Memphis and The Civil War

The Battle of Memphis ...

This naval battle was fought on the Mississippi River below the city on June 6, 1862.  The result was a crushing defeat for the Rebels and marked the virtual eradication of a Confederate naval presence on the river.  In spite of the lopsided outcome, the Union Army failed to grasp its strategic significance.  It's primary historical importance is that it was the last time civilians with no prior military experience were permitted to command ships in combat.   The battle remains as a demonstration of the ill effects of poor command structure. 

Union officer Charles H. Davis moved down the Mississippi with a squadron of ironclad gunboats.  Accompanying him were six rams commanded by Colonel Charles Ellet.  The Confederate fleet, commanded by James E. Montgomery, a riverboat captain with no military experience, was going to move south to Vicksburg, but was notified that there wasn't enough coal in the city to fuel his ships for the voyage.  While Montgomery technically commanded the fleet, each ship was run by it's own civilian captain, who was empowered to act independently once they left port.   Compounding that was the fast that the gun crews were provided by the army and served under their own officers.  But Montgomery's group decided to stand and fight. 

 

FORT PICKERING:   Confederate authorities had originally established Fort Pickering in 1861, building on the site of a frontier-era fort.  Union commanders took over and imposed martial law and posted garrison forces.  At first it was generally a lenient occupation, in the hope of winning over secessionist citizens, who comprised the great majority in Memphis.  But finding that these secessionists remained hostile and defiant, the authorities adopted an increasingly harsh policy.  This included the seizure and destruction of private property, the imprisonment or banishment of those who refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Union, and the forcible emancipation of slaves.

Fort Pickering

* Fort Pickering has its own comprehensive coverage on another page of this website >  Click here

IRVING BLOCK PRISON:  During the Civil War, this row of office buildings on Second Street, opposite the northeast corner of Court Square had been a Confederate hospital. After the fall of Memphis in 1862, the Union Army turned it into a Civil War Prison to house Confederate sympathizers.   As a prison, conditions became so deplorable that even the prison commandant was dismissed in 1864, but he was re-instated at the request of General Grant. The prison had become known as "the filthiest place ever occupied by human beings". It was so notorious that it was eventually closed by order of President Lincoln himself in 1865.

* Irving Block Prison had its own comprehensive coverage on another page of this website >  Click here

The new Overton Hotel at Main and Poplar was used as a hospital.  This Hotel had not yet opened when the Civil War began. During the war both sides used the building as a hospital and as quarters. After the war ended, it officially opened as a hotel in 1866.   The Woolen Building in Howard's Row is among the oldest buildings in Memphis and was an early cotton trading center. In the 1850s it also housed the large slave market of Isaac Bolton.   It also served as a hospital during the Civil War.

A section of the Gayoso Hotel was also used as an army Hospital, designed for the reception of wounded patients only.  Female nurses "prepared food, stocked shelves, and made the wounded as comfortable as possible."  The Gayoso team was led by Mother Mary Ann Bickerdyke, perhaps the most famous nurse of the Civil War.   She became well known for her ability to bypass bureaucracy.  And she was the only woman ever allowed in Sherman's camps.

The army hospitals in Memphis were the Gayoso, the Adams, the Washington, the Webster, the Jackson, the Union, the Jefferson, the Marine Hospital, and a small Officer’s Hospital on Front Street.  Two hospitals were set aside for contagious diseases—the Smallpox Hospital, which was located in the enlarge state-owned Memphis Hospital, and the Measles Hospital, located in the First Baptist church.  Later in July 1863, the First Baptist was reorganized as the Gangrene Hospital.  Successful experiments in the use of the bromine treatment of gangrene were carried out there, which greatly reduced the mortality of that dreaded wound complication.

* Letters from a Union Soldier to his wife:  Thomas Hannah, Jr., Illinois 95th Infantry, Company G, was stationed at Adams General Hospital, Number 3, in Memphis from 26 January 1863 to 30 July 1864, serving as Ward Master.  During this period he wrote over 100 letters to his wife Elizabeth Marshall Hannah in Belvidere, Illinois.   He discusses life in Memphis and speaks about the nurses with whom he worked.  Michael Bryan Fiske, great, great grandson of Thomas Hannah, Jr. has transcribed these letters and shared some of them with us.  They are all courtesy of the Family of Robert Huntoon Hannah, grandson of Thomas Hannah, Jr.  We think you'll agree that these letters are unique.  To visit a separate in-depth page on Thomas Hannah Jr.. with more letters ... Click here.

