Promoted to major general on December 4, 1863, Forrest conducted raids against Federal communications and supply lines in Tennessee. In April 1864 he captured Fort Pillow, north of Memphis. In the latter stages of that battle, Forrest lost control of his men. As members of the black and Tennessee Unionist garrison attempted to surrender, an act for which they should have been spared, some of Forrest's men fired on them. Of the fort's 585-605 men, between 277 and 297 were killed; 64 percent of these were U.S. Colored Troops. Charges of a "Fort Pillow Massacre" became grist for Northern propaganda mills during the war and plagued Forrest for the remainder of his life.
Following Fort Pillow, Forrest routed a larger force of Union infantry and cavalry in June at Brice's Cross Roads in Mississippi, arguably his finest military feat. In July he helped blunt another Union force at Tupelo, or Harrisburg, where he was wounded while directing the pursuit of retreating Federal troops. He recovered and led a surprise raid on Memphis that produced another Union retreat from Mississippi.
In the autumn of 1864 Forrest's cavalry destroyed railroad and protective blockhouses in northern Alabama and Middle Tennessee. He blockaded shipping on the Tennessee River, disabling and capturing several Union vessels before destroying the Union supply depot at Johnsonville. Immediately thereafter, Forrest joined General John Bell Hood in the disastrous Tennessee campaign of November and December 1864. His rearguard action during the Confederate retreat from Nashville undoubtedly saved the Army of Tennessee from extinction.
Returning to Mississippi, Forrest received a promotion to lieutenant general in February 1865 and took command of the cavalry in the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana. In the closing months of the war, he failed to prevent the capture of Selma, Alabama. He surrendered his command at Gainesville, Alabama, in May 1865.
