DOCSLIB.ORG

Confederate Guerrillas and the Defense of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Confederate Guerrillas and the Defense of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad A Unique Hell in Southwestern Virginia: Confederate Guerrillas and the Defense of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Nicholas A. Nowland Thesis submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts In History Paul D. Quigley, Chair A. Roger Ekirch Daniel B. Thorp 22 August, 2016 Blacksburg, Virginia Keywords: Civil War; Southwestern Virginia; Guerrillas; Partisan Rangers; Bushwhackers; Home Guards; Guerrilla Warfare Copyright 2016 by Nicholas A. Nowland ii A Unique Hell in Southwestern Virginia: Confederate Guerrillas and the Defense of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Nicholas A. Nowland ABSTRACT During the United States Civil War, southwestern Virginia was mired in a bloody guerrilla conflict that involved Confederate irregular combatants defending the region from invading or raiding Union Army forces. Simmering for the entirety of the war, this conflict revolved around the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad (V&T), a critical railway that ran through southwestern Virginia and connected the southwestern Confederacy with Richmond and the rest of Virginia. As the war progressed, this railway moved increasingly large amounts of foodstuffs and minerals vital to the Confederate war effort, and by the later stages of the war it was the most important railway in the South. Union Army commanders in West Virginia recognized the incredible importance of the V&T to the Confederacy, and launched a multitude of major and minor invasions and raids into southwestern Virginia with the intent of crippling the railroad. Confederate partisan rangers, bushwhackers, and home guards played separate roles in weakening, distracting, and hampering Union Army operations in southwestern Virginia, thereby helping to defend the V&T from attacks. Their actions played a crucial role in ensuring the survival of the railroad until nearly the end of the war, and thus Confederate guerrillas had a strategic effect on the course of the war in southwestern Virginia. iii A Unique Hell in Southwestern Virginia: Confederate Guerrillas and the Defense of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Nicholas A. Nowland GENERAL AUDIENCE ABSTRACT During the United States Civil War, Confederate guerrillas in southwestern Virginia played a critical role in the defense of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad (V&T) in southwestern Virginia. The V&T ran from Bristol, Tennessee to Lynchburg, Virginia, and connected the fertile fields and mines of southwestern Virginia and the southwestern Confederacy with the rest of Virginia. The railroad proved to be one of the most critical transportation assets in the entire Confederacy, and thus it attracted the attention of Union armies in West Virginia who consistently tried to attack and cripple the railroad throughout the course of the war. Confederate guerrillas weakened, distracted, and hampered Union Army operations in southwestern Virginia, thereby helping to defend the V&T from assaults and enabling the railroad to survive until almost the very end of the conflict. iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis committee members for supporting me during this project and providing me critiques and guidance during their valuable summers. Furthermore, I extend my deepest thanks to Dr. Paul Quigley for serving as my academic advisor and thesis committee chair, and for providing me with constant guidance, critiques, and encouragement as I explored and wrote about Civil War guerrilla warfare. I am also grateful to all the faculty and staff in the History Department who helped me earn my master’s degree in one year, for it was only with their generous aid that I was able to make my compressed schedule work. The History Department and my fellow graduate students immediately made me feel at home at Virginia Tech, and for that I will always be thankful. I am additionally indebted to the library and archival staff at Virginia Tech’s Special Collections and the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their constant love, support, and prayers during this project, and the United States Air Force Academy History Department for sponsoring me to come to Virginia Tech’s Graduate School. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... iv Introduction .........