Union Casualties from the siege of Vicksburg were evacuated mainly by hospital boat up the river to Memphis.  Later the same hospital boats were used to transport patients from Memphis to St. Louis and on to Cairo.  Two of the more famous hospital ships were the City of Memphis and the Red Rover,

The 2nd Battle of Memphis...  Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest became obsessed with freeing prisoners from Irving Block Prison, and it was upper most in his mind when he made a daring raid on the Union-held city in 1864. His raid had three objectives: to capture three Union generals posted in the city; to release Southern prisoners from Irving Block Prison; and to cause the recall of Union forces from Northern Mississippi. He struck early in the morning but didn't find the generals at Hotel Gayoso, although one, Major General Washburn made his escape to Fort Pickering in his night shirt. Union troops were also able to prevent the attack on Irving Block Prison. Although the raid had failed in two of Forrest's objectives, he was successful in influencing Union forces to return to Memphis from northern Mississippi, which did provide the city more protection.

Battle of Fort Pillow AKA known as Massacre of Fort Pillow  Fort Pillow was located 40 miles north of Memphis and this famous battle was fought April 12, 1864.  The battle ended with a massacre of surrendered Federal troops by soldiers under the command of Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

 

Confederate Burials

UCV

Confederate soldiers couldn't be buried in National Cemeteries, and they, nor their widows, were eligible for benefits from the U.S. Government. The United Confederate Veterans  was founded in 1889 to help as a "benevolent, historical, social and literary Association".  Their primary functions were to provide for widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers, preserve relics and mementos, care for disabled soldiers, preserve records of service and to organize reunions and gatherings where funds could be raised to support their work.

President Johnson wanted to restore the Union in as little time as possible. While Congress was in recess, the president began implementing his plans, which became known as Presidential Reconstruction.   His plan offered general amnesty to all who would take an oath of future loyalty.  Johnson returned confiscated property to white southerners, issued hundreds of pardons to former Confederate officers and government officials, and undermined the Freedmen’s Bureau by ordering it to return all confiscated lands to white landowners. Johnson also appointed governors to supervise the drafting of new state constitutions and agreed to readmit each state provided it ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery. Hoping that Reconstruction would be complete by the time Congress reconvened a few months later, he declared Reconstruction over at the end of 1865.

To coordinate efforts to protect the rights of former slaves and provide them with education and medical care, Congress creates the Freedman's Bureau. One of the bureau's most important functions was to oversee labor contracts between ex-slaves and employers.

The sudden emancipation of thousands of slaves, without property, education and means of economic support, could have created a demoralized class and led to total chaos and famine. The actual evidence suggests a smoother transition than one might have expected. But it was a lot for the Southerner to comprehend  right after losing a war for  "The Cause..." and the transition certainly was far from perfect ... 

There was a strange "twist" at the end of the war in Memphis.  The city had escaped the destruction of so many other Southern cities and it had a booming economy.  When Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which freed all slaves within "Confederate-held territory" and allowed African Americans to serve in the Federal army, Memphis was occupied by Union forces and no longer a Confederate city.  Ironically at war's end, slavery continued unabated, not only in Memphis but in all of Tennessee, as well.  Congress quickly passed the thirteenth amendment and Tennessee adopted the measure in December of 1865 - thus Slavery  ended in Tennessee.

During the War, Memphis became a haven for freed slaves seeking protection from their former owners.  The black population increased from 3,000 in 1860 to 20,000 in 1865.  Racial tensions were heightened when black Union Army soldiers were used to patrol the city.  A riot was sparked on May 1, 1866, when the horse-drawn hacks of a black man and a white man collided. As a group of black veterans tried to intervene to stop the arrest of the black man, a crowd of whites gathered at the scene. Fighting broke out, and then escalated into three days of racially motivated violence, primarily pitting the police  against black residents. When it was over, 46 blacks and two whites had been killed, five black women raped, and hundreds of black homes, schools, and churches had been vandalized or destroyed by arson.

