An Apology to Nathan Bedford Forrest

Soon, the bodies of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife are likely to be disinterred from their resting place of over a hundred years.  Nobody knows where they will rest after that since Confederate blood apparently taints the soil wherever it lies in the minds of the screaming mob that is erasing American culture as quickly as they can convince spineless politicians to appease them.

I owe the General an apology for two reasons.  The first is corporate.  Forrest and his wife deserve to left in peace and we as a people are responsible for allowing the political leadership of our nation to accrue to forces with no understanding of or respect for traditional American culture.

The second reason is more personal.  For decades, I believed the stories that Nathan Bedford Forrest ordered the execution of a group of negro soldiers at the battle of Ft. Pillow.  I use the term negro to be historically accurate since that is the way they are described in the contemporary accounts and that word is not a perjorative, just a descriptor of their race the same as caucasian or oriental.

After the dust up about where the good General and his wife's bones would reside, I decided to read the original accounts of the Battle of Ft. Pillow and the subsequent investigation.  They tell a far different story than the history books relate.

The Battle of Ft. Pillow was particularly fierce.  The Union garrison at Ft. Pillow was manned largely by turncoat southerners and negro troops both of whom feared retribution from the southern troops they were opposing.  When the bumbling Union commander's situation was hopeless he was offered the opportunity to surrender and refused.  The Union garrison decided to fight to the death under the rule of no quarter.  And that is exactly what happened. The situation was investigated by none other than President Abraham Lincoln.  General Forrest and his officers were cleared. 

Later historians concluded Secretary of War Stanton had been successful in his aims with publicizing the battle. Stanton’s thirst for power was legendary in Washington and President Andrew Johnson would later fire him for similar type tactics, which led to Stanton virtually organizing the Presidential impeachment trial of President Johnson in Congress.

"What happened at Fort Pillow was no different than what happened at a dozen other battles under Union generals," said military historian Dr. Brian Wills, "Some soldiers in that kind of environment are going to get ‘out of hand’ and the military record is replete with prosecutions of such men. Gen. Forrest was a strict disciplinarian and consistently prosecuted men in his command for such actions as those alleged at Fort Pillow. Why that particular battle drew national attention has more to do with a Presidential campaign that was going badly for Lincoln and a Secretary of War wanting to hold onto power. Gen. Sherman later acknowledged that what happened at Fort Pillow was one of those unfortunate consequences of war and Forrest could not be personally held responsible for it." (Tennessee History Online - http://www.tennesseehistory.com/class/Pillow.htm)

Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest was a brave and brilliant commander who delivered multiple stunning defeats to the often numerically superior Union forces.  He was a hard charging, hard fighting, hard living man to be feared.  But, I am now convinced that he was not a murderer at the Battle of Ft. Pillow.  His activities after the war are are still in question but given what I have learned from actually reading the first hand accounts instead of accepting the popular version of events, I am inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt until I learn otherwise from reliable evidence.

History is written by the winners and in history books written by the winners the truth is often displaced by the politically expedient.

Link to first hand accounts of the Battle of Ft. Pillow

A more likely version of The Battle of Ft. Pillow