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1-The Virginia & Tennessee Railroad: A Confederate Strategic Asset and Pull Factor for the Union Army ...............................................................................................21 Chapter II-The Forgotten Defenders: Confederate Guerrillas in Southwestern Virginia .40 Chapter III-A Never-Ending Battle: Guerrilla Warfare from the Union Army’s Perspective ........................................................................................................................81 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................115 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................118 vi The views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. 1 Introduction Driving through southwestern Virginia is a particularly delightful experience for motorists cruising down the region’s roads and highways. The area’s curving and climbing roads reward motorists with sweeping vistas of lush valley floors, thickly wooded mountain slopes, and hazy distant mountain ranges that seductively invite drivers to turn off onto a dirt road and search for a secluded corner of the Appalachian Mountains. However, the beautiful and peaceful landscape of southwestern Virginia masks a violent Civil War history as important as that of the oft-studied eastern areas of the state. Although Civil War historians have explored most every battle and skirmish that occurred during the bloody conflict, few scholars have written about the Civil War in southwestern Virginia. This is understandable, since no sixty-thousand man armies tramped through this region, engaging in titanic battles that continue to capture the imagination of readers today. Put simply, the Civil War in northern and eastern Virginia outshined the conflict in southwestern Virginia, stealing historians’ and popular audiences’ attentions. However, the mountains and valley of southwestern Virginia contained a brutal conflict that proved critical to the survival of Virginia during the Civil War. This was because an absolutely crucial railroad running from Bristol, Tennessee to Lynchburg, Virginia defined the conflict in the area.1 Named the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad (V&T), this railway proved to be one of the most important transportation assets in the entire Confederacy for two reasons. First, it connected Virginia with the southwestern Confederacy. Although the V&T ended at Bristol, other railroads continued from there 1 W.W. Blackford, “Map & profile of the Virginia & Tennessee Rail Road,” map, Library of Congress, 1856. 2 farther into Tennessee, linking states like Alabama and Missouri to Virginia.2 Second, the V&T also connected the productive fields, pastures, and mines of southwestern Virginia with Confederate forces and civilian populations throughout Virginia and the Upper South. Southwestern foodstuffs, livestock, and horses helped keep Confederate forces fed and fighting. The region’s productive salt, lead, niter, and coal mines also supplied critical raw materials to factories that kept Confederate armies supplied with ammunition, weapons, and salted rations. These mines depended on the V&T to move their products to customers and factories throughout the South. Southwestern Virginia’s mineral and agricultural wealth meant that the region rivaled the famous Shenandoah Valley, the “Breadbasket of the Confederacy,” in importance. As the war progressed, the Confederacy became increasingly dependent on the V&T, and southwestern Virginia’s mines. Advancing Union armies captured mines throughout the South, leaving southwestern Virginia as one of the largest producers of lead, salt, and niter in the entire Confederacy. The V&T became an indispensable support element of the Confederate war effort, even as the railroad’s materials and operators became increasingly worn-out. It is telling that President Abraham Lincoln himself once called the railroad the “gut of the Confederacy.”3 However, the ever increasing strategic importance of the V&T to the Confederacy acted as a “pull factor” for Union troops in southern West Virginia, drawing their attention and efforts to southwestern Virginia. Starting as early as 1861, Union commanders in West Virginia sought to push south and destroy the railroad. Although Confederate defenders stymied Union commanders’ early plans to invade deep into 2 Kenneth Noe, Southwest Virginia’s Railroad: Modernization and the Sectional Crisis (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 111. 3 Ibid., 112. 3 southwestern Virginia, by 1863, Union officers were launching raids into the region with the goal of tearing-up the V&T’s tracks, burning its depots and bridges, and severing this productive region from the rest of the Confederacy.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • CWSAC Report Update
