2, agree with your post for the most part, except there are reports that unarmed black and white federal soldiers were shot with their hands up and trying to surrender...the info i was hoping that someone else would bring up, is the origins of those federal soldiers...many of the black soldiers were recently freed slaves and as such were considered by the confederate government to be in servile insurrection, the harshest legal punishment being summary execution...many of the white federal soldiers were unionst from the mountainous regions of the surrounding border states...as such they were considered as traitors and worse...the brutal war in kansas and missouri, prior to 1861, spread east and south into kentucky, arkansas and tennessee...ever hear of the hatfield and the mccoy feud? this was the same thing, but on a much larger scale...
and, forrest's tactics included psychological warfare...the killings at fort pillow may have been allowed, in order to discourage local men, black and white from joining the union army...when asked why he sometimes practiced brutality, forrest reply was "to put the scare into erm"...
Last edited by ed good; 05/02/18 01:00 PM.
