Books > Biography > Historical, political & military
|
Buy Now
The River Was Dyed with Blood - Nathan Bedford Forrest and Fort Pillow (Paperback)
Loot Price: R506
Discovery Miles 5 060
You Save: R99
(16%)
|
|
The River Was Dyed with Blood - Nathan Bedford Forrest and Fort Pillow (Paperback)
(sign in to rate)
List price R605
Loot Price R506
Discovery Miles 5 060
You Save R99 (16%)
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
|
The battlefield reputation of Confederate general Nathan Bedford
Forrest, long recognized as a formidable warrior, has been shaped
by one infamous wartime incident. At Fort Pillow in 1864, the
attack by Confederate forces under Forrest's command left many of
the Tennessee Unionists and black soldiers garrisoned there dead in
a confrontation widely labeled as a 'massacre.' In The River Was
Dyed with Blood, best-selling Forrest biographer Brian Steel Wills
argues that although atrocities did occur after the fall of the
fort, Forrest did not order or intend a systematic execution of its
defenders. Rather, the general's great failing was losing control
of his troops. A prewar slave trader and owner, Forrest was a
controversial figure throughout his lifetime. Because the attack on
Fort Pillow - which, as Forrest wrote, left the nearby waters 'dyed
with blood' - occurred in an election year, Republicans used him as
a convenient Confederate scapegoat to marshal support for the war.
After the war he also became closely associated with the spread of
the Ku Klux Klan. Consequently, the man himself, and the truth
about Fort Pillow, has remained buried beneath myths, legends,
popular depictions, and disputes about the events themselves. Wills
sets what took place at Fort Pillow in the context of other wartime
excesses from the American Revolution to World War II and Vietnam,
as well as the cultural transformations brought on by the Civil
War. Confederates viewed black Union soldiers as the embodiment of
slave rebellion and reacted accordingly. Nevertheless, Wills
concludes that the engagement was neither a massacre carried out
deliberately by Forrest, as charged by a congressional committee,
nor solely a northern fabrication meant to discredit him and the
Confederate States of America, as pro-Southern apologists have
suggested. The battle-scarred fighter with his homespun aphorisms
was neither an infallible warrior nor a heartless butcher, but a
product of his time and his heritage.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.