The official report:  Through early 1866, there were numerous instances of threats and fighting between black soldiers and white Memphis policemen, who were mostly (90%) Irish immigrants. Officials of the Freedmen's Bureau reported that police arrested black soldiers for the minor offenses and treated them with brutality.  Although black soldiers were commended for restraint, rumors spread among the white community that blacks were planning some type of organized revenge. Trouble was anticipated when most black Union troops were mustered out of the army on April 30, 1866. The former black soldiers remained in the city while awaiting discharge pay.

On the afternoon of May 1, the chronic hatred between the city police and the now discharged black soldiers erupted into armed conflict. Details of the specific incident that initiated the conflict vary. The most widely held account is that policemen were attempting to take into custody several ex-soldiers for disorderly conduct and were resisted by a crowd of their comrades. Some historians attribute the inciting incident to the collision between two carriages of a black man and a white man. After a group of black veterans tried to intervene to stop the arrest of the black man, a crowd of whites gathered at the scene, and fighting broke out.  In each incident there was confrontation between white police officers and black Union Army soldiers. There also appeared to have been multiple confrontations followed by waves of reinforcements on both sides, extending over several hours. This initial conflict resulted in injuries to several people and one policeman's death, possibly self-inflicted due to the mishandling of his own gun. 

The initial skirmish ended after dusk and the veterans returned to Fort Pickering, on the south boundary of downtown Memphis. Having learned of the trouble, attending officers disarmed the men and confined them to the base. The ex-soldiers did not contribute significantly to the events that followed.

The subsequent phase of the riots was fueled by rumors that there was an armed rebellion of Memphis' black residents.^[5] These false claims were spread by local officials and rabble rousers. Matters were made worse by the suspicious absence of Memphis Mayor John Park and the indecisive commitment of the commander of federal troops in Memphis, General George Stoneman. When white mobs gathered at the scene of the initial skirmish and found no one to confront, they proceeded into nearby freedmen's settlements and attacked the residents as well as missionaries who worked there as teachers.  The conflict continued from the night of May 1 to the afternoon of May 3, when General Stoneman declared martial law and order was restored. 

No criminal proceedings were held for the instigators or perpetrators of atrocities committed during the Memphis Riots. The United States Attorney General, James Speed, ruled that judicial actions associated with the riots fell under state jurisdiction.   However, state and local officials refused to take action, and no grand jury was ever invoked. Although criticized for his inaction, General Stoneman was investigated by a congressional committee and was exonerated. The Memphis Riots did not mar his political career as he was later elected governor of California (1883–87).

Tennessee was the first of the seceding states readmitted to the Union on July 24, 1866.  Because Tennessee had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, it was also the only one of the secessionist states that didn't have a military governor during the Reconstruction period.

Post Reconstruction ...

After the formal end of Reconstruction, the struggle over power in Southern society continued. For generations white Tennesseans had been raised to believe that slavery was justified.  Some could not accept that former slaves were now equal under the law.  With violence and intimidation against freedmen and their allies, White Democrats regained political power in Tennessee and other states across the South in the late 1870s and 1880s. Over the next decade, the state legislature passed increasingly restrictive laws involving African Americans.  In 1889 the General Assembly passed four laws described as electoral reform, with the effect of essentially disfranchising most African Americans, as well as many poor Whites. Legislation included implementation of a poll tax, timing of registration, and recording requirements. Tens of thousands of taxpaying citizens were without representation well into the 20th century.

United Confederate Veterans Reunions ... 1901, 1909, 1924  Memphis is the only city to host three of the United Confederate Veterans Reunions - which brought millions  of dollars into the city. In 1901, the Reunion was considered so important to the city that an astonishing $80,000 was raised to construct an 18,000 seat Confederate Hall on the site of Confederate Park - the building to be demolished at the end of the 3 day reunion.  One of the largest single donations of $1,000 came from the first black millionaire Robert Reed Church.  That first reunion in 1901 drew 125,000 visitors to the city.  That's a lot of money.   

