Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest to Lutinent Colonel Thomas M. Jack, Major-General Commanding. April 15, 1864

"The victory was complete, and the loss of the enemy will never be known from the fact that large numbers ran into the river and were shot and drowned. ... The river was dyed with the blood of the slaughtered for 200 yards... It is hoped that these facts will demonstrate to the Northern people that negro soldiers cannot cope with Southerners." 

Since I cannot post the link to this primary as I have with others, I have provided part of the letter from Forrest to Jack that spoke of the tremendous victory by the Rebels at Fort Pillow that I will reference in this post.

The tone taken by Forrest in this particular communication to his superior, Lient. Col. Jack was very grandiose. In parts of the letter he speaks of clearing all Tennessee of Greenbacks and Tories and says with time he could do the same with Kentucky. The final sentence provided above is another example of grandiose speech by Forrest. I say this because previous to Fort Pillow, a very select few battles featured black soldiers. Black soldiers were not even allowed to serve in the U.S. Army until the beginning of 1863.  Forrest was applying one battle in which Rebels heavily out numbered the Union forces to the entire viability of the black soldier. Forrest, aside from having the common Southern views of the time, also hoped to demonstrate the inequality and inability of blacks to the Northern people because less than a week before the Battle of Fort Pillow, the 13th Amendment was passed in the Senate. One could argue that Fort Pillow was not meant to be a regular battle in Forrest's mind, it was meant to be a statement by the South that blacks were not worthy of the freedoms they would be granted in the United States.

The tone taken by Forrest in his letters to superiors has been noted by other secondary authors who claimed the massacre to be a blood-lust for blacks by the South. In reviewing this particular letter, I am not surprised they arrived at such a conclusion. There is a compelling argument to be made that Forrest's views towards blacks were extremely unfavorable and that the massacre was carried out in pure racism. However, since I am evaluating the Northern news reports, speeches and congressional findings with scrutiny that they were meant to be political, I should also take the same approach to Forrest.

First, Forrest is writing to a superior, he cannot claim (as secondary authors have) that the massacre occurred because he had no control over his forces once the Fort was taken. If he were to say that he had no control and thats why so many blacks were murdered, his position could be in jeopardy.  The South was more concerned about winning back land than about Reconstruction in 1864 so any win would be beneficial. Forrest may have seen Fort Pillow as a possible statement win that might scare black soldiers from fighting in the future if his forces destroyed them in large numbers. If that were to happen, the South would be in better shape since the Confederate Army struggled to find soldiers. In the letter, Forrest mentions to Jack that he has not been conscripting, or forcing men to join the Army, because he has been too busy fighting. If Jack was pressing upon Forrest and other colonels to actively recruit while they went base to base fighting, that could be an indication that at this time in the war the South knew it had to do something drastic to even the difference in the size of the armies.

Although I am making some claims based off of speculation, I think it is entirely possible that Forrest embraced the blood shed at Fort Pillow as a moment to make a statement to the North right after the passing of the 13th Amendment and the use of black soldiers.

Forrest, Nathan Bedford. letter to Thomas M. Jack "Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest to Lutinent Colonel Thomas M. Jack, Major-General Commanding." (April 15, 1865) in United States War Department. “Operations in Kentucky, Southwest Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and North Georgia. January 1-April 30, 1864.” In The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 1-703. Washington: Govt. Print Office 1891. http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/m/moawar/text/waro0057.txt