contestedground
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One good turn deserves another.
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I don't think his killing of hundreds of captured Black Union troops at Fort Pillow allows him into the category.
Jack Hurst in his biography of Forrest makes a strong argument that the Ft.Pillow massacre was not Forrest's fault. Not saying it wasn't Forrest's fault but Forrest suffered no post war recriminations for Ft.Pillow.I don't think his killing of hundreds of captured Black Union troops at Fort Pillow allows him into the category.
He was cleared of those charges by the Union Army.If Forrest actually ordered that atrocity, is still debated. I dont think so myself.
If he did order it, he would probably have faced the same fate as Champ Ferguson. Trial and execution for war crimes.
He was cleared of all charges.I know that many soldiers forgave him post war including Sherman who stumpted for him when the Spanish American war was coming and NBF wanted in...but I dont see it. If he was just a good soldier and played by the rules ALWAYS...I would be all for it but I think he was complicit if not active in atrocities and I cannot forgive him on those grounds. (He died before the Spanish-American War started)
He was cleared of those charges by the Union Army.
He was cleared of all charges.
Jack Hurst in his biography of Forrest makes a strong argument that the Ft.Pillow massacre was not Forrest's fault. Not saying it wasn't Forrest's fault but Forrest suffered no post war recriminations for Ft.Pillow.
Leftyhunter
Not quite true , Tennessee Unionist troops were massacred as well.The massacre was against black soldiers, so lack of postwar recriminations from the 1865 white power structure doesn't mean anything.
Not quite true , Tennessee Unionist troops were massacred as well.
Leftyhunter
I appreciate the citation but that doesn't mean that Unionist troops were not massacred. Maybe not in the same number as the black troops . Unionists were not popular with Confederate troops to say the least. I am not home right now but I will look up Hurst's book which if I recall does state that at least some Unionist troops were massacred."Black troops suffered a casualty rate nearly double that of their white counterparts (64 percent compared to 31-34 percent)." [John Cimprich and Robert C. Mainfort, Jr., "The Fort Pillow Massacre: A Statistical Note," The Journal of American History, Vol. 76, No., 3, Dec., 1989, p. 835]