* The UCV Reunions have their own comprehensive coverage on another page of this website >  Click here

2013 Updates ...

In February 2013, without public notice, the Memphis City Council dropped all three names of these parks and removed the names from the signs at the parks because it said the names "evoked a racist past and were unwelcoming in a city where most of the population is black".  As yet they have not come up with "acceptable" alternate names for the three parks, but Confederate Park may become "Memphis Park" or "Promenade Park".  Forrest Park may be named  "Health Sciences Park" or "Civil War Memorial Park" and Jefferson Davis Park may become "Mississippi River Park" or "Harbor Park".   There is also a movement to rename one of the parks after civil rights activist Ida B. Wells, and Mayor Wharton wanted to name one of them after Maxine Smith, who fought for decades to have the graves and the statue removed from Forrest Park.   The outcome of the park statues has not been decided.  If past history is any indication, the statues will be removed, placed in storage... and quietly forgotten. 

Update 2017:   In December the Memphis City Government quietly changed some laws giving the city permission to sell Forrest Park (Health Sciences Park) to a non profit company for $1000.  The non-profit had been created for this purpose and as soon as the bill of sale was signed, large cranes went into action and removed the Forrest statue and moved it to an unknown location.  They also sold Confederate Park (Memphis Park) and removed the statue of Davis.

Historic-Memphis website note:  FACT:  There was an American Civil War.  It was all about slavery.  Changing some names of Memphis Parks won't change that.  No matter what  new name is applied to these parks, there will always be a footnote about the original names that stood for over a hundred years.  Renaming these parks will not erase the South's greatest shame.   What the city council has done with this 2013 ruling creates an even greater divide in Memphis racial relations.  As offensive as some find Confederate symbols, those symbols represent Memphis  history. That history should not be denied.  It is part of the South's good, bad and ugly, as well as the nation as a whole.  To change names that are historically relevant is an attempt to change the course of history.  For a city government to attempt to bury the past by pretending it didn’t exist is a major exploitation of power.  Will the burning of history books be next on their agenda?

It's rare to find a large southern city that was virtually untouched by the destruction of the Civil War.  Memphis is one of those rare cities.  It should be the major treasure-trove of great early southern architecture in America.  Yet, virtually no buildings from before the Civil War remain in the city.

Memphis continues to have this tendency to erase it's history or not to come to terms with its historic identity.

Civil War Memorabilia ...

Credits

The Historic-Memphis website does not intentionally post copyrighted photos and material without permission or credit.  On occasion a "non-credited" photo might possibly be posted because we were unable to find a name to give credit.  Because of the nature of our non-commercial, non-profit, educational website, we strongly believe that these photos would be considered "Fair Use.  We have certainly made no monetary gain, although those using this website for historic or Genealogy research have certainly profited.  If by chance, we have posted your copyrighted photo, please contact us, and we'll remove it immediately, or we'll add your credit if that's your choice.  In the past, we have found that many photographers volunteer to have their works included on these pages and we'll  also do that if you contact us with a photo that fits a particular page. 

The "Historic-Memphis" website would like to acknowledge and thank the following for their contributions which helped make this website possible:  Memphis Public Library, Memphis University Library, Memphis Law Library, Memphis Commercial Appeal, Memphis Press Scimitar, Shelby County Register of Deeds, Memphis City Schools, Memphis Business Men's Club, Memphis Chamber of Commerce, Memphis City Park Commission, Memphis Film Commision, Carnival Memphis, Memphis Historical Railroad Page, Memphis Heritage Inc, Beale Street Historic District, Cobblestone Historic District, Memphis Historic Districts, Vance Lauderdale Family Archives, Tennessee State Archives, Library of Congress, Kemmons Wilson Family, Richard S. Brashier, Lee Askew, George Whitworth, Woody Savage and many individuals whose assistance is acknowledged on the pages of their contributions.  Special thanks to Memphis Realtor, Joe Spake, for giving us carte blanche access to his outstanding collection of contemporary Memphis photos.

We do not have high definition  copies of the photos on these pages.  If anyone wishes to secure high definition photos,  you'll have to contact the photographer  or the collector.  (To avoid any possibility of contributing to SPAM, we do not maintain a file of email addresses for anyone who contacts us).

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