The South’s Deadly Revenge for the Emancipation Proclamation
Public Domain/ New York Public Library Digital Collections In the early morning of April 12, 1864, a force of 1,500 Confederate cavalry under attacked 600 Union soldiers at Fort Pillow, Tennessee. These were not just any Union soldiers. More than half were Black, most of them former slaves—a fighting force most rebel soldiers had never seen before. Though Black soldiers had fought in a handful of engagements in 1862 and 1863, their presence in combat was still relatively new. The fight did not last long. The callow Union commander, who was ...
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