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Chapter 5. The Last Garrison and the Massacre
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Chapter Five The Last Garrison and the Massacre M AJOR William F. Bradford led a unionist battalion, the misnamed 13th Tennessee Cavalry, to Fort Pillow on February 8, 1864. This intrepid thirty-six-year-old from a politically prominent family may have led a home guard force in Obion County, the state’s northwest corner, before beginning to organize the cavalry unit in late 1863. While most of Bradford’s men settled into the barracks emptied by the 32nd Iowa, Company B camped separately, probably in the huts of the 52nd Indiana, near the outer fort’s two gates, where they performed picket duty.1 As the Federal army often used black troops for garrison service, Lieutenant Alexander Hunter and a detachment from the 2nd U.S. Colored Light Artillery (U.S.C.L.A.) took up duties at the fort on February 21. The new unit, composed mostly of contrabands, brought two fieldpieces with it. Bradford’s superiors ordered the post to follow the hard war policy: “You will subsist your command upon the country as far as possible, and take the stock necessary to keep it well mounted, giving vouchers to loyal men only.” Although the new garrison functioned much like Colonel Wolfe’s force, local secessionists probably found it much more objectionable, since they condemned the pro-Union residents of their region as renegades.2 In reopening Fort Pillow, General Hurlbut violated General Sherman’s orders. No known contemporary document specifically says why he did this. Later Hurlbut stated that he reopened the fort because its location held strategic control over the river and would facilitate enlistment. Bradford ’s orders to continue recruiting, to improve the fort’s defenses, and to suppress guerrillas fit with these explanations. General Ralph P. Buckland, whose West Tennessee District now included the fort, had also advised Hurlbut that “the people in that region are very anxious to have a small force.” Perhaps most importantly, Hurlbut responded to pressure from the area’s chief Treasury agent by promising to reopen trade at Fort Pillow, once he could garrison it. Sherman unintentionally had intensified interest in trading by ending his predecessors’ restrictions.3 71 The Last Garrison and the Massacre The new garrison made the fort a safe haven once again for entrepreneurs , contrabands, and unionists. The small town near the landing soon boasted stores, warehouses, residences, and a hotel. Charley Robinson of Minnesota opened a photograph shop aimed mostly at the market for soldiers ’ portraits. Edward B. Benton, another Northern businessman, bought 215 acres beside the fort and contracted contraband laborers from the Freedmen’s Department, an army agency in Memphis. That office’s rules for contracted contrabands required fixed wages ($10 per month for men and $7 for women), food, shelter, clothes, and medical care for them. The officials intended the program to serve as a transition from slavery to wage labor. Benton, no doubt hoping for great profits, had his workers plant cotton . As runaway slaves and unionist refugees arrived at the fort, Bradford opened a new contraband camp under a superintendent from his unit. It grew to contain about fifty women and children. Unionist refugees probably lived there, too.4 The major primarily focused his energy on recruiting West Tennesseans . Some unionists enlisted to help protect or support their families, as the war had disrupted the safety and economy of interior areas. Confederate deserters, especially drafted unionists, often felt safer in the Federal army. Still, enlistees trickled in so slowly that Sergeant Wiley G. Poston wrote his wife to encourage more unionists to come from his neighborhood in Haywood County, the source of most new recruits. He assured her that the army provided well for him and “we all have a lively time,” but that soldiers stayed too busy to become “wild.” When Bradford finally filled one new company, he could not persuade officials to come promptly from Memphis to complete the mustering process.5 During Bradford’s brief command at the fort several issues arose. Harris and Company once again faced charges for violating trade rules but escaped punishment due to extenuating circumstances. When General Buckland learned that recruiters for a black regiment had conscripted a unionist master’s slaves, he ordered Bradford to see that this stopped. The major, himself, created controversy when, seeking to benefit from veterans’ experience , he gave two lieutenancies to Northerners instead of to Tennesseans. Other outsiders would come to the fort to serve as post surgeon, hospital steward, provost marshal, and clerk...