Well, how about this? ( From Wikipedia )
These statements, however, were contradicted by Union survivors, as well as the letter of a Confederate soldier who graphically recounted a massacre. Achilles Clark, a soldier with the 20th Tennessee cavalry, wrote to his sister immediately after the battle:
The slaughter was awful. Words cannot describe the scene. The poor, deluded, negroes would run up to our men, fall upon their knees, and with uplifted hands scream for mercy, but they were ordered to their feet and then shot down. I, with several others, tried to stop the butchery, and at one time had partially succeeded, but General Forrest ordered them shot down like dogs and the carnage continued. Finally our men became sick of blood and the firing ceased.
This anecdotal account does not depart factually from my conclusions as set forth in the about page except where the soldier, Achilles Clark, alleges that Forrest ordered them shot. Was this letter writer one of the Confederate troops under Forest's command or was he one of the Confederate deserters who might well have been shot? I have concluded that Forrest was remiss in not controlling his men but I had no evidence that he actually ordered murders.
My summation is as follows:
It does not appear that Forrest himself personally participated in the murders nor is it clear that he ordered any of the murders but it does seem, again by the weight of the evidence, that he was derelict in his duty to control his men who clearly went into a frenzy at the apparition of colored troops.
There have been more than one evidentiary hearing conducted and, as I said, they have concluded both ways. You do not supply any citation for this Wikipedia account which does say "these statements, however, were contradicted by…" What are the statements that were contradicted?