    U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program Update to the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission Report on the Nation’s Civil War Battlefields Commonwealth of Kentucky Washington, DC October 2008 Update to the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission Report on the Nation’s Civil War Battlefields Commonwealth of Kentucky U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program Washington, DC October 2008 Authority The American Battlefield Protection Program Act of 1996, as amended by the Civil War Battlefield Preservation Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-359, 111 Stat. 3016, 17 December 2002), directs the Secretary of the Interior to update the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission (CWSAC) Report on the Nation’s Civil War Battlefields. Acknowledgments NPS Project Team Paul Hawke, Project Leader; Kathleen Madigan, Survey Coordinator; Tanya Gossett, Reporting; Lisa Rupple and Shannon Davis, Preservation Specialists; Matthew Borders, Historian; Renee S. Novak and Gweneth Langdon, Interns. Battlefield Surveyor(s) Joseph E. Brent, Mudpuppy and Waterdog, Inc. Respondents Betty Cole, Barbourville Tourist and Recreation Commission; James Cass, Camp Wildcat Preservation Foundation; Tres Seymour, Battle for the Bridge Historic Preserve/Hart County Historical Society; Frank Fitzpatrick, Middle Creek National Battlefield Foundation, Inc.; Rob Rumpke, Battle of Richmond Association; Joan House, Kentucky Department of Parks; and William A. Penn. Cover: The Louisville-Nashville Railroad Bridge over the Green River, Munfordville, Kentucky. The stone piers are original to the 1850s. The battles of Munfordville and Rowlett’s Station were waged for control of the bridge and the railroad. Photograph by Joseph Brent. Table of Contents Acknowledgments ...........................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Brochure Design by Communication Design, Inc., Richmond, VA 877-584-8395 Cheatham Co
    To Riggins Hill CLARKSVILLE MURFREESBORO and Fort Defiance Scroll flask and .36 caliber Navy Colt bullet mold N found at Camp Trousdale . S P R site in Sumner County. IN G Stones River S T Courtesy Pat Meguiar . 41 National Battlefield The Cannon Ball House 96 and Cemetery in Blountville still 41 Oaklands shows shell damage to Mansion KNOXVILLE ST. the exterior clapboard LEGE Recapture of 441 COL 231 Evergreen in the rear of the house. Clarksville Cemetery Clarksville 275 40 in the Civil War Rutherford To Ramsey Surrender of ST. County Knoxville National Cemetery House MMERCE Clarksville CO 41 96 Courthouse Old Gray Cemetery Plantation Customs House Whitfield, Museum Bradley & Co. Knoxville Mabry-Hazen Court House House 231 40 “Drawing Artillery Across the Mountains,” East Tennessee Saltville 24 Fort History Center Harper’s Weekly, Nov. 21, 1863 (Multiple Sites) Bleak House Sanders Museum 70 60 68 Crew repairing railroad Chilhowie Fort Dickerson 68 track near Murfreesboro 231 after Battle of Stones River, 1863 – Courtesy 421 81 Library of Congress 129 High Ground 441 Abingdon Park “Battle of Shiloh” – Courtesy Library of Congress 58 41 79 23 58 Gen. George H. Thomas Cumberland 421 Courtesy Library of Congress Gap NHP 58 Tennessee Capitol, Nashville, 1864 Cordell Hull Bristol Courtesy Library of Congress Adams Birthplace (East Hill Cemetery) 51 (Ft. Redmond) Cold Spring School Kingsport Riggins Port Royal Duval-Groves House State Park Mountain Hill State Park City 127 (Lincoln and the 33 Blountville 79 Red Boiling Springs Affair at Travisville 431 65 Portland Indian Mountain Cumberland Gap) 70 11W (See Inset) Clarksville 76 (Palace Park) Clay Co.
    [Show full text]
  • The Free State of Winston"
    University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Spring 2019 Rebel Rebels: Race, Resistance, and Remembrance in "The Free State of Winston" Susan Neelly Deily-Swearingen University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Deily-Swearingen, Susan Neelly, "Rebel Rebels: Race, Resistance, and Remembrance in "The Free State of Winston"" (2019). Doctoral Dissertations. 2444. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/2444 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. REBEL REBELS: RACE, RESISTANCE, AND REMEMBRANCE IN THE FREE STATE OF WINSTON BY SUSAN NEELLY DEILY-SWEARINGEN B.A., Brandeis University M.A., Brown University M.A., University of New Hampshire DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire In Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History May 2019 This dissertation has been examined and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Ph.D. in History by: Dissertation Director, J. William Harris, Professor of History Jason Sokol, Professor of History Cynthia Van Zandt, Associate Professor of History and History Graduate Program Director Gregory McMahon, Professor of Classics Victoria E. Bynum, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, Texas State University, San Marcos On April 18, 2019 Original approval signatures are on file with the University of New Hampshire Graduate School.
