Fort Pillow, a Civil War Massacre, and Public Memory

Fort Pillow, a Civil War Massacre, and Public Memory PDF Author: John Cimprich
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807139181
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 317

Get Book Here

Book Description
At the now-peaceful spot of Tennessee's Fort Pillow State Historic Area, a horrific incident in the nation's bloodiest war occurred on April 12, 1864. Just as a high bluff in the park offers visitors a panoramic view of the Mississippi River, John Cimprich's absorbing book affords readers a new vantage on the American Civil War as viewed through the lens of the Confederate massacre of unionist and black Federal soldiers at Fort Pillow. Cimprich covers the entire history of Fort Pillow, including its construction by Confederates, its capture and occupation by federals, the massacre, and ongoing debates surrounding that affair. He sets the scene for the carnage by describing the social conflicts in federally occupied areas between secessionists and unionists as well as between blacks and whites. In a careful reconstruction of the assault itself, Cimprich balances vivid firsthand reports with a judicious narrative and analysis of events. He shows how Major General Nathan B. Forrest attacked the garrison with a force outnumbering the Federals roughly 1,500 to 600, and a breakdown of Confederate discipline resulted. The 65 percent death toll for black unionists was approximately twice that for white unionists, and Cimprich concludes that racism was at the heart of the Fort Pillow massacre. Fort Pillow, a Civil War Massacre, and Public Memory serves as a case study for several major themes of the Civil War: the great impact of military experience on campaigns, the hardships of military life, and the trend toward a more ruthless conduct of war. The first book to treat the fort's history in full, it provides a valuable perspective on the massacre and, through it, on the war and the world in which it occurred.

Fort Pillow, a Civil War Massacre, and Public Memory

Fort Pillow, a Civil War Massacre, and Public Memory PDF Author: John Cimprich
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807139181
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 317

Get Book Here

Book Description
At the now-peaceful spot of Tennessee's Fort Pillow State Historic Area, a horrific incident in the nation's bloodiest war occurred on April 12, 1864. Just as a high bluff in the park offers visitors a panoramic view of the Mississippi River, John Cimprich's absorbing book affords readers a new vantage on the American Civil War as viewed through the lens of the Confederate massacre of unionist and black Federal soldiers at Fort Pillow. Cimprich covers the entire history of Fort Pillow, including its construction by Confederates, its capture and occupation by federals, the massacre, and ongoing debates surrounding that affair. He sets the scene for the carnage by describing the social conflicts in federally occupied areas between secessionists and unionists as well as between blacks and whites. In a careful reconstruction of the assault itself, Cimprich balances vivid firsthand reports with a judicious narrative and analysis of events. He shows how Major General Nathan B. Forrest attacked the garrison with a force outnumbering the Federals roughly 1,500 to 600, and a breakdown of Confederate discipline resulted. The 65 percent death toll for black unionists was approximately twice that for white unionists, and Cimprich concludes that racism was at the heart of the Fort Pillow massacre. Fort Pillow, a Civil War Massacre, and Public Memory serves as a case study for several major themes of the Civil War: the great impact of military experience on campaigns, the hardships of military life, and the trend toward a more ruthless conduct of war. The first book to treat the fort's history in full, it provides a valuable perspective on the massacre and, through it, on the war and the world in which it occurred.

River Run Red

River Run Red PDF Author: Andrew Ward
Publisher: Viking Adult
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 578

Get Book Here

Book Description
This fast-paced narrative vividly depicts the incompetence and corruption of Union occupation in Tennessee, the horrors of guerrilla warfare, and the rage that found its release at Fort Pillow.

An Unerring Fire

An Unerring Fire PDF Author: Richard Fuchs
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 0811766373
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 191

Get Book Here

Book Description
What really happened at Fort Pillow on April 12, 1864? The Union called it a massacre. The Confederacy called it necessity. TheTennessee spring came early that year, “awakening regional plants as warmer air and mois soil nurtured new life. Across the landscape could be seen the faint hint of green as sweet gum, hickory, oak cottonwood,…Sweet Williams, and wild dogwood added their hues.” This serene backdrop in hardly the place where one would imagine such a one-sided military atrocity to take place. Although at first glance the numbers are hardly noteworthy, the casualty ratio speaks volumes on the event. Eyewitness accounts relate “vivid recollection” of the numerous and specific nature of the injuries suffered by the survivors.” Controversy and scandal surround the Southern general Nathan Bedford Forrest. Why did it seem that he passively watched his men attack and mutilate more than one hundred apparently unarmed soldiers? Perhaps the biggest controversy involved racial prejudice. Was there a reason that Fort Pillow was singled out for Confederate vengeance, with the knowledge that the majority of the men were African-American? Of the dead, 66 percent were black. An Unerring Fire answers these questions and more in a critical examination of what remains one of the most controversial episodes of the Civil War.

