Absolute nonsense. Come to Atlanta, Daniel, and I will be happy to show you the numerous historical markers sprinkled around town noting Union victories.
See, this is exactly what I mean about Loewen. He seems to have no reluctance to tell a half-truth, or in this case to lie outright, to “prove” his point.
Another example: Among his “evidence” that Forrest is over-glorified, he mentions a city in Arkansas named for Forrest. Conveniently, he leaves out the fact that Forrest himself founded the city.
He mentions Forrest’s association with the Klan, but then fails to mention that Forrest ordered it disbanded, and indeed railed against Klan violence in his later years. He fails to mention the conciliatory speech to a black audience because it doesn’t fit his hypothesis.
As noted in my earlier post, Loewen’s citations to sources do not hold up under close examination. For example, he cites Wills as his source for the story of the black man supposedly slain by Forrest, and for his assertion that “black opponents always inflamed Forrest,” but the pages referenced by Loewen say absolutely nothing of the sort. In fact, one of the pages cited by Loewen actually describes Forrest’s religious conversion in later years.
There are other examples of this sort of deception in his book. In another chapter, Loewen describes, in incredulous tones, the statue of Stonewall Jackson on the grounds of the West Virginia State Capitol. (But West Virginia was a Union state!) Loewen fails to tell his readers that Stonewall Jackson was born in Clarksburg, in what is now West Virginia. That fact would make it a whole lot less astonishing to find his statue on the West Virginia Capitol grounds, but Loewen withholds the information from his readers.
Yep. See the quotes I just gave you from the four most prominent military commanders of the Civil War.
Not exactly. See, you pulled a little Loewen-esque maneuver yourself by stating that the site calls Days Gap a “Union Victory.” A half-truth. In fact, the site goes on to state that “the [Union] raid ultimately failed.” Just the point I made earlier. The Union did not achieve its strategic objective (contrary to your earlier post). Funny definition of “Union victory.”
Repeating an inflammatory epithet over and over is a classic propaganda technique. Did you study under Goebbels or under Gingrich?
Repeating the phrase doesn’t make it any more true.
The Fort Pillow Massacre? Yes it happened. The real question is whether Forrest ordered, abetted, or approved it. Confederate Samuel H. Caldwell, writing home to his wife, said that the Fort Pillow battle “was decidedly the most horrible sight I have ever witnessed,” and went on to add that “[t]hey refused to surrender–which incensed our men & if General Forrest had not run between our men and the Yanks with his pistol and sabre drawn not a man would have been spared.” (Hurst, p. 176.)(My emphasis.)
In fairness, the accounts are conflicting. Here again is an account of the battle for those seeking to draw their own conclusions.
As for the KKK affiliation, I have explained (with citations to Brittanica) that the KKK started as a social club, then morphed into a vigilante group, then descended into terrorism. When the terrorism erupted, Forrest disbanded the Klan, and he continued to decry violence against blacks until his dying day.
One example: In August of 1874, there was a racial disturbance in the west Tennesssee town of Trenton, following which 16 black men were jailed. Later, a white mob came, took the men from the jail, and murdered them.
Forrest’s reaction? At a meeting convened to decry the violence, Forrest took the podium and proclaimed that if he “were entrusted with proper authority he would capture and exterminate the white marauders who disgrace their race by their cowardly murder of negroes.” (Hurst, p. 361.)
Hardly sounds like a “rabid racist madman” to me.
And I am still awaiting your explanation as to why Forrest would appear before a black group to make a conciliatory speech in 1875. Well? Can you offer any motive, other than to express his heartfelt sentiments?