    [Show full text]
  • Civil War in the Delta: Environment, Race, and the 1863 Helena Campaign George David Schieffler University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
    University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 8-2017 Civil War in the Delta: Environment, Race, and the 1863 Helena Campaign George David Schieffler University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Schieffler, George David, "Civil War in the Delta: Environment, Race, and the 1863 Helena Campaign" (2017). Theses and Dissertations. 2426. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2426 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Civil War in the Delta: Environment, Race, and the 1863 Helena Campaign A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by George David Schieffler The University of the South Bachelor of Arts in History, 2003 University of Arkansas Master of Arts in History, 2005 August 2017 University of Arkansas This dissertation is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council. ____________________________________ Dr. Daniel E. Sutherland Dissertation Director ____________________________________ ____________________________________ Dr. Elliott West Dr. Patrick G. Williams Committee Member Committee Member Abstract “Civil War in the Delta” describes how the American Civil War came to Helena, Arkansas, and its Phillips County environs, and how its people—black and white, male and female, rich and poor, free and enslaved, soldier and civilian—lived that conflict from the spring of 1861 to the summer of 1863, when Union soldiers repelled a Confederate assault on the town.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ohio National Guard Before the Militia Act of 1903
    THE OHIO NATIONAL GUARD BEFORE THE MILITIA ACT OF 1903 A thesis submitted To Kent State University in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts By Cyrus Moore August, 2015 © Copyright All rights reserved Except for previously published materials Thesis written by Cyrus Moore B.S., Ohio University, 2011 M.A., Kent State University, 2015 Approved by Kevin J. Adams, Professor, Ph.D., Department of History Master’s Advisor Kenneth J. Bindas, Professor, Ph.D, Chair, Department of History James L Blank, Ph.D., Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter I. Republican Roots………………………………………………………19 II. A Vulnerable State……………………………………………………..35 III. Riots and Strikes………………………………………………………..64 IV. From Mobilization to Disillusionment………………………………….97 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….125 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………..136 Introduction The Ohio Militia and National Guard before 1903 The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed a profound change in the militia in the United States. Driven by the rivalry between modern warfare and militia tradition, the role as well as the ideology of the militia institution fitfully progressed beyond its seventeenth century origins. Ohio’s militia, the third largest in the country at the time, strove to modernize while preserving its relevance. Like many states in the early republic, Ohio’s militia started out as a sporadic group of reluctant citizens with little military competency. The War of the Rebellion exposed the serious flaws in the militia system, but also demonstrated why armed citizen-soldiers were necessary to the defense of the state. After the war ended, the militia struggled, but developed into a capable military organization through state-imposed reform.
    [Show full text]
  • Champ Ferguson and the Civil War in Appalachia
    Brian Dallas McKnight. Confederate Outlaw: Champ Ferguson and the Civil War in Appalachia. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2011. 288 pp. $34.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8071-3769-7. Reviewed by Samuel B. McGuire Published on H-Appalachia (September, 2011) Commissioned by Steven Nash (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of History, East Tennessee State University) For three decades historians have contributed because a “frontier culture remained strong in the significantly to our understanding of the Civil War isolated children and grandchildren of the origi‐ by assessing the multiple roles of unconventional nal settlers.”[2] Employing an array of archival warfare. Scholars--such as Michael Fellman, Clay sources--including newspaper editorials, manu‐ Montcastle, and Daniel Sutherland--not only re‐ script collections, and postwar trial testimony-- vealed the pervasiveness of irregular warfare on McKnight maintains that Cumberland high‐ the Confederate home front, but also examined landers’ war-induced paranoia and pragmatic the ways in which guerrilla activities shaped offi‐ survivor mentality inflamed the merciless guerril‐ cial war policies and the course of the broader la warfare. He also argues that Ferguson’s conventional conflict.[1] Augmenting this bur‐ Manichean outlook, in which he viewed the con‐ geoning scholarship on Civil War irregulars, Brian flict in stark terms of good versus evil with no McKnight’s biography explores the life of one of middle ground, was founded upon a rudimentary the most notorious pro-Confederate guerrillas, understanding of Old Testament scripture. Champ Ferguson, and sheds light on the chaotic Organized chronologically, McKnight’s study irregular war that wracked many mountain South initially provides insight into Ferguson’s prewar communities.
