[SmithL]

A bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest greets those who enter
the House of Representatives chamber of the state Capitol
building. The bust has been the object of protests.

[GarySpFc]

I have read 9 Forrest biographies, and will comment on them tomorrow when I have time.

[sporkgoddess]

Interesting... I knew about the 20th century revival (hurray for obscure Frank vs. Magnum knowledge finally paying off) but I didn't know that the original KKK wasn't really for racist purposes.

[SunkenCiv]

Fort Pillow, site of the massacre that stained Forrest's reputation forever.

That, and, he was a Democrat.

[jocon307]

Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton sounds like a very sensible man.

[stainlessbanner]

"Any way you cut it, he was responsible," Caudill said. "He was the commander."

By that logic Lincoln has 600,000 dead at his feet. He was the commander.

I don't think they would like that one.

[kalee]

ping

[Colonel Kangaroo]

Ashdown and Caudill point out that Tennessee, like the rest of the defeated South, was a society that had collapsed into lawlessness. In many places, returning Confederate soldiers formed vigilante committees to keep the peace.

To be more precise, the western 2/3s of the state was defeated. East Tennessee wasn't defeated. We were with the Union all the way. And we ran the state after the war under the great Parson Brownlow without the military rule the rest of the South had earned. So it is not really accurate to say the the Klan arose to drive out the perfidious Yankee. The Klan rose to combat a civil government of Tennesseans.

Governor William G. Brownlow

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

But to this day there is debate over whether Forrest ordered the massacre, allowed it to happen, ordered a halt to the killing or didn't know about it at all until later.

Where was the outrage when Sherman tore through Atlanta?

War is war and what happened in the past, happened. This is just more PC history revisionist crap.