13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Warfare Tennessee Style, June 30, 2006
Fort Pillow (2006) is a novel of the Civil War. The fort was first constructed at the orders of Confederate General Gideon Pillow on the First Chickasaw Bluff of the Mississippi River. Not quite forty miles north of Memphis, the first line of fortifications ran a couple of miles from Coal Creek to the Mississippi. Later, a shorter second line was constructed inside the line laid out by Pillow. When Union troops took the fort, a third line about four hundred feet long was built across the tip of the triangle.
Fort Pillow was defended by the Thirteen Tennessee Cavalry (US) under Major William F. Bradford. Shortly before the assault, a battery from the Sixth U.S. Heavy Artillery and another from the Second U.S. Light Artillery was ordered to the post. Most of these artillerymen were black, with white officers and mostly white sergeants. The artillery commander, Major Lionel Booth, was senior officer at the fort.
In this novel, Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest orders the brigade at Sharon's Ferry and another at Eaton to attack Fort Pillow. While initially designating General Chalmers as the commander, Forrest quickly changes his mind and leads most of the Nineteenth Tennessee Cavalry (CS) to Fort Pillow. They engage the services of W.J. Shaw as a guide to the fort and follow him into the rainy night through bogs and woods.
Amazingly enough, they find Fort Pillow just before dawn and, on April 12, 1864, immediately attack the Federal skirmish line. The defenders are awakened by the gunfire and, despite initial confusion, deploy two more companies to the skirmish line.
The black artillerymen operate the guns like professionals. Those who are not required on the guns fight with muskets alongside the white cavalrymen. The blacks display as much or more combat spirit as the whites, but are more likely to taunt the confederates.
Forrest offers his standard surrender terms, except that the black soldiers will also be treated as prisoners of war. The surrender terms are refused and Forrest orders the final assault. The confederates sharpshooters fire on the garrison from the higher ground on three sides, targeting Union officers more than the common soldiers.
As the rebs scramble over the rampart, the black artillerymen fire the guns and then fight with whatever comes to hand. Some blacks try to surrender, but the rebs give no quarter. Their white officers are also killed out of hand for arming blacks. Of course, the homegrown yankees are also slaughtered, but not heavily as the black soldiers.
This novel takes four contemporary or early accounts of the Fort Pillow massacre and weighs known facts against the propaganda. All four sources are tainted with political disinformation, but many lies are readily discernible from the official records. However, most of the details have been lost in the fog of history. This fictional account may well come closer to the truth than any of the publications of that period, but who knows what actually happened.
This novel is Turtledove at his best, making history come to life. Of course, most of the conversations and thoughts are fabricated, but based as much as possible on actual quotes. In other words, history as the ancient Greeks wrote it. The author does such docudramas better than most anyone else.
Highly recommended for Turtledove fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales based on history, but with realistic (although fictional) dialog.
-Bill Jordin
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Remember, remember, the 12th of... well... April., May 25, 2007
This review is from: Fort Pillow: A Novel of the Civil War (Paperback)
Harry Turtledove is known mostly as a master of the alternate history genre, and rightly so. His books "Guns of the South", "Ruled Britiania", the Worldwar and Timeline 191 series are exceptional examples of what alternate history can be.
As those who have read the works of one H N Turteltaub already know, Turtledove can also write excellent historical fiction. "Justianian" is currently out of print, but well worth reading, if you can find it.
"Fort Pillow" is not an alternate history story. It's the first (to my knowledge, anyhow), straight historical novel that Turtledove has published under his own name. Does it stand up to his other works?
Emphatically yes. The Civil War is territory he's gone over before, but always in an alternate history. Seeing what he does with a regular historical fiction novel is impressive.
As is usual with a Turtledove book we get viewpoint characters on both sides and at all levels. From the black artillery sargent, to a couple of US officers, all the way up to Nathan Bedford Forrest himself, we really get to see what the war in general, and this battle in particular, was like.
That the massacre was a great infamy goes without saying. Regardless of which sources are right or wrong (USA vs CSA), a disproportionate number of black soldiers were killed during and after the fighting, as were the officers who commanded them.
That we as a nation no longer remember this (even I hadn't known about it until the book came out, and I likes my history!), is an infamy almost as great, one that hopefully this book will go a long way to correcting.
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