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of Historic Novels in Understanding Desertion in the Civil War
    Wright 1 The Role of Historic Novels in Understanding Desertion in the Civil War Presented to the History Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo by Caitlin Wright March, 2012 © 2012 Caitlin Wright Wright 2 In 1862 John Esten Cooke, a Confederate officer and later novelist, witnessed a young man accused of desertion, admit to it, and be sentenced to death by General J.E.B. Stuart. General Stuart was one of the most respected generals of the entire Confederacy and played integral parts in several major battles, including Gettysburg. Of Stuart’s sentiments towards desertion, Cooke wrote, “Desertion…[is] one of the deadliest crimes which a human being could be guilty.”1 Once the unnamed officer realized he had been condemned to be hanged on a tree, he started begging and pleading to be saved. He claimed he had left for Maryland and been forced to fight against the South because he had nothing to eat. Stuart hesitated after hearing his story and then turned the matter over to General Lee who, Cooke claimed, only inflicted the death penalty when he could not avoid doing so.2 In 1863, George H. Gordon, a Union soldier, witnessed the execution of a ringleader of a group of deserters. The other five had been pardoned by the President and returned to their respective units, but the instigator had been condemned to death. As the corpse was rolled into the prepared coffin, Gordon commented, “The law had been defied and so, at last, at the law was vindicated.”3 These are not isolated and chance incidents; desertion was prevalent throughout the Civil War, regardless of which army men fought for, and the punishments were usually harsh.
    [Show full text]
  • End: Grant Sidebar>>>>>
    FINAL History of Wildwood 1860-1919 (chapter for 2018 printing) In the prior chapter, some of the key factors leading to the Civil War were discussed. Among them were the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the McIntosh Incident in 1836, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which led to “the Bleeding Kansas” border war, and the Dred Scott case which was finally decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1856. Two books were published during this turbulent pre-war period that reflected the conflicts that were brewing. One was a work of fiction: Uncle Tom’s Cabin or a Life Among the Lowly by Harriet Beecher Stowe published in 1852. It was an anti-slavery novel and helped fuel the abolitionist movement in the 1850s. It was widely popular with 300,000 books sold in the United States in its first year. The second book was nonfiction: Twelve Years a Slave was the memoir of Solomon Northup. Northup was a free born black man from New York state who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. and sold into slavery. He was in bondage for 12 years until family in New York secretly received information about his location and situation and arranged for his release with the assistance of officials of the State of New York. His memoir details the slave markets, the details of sugar and cotton production and the treatment of slaves on major plantations. This memoir, published in 1853, gave factual support to the story told in Stowe’s novel. These two books reflected and enhanced the ideological conflicts that le d to the Civil War.
    [Show full text]
  • Vol. 11 No. 4 – Fall 2017
    Arkansas Military History Journal A Publication of the Arkansas National Guard Museum, Inc. Vol. 11 Fall 2017 No. 4 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chairman Brigadier General John O. Payne Ex-Officio Vice Chairman Major General (Ret) Kendall Penn Ex-Officio Secretary Dr. Raymond D. Screws (Non-Voting) Ex-Officio Treasurer Colonel Damon N. Cluck Board Members Ex-Officio. Major Marden Hueter Ex-Officio. Captain Barry Owens At Large – Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) Clement J. Papineau, Jr. At Large – Chief Master Sergeant Melvin E. McElyea At Large – Major Sharetta Glover CPT William Shannon (Non-Voting Consultant) Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Anderson (Non-Voting Consultant) Deanna Holdcraft (Non-Voting Consultant) Museum Staff Dr. Raymond D. Screws, Director/Journal Editor Erica McGraw, Museum Assistant, Journal Layout & Design Incorporated 27 June 1989 Arkansas Non-profit Corporation Cover Photograph: The Hempstead Rifles, a volunteer militia company of the 8th Arkansas Militia Regiment,Hempstead County Table of Contents Message from the Editor ........................................................................................................ 4 The Arkansas Militia in the Civil War ...................................................................................... 5 By COL Damon Cluck The Impact of World War II on the State of Arkansas ............................................................ 25 Hannah McConnell Featured Artifact: 155 mm C, Model of 1917 Schneider ....................................................... 29 By LTC Matthew W. Anderson Message from the Editor The previous two issues of the journal focused on WWI and Camp Pike to coincide with the centennial of the United States entry into the First World War and the construction of the Post now known as Camp Pike. In the coming year, commemoration of the Great War will still be important, with the centennial of the Armistice on 11 November 2018.
