History professor contributes to story about Civil War battle at Fort Pillow

Holly Pinheiro Jr., a Furman University assistant professor of history, contributes to a Smithsonian Magazine article by Erin L. Thompson about the massacre of more than 180 African American Union soldiers by the Confederate Army in 1864 at Fort Pillow, Tennessee. The piece recounts the role of United States Colored Troops (USCT) in the Civil War and the efforts to revitalize the site where the massacre took place and where a museum now sits.

Often relegated to non-combat roles, USCT performed vital, hazardous work, Thompson wrote, citing Pinheiro’s book, “The Families’ Civil War: Black Soldiers and the Fight for Racial Justice.” Pulling heavy canons, constructing roads and digging ditches were among the duties assigned.

Thompson wrote, “Pinheiro believes that all Americans ‘owe a debt of gratitude’ to the defenders of Fort Pillow,” and notes that Black soldiers were too often excluded from “histories of emancipation that framed African Americans as victims of slavery rather than people who fought for their own freedom.”