and Tennessee during the month of March. General Forrest—“The Wizard of the Saddle”—approached Fort Pillow (situated north of Memphis on the Mississippi River) primarily to replenish his cavalry with fresh horses and supplies. On April 12, greatly out-numbering the garrison of about 600 men, the Confederates, under a flag of truce, demanded an immediate surrender, and, by some accounts, said they would show “no quarter” to the defenders if they chose to fight. The surrender was refused. In the subsequent attack, Forrest’s hardened veterans captured some outer positions around the fort (including some barrels of whiskey that some Johnnies certainly sampled).

Soon it was clear the Union defenders—comprised almost equally of black and white troops—were unlikely to hold. Most of the hapless Yankees abruptly fled the fort and headed for the river where they hoped Union gunboats might provide cover or escape. But according to the rebels, many of the defenders were intoxicated on barrels of alcohol that were situated on the very walls of the fort. The insinuation seemed to be that these soldiers—emboldened by booze—were too fired up to surrender. As Forrest himself later told it:

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