Fort Pillow in Tennessee

For Spring Break, we took a day trip to Fort Pillow, the site of an old Civil War fort north of Memphis, Tennessee, on the Mississippi River. And as I have learned in the past, what comes to your mind when I say “fort” may not quite be accurate. Fort Pillow was an earthworks fort, rather than an old-west log fort that we usually think of when we hear that word. “Fortification” would probably be a better word for it.

Here are a few photos from our visit.

Fort Pillow was first built by the Confederate Army in 1861 high on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. But in addition to the river side, the fortifications were also built on the side away from the river to prevent attacks from the land. This is the outside of the “land” side of the fort. Cannons would fire out of the wooden notches cut into the earthworks fort, and riflemen could also be stationed in the trench down below.

This view shows the inside of the fort, including some of the cannons where the actual cannons would have been located. This part of the fort is actually a reconstruction of the original, to give an idea of how things were during the war.

This is the view looking out one of those cannon “portal” notches in the wall. It does make me wonder just how accurate they could be with their cannon fire. But I guess with cannons, accuracy wasn’t always your primary goal.

This view was of the river as seen from the fort. Of course, the main mission of this fort was to stop Union gunboats from sailing the Mississippi River, although the main river isn’t there anymore. But more about that in a few paragraphs. It was a windy day when we were there, but sunny. When we were up here on this bluff, the wind made it quite cold. But then when we would walk back down away from the river and off the bluff, the sun made it feel pretty warm. The best of both worlds, I suppose.

When I had looked at the Fort Pillow website, I saw that there was a cool-looking suspension footbridge somewhere on the trails. Unfortunately, when we found the bridge, it wasn’t quite suitable for foot traffic, as you can see here. We guessed that some of our recent strong winds caused this damage, although we didn’t quite know for certain. Oh well, we kept going on the other path that led around the ravine that the bridge crossed.

On our way out, we stopped by the picnic area, which was much closer to the water than when we were up on the bluff. There were some really nice views around there. But we had already eaten our picnic lunch earlier in the day. And because it had still been cold when we arrived at lunchtime, we had just eaten in our car. But on a warm day, the picnic area would be a great place to eat. Sounds like we should go back on a warmer day.

This sign shows how the Mississippi River has changed over time since the days of the Civil War. Back during those days, the river flowed to the right of this view, bringing it right by Fort Pillow. But in 1901, there was a large landslide that blocked that path of the river, causing it to flow to the left of this view. Interesting how things like that can change. And hey, there’s Osceola, Arkansas, off in the distance, too.

One last view of the main fort of Fort Pillow. Unfortunately, the events that happened there were rather tragic. Although the Confederate Army built the fort, they later abandoned it and the Union Army took it over. In 1864, Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest arrived with his Confederate troops to attack the fort, which they successfully did. But Forrest’s men then killed many of the Union soldiers, even as those soldiers were trying to surrender. Most of those killed were black troops fighting for the Union. The incident soon came to be known as a massacre and has been debated ever since.

So Fort Pillow was a nice place to visit, but learning its true history was a bit sad. In addition to the reconstructed fortifications, there is also an interpretive center that features exhibits and a film about Fort Pillow. There are several miles of trails through the park, and we barely scratched the surface in the short time we were there, so you can bet that we will be going back sometime.

These are just a few of the photos from our visit there. Check back soon for more!

About the Photos

Processed in different combinations of Photomatix, Adobe Lightroom, and Photoshop, depending on the photo. Read more about the photo software and gear I use at the camera gear page.
Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Canon EF 28-105mm