[vetvetdoug]

The 6th Tennessee Cavalry captured 21 Confederates at Middleton, Tennessee and killed one at every mile marker from there to Purdy. One was skinned alive and others were left to die after being gut shot. General Forrest in the OR states unequivocally that if he captures any member of the 6th Tennessee he will give no quarter to them. Several of these men were at Fort Pillow when Forrest and his men attacked that fort. If there had been true atrocities at Pillow, doesn't it make sense that the Union would have punished Forrest after the war? No, Sherman himself evaluated the incident and deferred charges against Forrest.

[Thud]

President Lincoln forbade further retaliation for the murder of captured colored troops after the initial expedient field hangings of maybe two dozen captured CSA immediately following Fort Pillow, and made it official policy not to retaliate for further murders of colored troops. The only postwar charges against the CSA concerned Union white troops. Colored troops didn't count by official Union policy.

I hadn't heard about the 6th Tennesee Cavalry. Can you post a link about the incident? Some of those Southern Unionist vs. Southern Confederate battles got really mean for local reasons.