    [Show full text]
  • BLACK CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS? by Carole E
    BLACK CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS? by Carole E. Scott Nobody questions that the Confederate Army utilized blacks as cooks, teamsters, laborers, and body servants. There are photographs of Confederate-uniformed black musicians. However, claims made In recent years by amateur historians, some of whom are members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, that blacks served as soldiers in the Confederate army have frequently been questioned. Those who claim there were black Confederate soldiers have been accused of making what seems to some to be an extremely improbable claim in order to imply that slavery was not the cause of the Civil War. It is not difficult to find evidence that the states right that white southerners were willing to fight for was the right to enslave blacks. Much more difficult--but far from being impossible--is finding evidence that, despite this, there were black Confederate soldiers. In September, 1861, Frederick Douglass, a famous black abolitionist and former slave, wrote in his newspaper, the Douglass Monthly, "that It is now pretty well established that there are at the present moment many colored men in the Confederate army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers, but as real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down loyal troops, and do all that soldiers may to destroy the Federal Government and build up that of the traitors and rebels. There were such soldiers at Manassas, and they are probably there still." At that time Douglass was trying to persuade the U.S. government to enlist blacks in the army.
    [Show full text]
  • April 2007 Fort Pillow
    April 2007 Issue 63 LOWCOUNTRY CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE April 2007 Issue 63 Presented by Brian Steele Wills hat really happened at Fort Pillow. Situated on a high bluff on the eastern bank of the Mississippi river about forty river miles above Memphis, TN, it became part of a chain of Federal garrisons. In W April 1864 it was manned by 295 white Tennessee troops and 262 U.S. Colored Troops when Nathan Bedford Forrest, the famous (or infamous) Confederate cavalryman, attacked and the fort surrendered. phis The Union garrison at Fort Pillow consisted of about 600 men, divided almost evenly between black and white troops. The black soldiers belonged to the 2nd U.S. Colored Light Artillery and the 6th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery, under the overall command of Major Lionel F. Booth. Many were former slaves. The white soldiers were predominantly new recruits from the 14th Tennessee Cavalry, a Federal regiment from western Tennessee, commanded by Maj. William F. Bradford. As the battle started, Major Booth was killed by a sharpshooter's bullet and Bradford assumed com- mand. The Confederates had captured two rows of barracks about 150 yards from the southern end of (Continued on page 4 PILLOW) 1885 COLOR POSTER OF THE "F ORT P ILLOW M ASSACRE Casualties were high and only sixty-two of the U.S. Biography of Brian Steele Wills Colored Troops survived the fight. The Confederates were accused of massacre, a controversy that contin- Brian Steel Wills was raised in Suffolk ues today. Fort Pillow became the subject of a Fed- County, Virginia.
    [Show full text]
  • Whitewashing Or Amnesia: a Study of the Construction
    WHITEWASHING OR AMNESIA: A STUDY OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF RACE IN TWO MIDWESTERN COUNTIES A DISSERTATION IN Sociology and History Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by DEBRA KAY TAYLOR M.A., University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2005 B.L.A., University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2000 Kansas City, Missouri 2019 © 2019 DEBRA KAY TAYLOR ALL RIGHTS RESERVE WHITEWASHING OR AMNESIA: A STUDY OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF RACE IN TWO MIDWESTERN COUNTIES Debra Kay Taylor, Candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2019 ABSTRACT This inter-disciplinary dissertation utilizes sociological and historical research methods for a critical comparative analysis of the material culture as reproduced through murals and monuments located in two counties in Missouri, Bates County and Cass County. Employing Critical Race Theory as the theoretical framework, each counties’ analysis results are examined. The concepts of race, systemic racism, White privilege and interest-convergence are used to assess both counties continuance of sustaining a racially imbalanced historical narrative. I posit that the construction of history of Bates County and Cass County continues to influence and reinforces systemic racism in the local narrative. Keywords: critical race theory, race, racism, social construction of reality, white privilege, normality, interest-convergence iii APPROVAL PAGE The faculty listed below, appointed by the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, have examined a dissertation titled, “Whitewashing or Amnesia: A Study of the Construction of Race in Two Midwestern Counties,” presented by Debra Kay Taylor, candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, and certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance.
    [Show full text]