Nathan Bedford Forrest's Escort and Staff

Nathan Bedford Forrest's Escort and Staff PDF Author: Bradley, Michael R.
Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.
ISBN: 9781455609239
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Get Book Here

Book Description
Most staff officers and escort members of famous Civil War generals have faded into obscurity. However, the escort company and staff officers of Nathan Bedford Forrest were held in awe by men on both sides of the conflict during the war and long after, and they continue to be held in esteem as figures as legendary as Forrest himself. Not merely guards or couriers, these men were an elite force who rode harder and fought more fiercely than any others. As Bradley writes in his introduction, In him they recognized not only the daring, able, and successful leader, but also the commanding officer who would not hesitate to punish with severity when he deemed punishment necessary. They possessed as an inheritance all the best and most valuable fighting qualities of the irregulars, accustomed as they were from boyhood to horses and the use of arms, and brought up with all the devil-may-care lawless notions of the frontiersman. But the most volcanic spirit among them felt he must bow before the superior iron will of the determined man who led them. There was something about the dark gray eye of Forrest that warned his subordinates he was not to be trifled with and would stand no nonsense from either friend or foe. Nathan Bedford Forrest's Escort and Staff reveals the symbiotic relationship between Forrest and his men, and how their unusual abilities as fighters, thinkers, and leaders made for a team of men who formed a unique brotherhood that lasted long after the war. A testament to their loyalty is the fact that the escort is the only Confederate unit whose numbers were greater when they surrendered than when the unit was organized.

History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880

History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880 PDF Author: George Washington Williams
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : African Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 1152

Get Book Here

Book Description


Fort Pillow

Fort Pillow PDF Author: Harry Turtledove
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312354770
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Get Book Here

Book Description
"New York Times" bestselling author Turtledove delivers a harrowing novel of the Civil War's most controversial battle.

Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest

Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest PDF Author: John Allan Wyeth
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 786

Get Book Here

Book Description


Bust Hell Wide Open

Bust Hell Wide Open PDF Author: Samuel W. Mitcham
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1621576000
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Get Book Here

Book Description
A book to challenge the status quo, spark a debate, and get people talking about the issues and questions we face as a country!

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Nathan Bedford Forrest PDF Author: Jack Hurst
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307789144
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 449

Get Book Here

Book Description
Amid the aristocratic ranks of the Confederate cavalry, Nathan Bedford Forrest was untutored, all but unlettered, and regarded as no more than a guerrilla. His tactic was the headlong charge, mounted with such swiftness and ferocity that General Sherman called him a "devil" who should "be hunted down and killed if it costs 10,000 lives and bankrupts the treasury." And in a war in which officers prided themselves on their decorum, Forrest habitually issued surrender-or-die ultimatums to the enemy and often intimidated his own superiors. After being in command at the notorious Fort Pillow Massacre, he went on to haunt the South as the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Now this epic figure is restored to human dimensions in an exemplary biography that puts both Forrest's genius and his savagery into the context of his time, chronicling his rise from frontiersman to slave trader, private to lieutenant general, Klansman to—eventually—New South businessman and racial moderate. Unflinching in its analysis and with extensive new research, Nathan Bedford Forrest is an invaluable and immensely readable addition to the literature of the Civil War.

Black Flag Over Dixie

Black Flag Over Dixie PDF Author: Gregory J. W. Urwin
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 9780809326785
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Get Book Here

Book Description
Black Flag over Dixie: Racial Atrocities and Reprisals in the Civil War highlights the central role that race played in the Civil War by examining some of the ugliest incidents that played out on its battlefields. Challenging the American public’s perception of the Civil War as a chivalrous family quarrel, twelve rising and prominent historians show the conflict to be a wrenching social revolution whose bloody excesses were exacerbated by racial hatred. Edited by Gregory J. W. Urwin, this compelling volume focuses on the tendency of Confederate troops to murder black Union soldiers and runaway slaves and divulges the details of black retaliation and the resulting cycle of fear and violence that poisoned race relations during Reconstruction. In a powerful introduction to the collection, Urwin reminds readers that the Civil War was both a social and a racial revolution. As the heirs and defenders of a slave society’s ideology, Confederates considered African Americans to be savages who were incapable of waging war in a civilized fashion. Ironically, this conviction caused white Southerners to behave savagely themselves. Under the threat of Union retaliation, the Confederate government backed away from failing to treat the white officers and black enlisted men of the United States Colored Troops as legitimate combatants. Nevertheless, many rebel commands adopted a no-prisoners policy in the field. When the Union’s black defenders responded in kind, the Civil War descended to a level of inhumanity that most Americans prefer to forget. In addition to covering the war’s most notorious massacres at Olustee, Fort Pillow, Poison Spring, and the Crater, Black Flag over Dixie examines the responses of Union soldiers and politicians to these disturbing and unpleasant events, as well as the military, legal, and moral considerations that sometimes deterred Confederates from killing all black Federals who fell into their hands. Twenty photographs and a map of massacre and reprisal sites accompany the volume. The contributors are Gregory J. W. Urwin, Anne J. Bailey, Howard C. Westwood, James G. Hollandsworth Jr., David J. Coles, Albert Castel, Derek W. Frisby, Weymouth T. Jordan Jr., Gerald W. Thomas, Bryce A. Suderow, Chad L. Williams, and Mark Grimsley.