I was coming to a conclusion and your noting this 6th Tennessee Cavalry has helped cement it, as the commanding officer, Hurst, was a slave holder.
The institution of slavery helped degrade and cheapen all human life in the CSA. That is why there were so many more incidents of murder and massacre by CSA forces than by US forces.
How does that sound?
I think Robert E. Lee might have agreed with that sentiment.
The following is a letter written by Robert E. Lee to his wife on Dec. 27, 1856.
"In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral & political evil in any Country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it however a greater evil to the white man than to the black race, & while my feelings are strong for the former. The blacks are immeasureably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially, & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known & ordered by a wise Merciful Providence. Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild & melting influence of Christianity, than the storms & tempests of fiery Controversy … While we see the Course of the final abolition of human Slavery is onward, & we give it all the aid of our prayers & all justified means in our power, we must leave the progress as well as the results in his hands who sees the end; who Chooses to work by slow influences; & with whom two thousand years are but a day."
Walt
One really has to disagree with that statement. An in depth literature search on this subject is needed but I suspect that once the totals are tallied, the statistical difference will be minimal. Living in an area where >300,000 troops from both sides marched through gives local historians and nationally known historians new information everyday. I have been with McPherson on two occasions as a tour guide to Shiloh and Corinth. I respect his breadth of knowledge but he writes primarily with a northern bias. Just off the top of my head I can recite two well known Confederates that were killed for no reason other than being a prisoner and one that was sabered because he was a battery commander after he was captured. Sherman's march through Mississippi and Georgia will never be fully documented as to the atrocities committed. Your hypothesis will not stand up because many of the Northern troops were slaveowners and had a disdain for blacks in general; the draft riots in New York where hundreds of blacks were killed is proof of that. In a study of over three hundred personal letters written by men that fought at Shiloh, almost all of the pro-slavery and racist remarks were made by the Northerners. War takes away all of the civilty of humanity and making a broad statement that atrocities were committed by more Southerners than Northerners will not stand up to scrutiny. If one is like McPherson, one only cites those quotes that support his hypothesis and ignores the body of information that is available without respect to the entire picture.