Bump. Any "atrocities" that occurred at Ft. Pillow were the blame of stupid Union commanders. Forrest was a soldier and a gentleman, a man of his word. Many of his former slaves served under him, refusing to leave. Often charged with creating the klan the opposite is true - Forrest did not create it, but he did call for it to be dismantled. After the war Forrest worked to improve relations, evidenced in part by the speech he made to the "Pole Bearers" cited previously. I think it says volumes that that group invited him to speak and present him with flowers of appreciation.
The comments made by ignorant posters on this thread are ample evidence of the power of brainwashing. The character of many good Southern men have been tarnished, simply to paint them as some unworthy opponent. For me, I'll take the words of a black Mississippi congressman John F. Harris anyday (1 Feb 1890):
I am convinced that had he [a political opponent] seen what I saw at Seven Pines, and in the Seven Day's fighting around Richmond, the battlefield covered with the mangled forms of those who fought for their country and for their country's honor, he would not have made the speech. When the news came that the South had been invaded, those men went forth to fight for what they believed, and they made no requests for monuments. But they died, and their virtues should be remembered. Sir, I went with them. I, too, wore the gray, the same color my master wore. We stayed four long years, and if that war had gone on till now I would have been there yet. I want to honor those brave men who died for their convictions.Kudos to Gen. Forrest and the brave men who sacrificed all.
From the memoirs of Frank Montgomery: Reminiscences of a Mississippian in Peace and War.
In the last weeks of the war he [Forrest] was much with me and told me the story of his life. His father, a poor trader in negroes and mules died when he was fifteen years old, leaving a widow and several children dependent on him for support. To add to his burden, a posthumous infant was born a few weeks after his father's death.
Continuing the paternal occupation in a small way, he continued to maintain the family and give some education to the younger children. His character for truth, honesty and energy was recognized, and he gradually achieved independence and aided his brethren to start in life. Such was his short story before the war. . . . The accusations of his enemies that he murdered prisoners at Fort Pillow and elsewhere are absolutely false. The prisoners captured on the expedition into Tennessee of which I have just written were mostly negroes, and he carefully looked after their wants himself, though in rapid movement and fighting much of the time. These negroes told me of Mas' Forrest's kindness to them.
This is consistent with the following honor bestowed on Forrest by Alabama Negroes in 1864. From the Sept. 7, 1864 Daily Picayune of New Orleans:
General Forrest and the Negroes. It is known that the negroes of the Methodist congregation at Uniontown, Ala., recently contributed $1000 to the Association for the Relief of Maimed Soldiers, and being informed that this contribution was sufficient to constitute a life director, they selected General Forrest for that honor. The Selma Reporter publishes the General's letter to Dr. Neely acknowledging the compliment, in which he says:
I am not indifferent to the compliment paid me by the "Methodist Congregation of Negroes at Uniontown." I prize this manifestation on the part of the negro more than the thousand calumnies with which a defeated and vanished foe are endeavoring to blacken my name. It has been my fortune to have much dealing with the negro since I arrived at manhood, and I have uniformly treated them with kindness and humanity. Those that have been forcibly taken from me I know are sighing for the happy home from which they have been seduced. Those who headed not the ridiculous proposals of the Federals, and who still remain with me, fly from his approaching footsteps with the same instincts of fear and danger that they would fly from a leprosy. I predict that, after peace shall have been restored, most of the negroes who have been decoyed from their homes, will gladly and joyfully return, infinitely preferring slavery among the Southern people to freedom at the North. Instead of being guilty of the atrocities charged upon me, I have uniformly expressed my sympathies for the negro. He has been deluded by false promises, and I had much rather make war upon the white man who has deceived him.
I suspect Forrest's staff wrote his response for him. According to my Frank Montgomery link in this post, Forrest read with difficulty.
Forrest's demands for the unconditional surrender of his enemies when there was little doubt that Forrest's troops would be victorious saved lives on both sides of the battle.