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36 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Best coverage of the subject, October 13, 2005
This review is from: River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War (Hardcover)
No event in the American Civil War is so loaded with politically correct overtones as Fort Pillow. The garrison was overrun and killed by troops under command of Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the founders of the first KKK. Add the fact that many of the dead were black and the politically correct liberal left school of history is in full cry. The worst book on the subject is Richard L. Fuchs "An Unerring Fire: The massacre at Fort Pillow". The only thing missing in that book is Forrest in formal Klan robes riding about extorting his lynch mob of an army to kill all blacks. Mr. Ward avoids these mistakes and produces what is the most evenhanded book we are likely to see. The Union Army in west Tennessee was a series of second or third-rate units with sever leadership problems. Black marketing, speculation in cotton, a hostile population and a habit of "foraging" contributed to the poor condition of these units. Into this mix came two distinct sets of regiments raised in the area; the United Stated Colored Troops comprised of freed slaves and the white "loyalist", many of whom had deserted from the Confederate Army. Being in the USCT or a Tennessee Union regiment didn't change racial attitudes, dividing local commands even more. The isolated forts were to be abandoned but the profit in cotton was to attractive for Memphis to act quickly. Into this mix rode General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his very able command. Forrest had made Memphis his home before the war and many of his men were from the area. The book covers this 1864 raid in detail giving us a good understanding of the conditions Forrest's men face and the stories of "foraging" they had heard. Fort Pillow was targeted, invested, refused to surrender, overrun and a massacre occurred. Forrest lost control of his men but was never charged with any crime. It was impossible to build a case against the man that would hold up even in a Reconstruction Court. Having said all of this, why don't I like the book? "Damned with faint praise"; sums up the author's treatment of Forrest. In any question on where he was or what he was doing, the glass is always half empty. He should have been stopping the massacre not checking the gunboats on the river. However, these boats could have slaughtered his command if they had fought. "The Wizard" is used so often, in referring to Forrest, that it becomes a snide remark. Likewise, his Christian name was not "Nathan Bedford Forrest, slave trader". The stories from the saviors of the massacre are told in stunning detail, as is the fate of the Union POWs, both white and black. This section of the book clearly illustrates how the "hard hand of war" was being applied. This is not a pleasant book to read but it is the best coverage of the subject I've found.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book on a bad event., July 20, 2007
Few Civil War figures inspire as much debate and discussion as Nathan Bedford Forrest. The so-called "Wizard of the Saddle" has been anointed America's greatest natural military genius, and has been the subject of numerous books highlighting both his military achievements and his unsavory business dealings before and after the war. The April 12, 1864, battle of Fort Pillow, Tennessee, and the events that followed it, form the crux of the debate over Forrest's place in our national consciousness. Was Fort Pillow one of the most celebrated of Forrest's victories, or was it an out-and-out massacre of blacks and whites that highlighted the war's essential racial component? In River Run Red, author and screenwriter Andrew Ward demonstrates conclusively the latter, in what should be the final word on this topic for some time to come. The seasoned Civil War reader should not be put off by the author's lack of formal academic qualifications. Ward brings a newspaper correspondent's eye for detail and turn of phrase to this familiar story. He makes excellent use of archival and published primary sources; of particular note is his use of the pension questionnaires of many of the Fort Pillow survivors. One of the unique and valuable features of this book is the author's ability to flesh out the lives and backgrounds of the battle's various participants, both black and white, giving the reader a clear and detailed understanding of the war in western Tennessee. This was a "civil war" in the truest sense, with Tennesseans, many from communities within a day's ride of the fort, on both sides in the resulting battle. In addition to Confederate cavalrymen, there were white Union officers of black artillery units, all-white Union forces, escaped slaves, and white merchants at Fort Pillow. All of these groups bring unique perspectives to the battle, and Ward tells their stories. From the Union perspective, Fort Pillow was a blunder of the first magnitude. The fort's garrison was poorly supported and supplied, and Ward places the blame squarely on the shoulders of the district commander, Maj. Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut. After a lengthy approach march during which he captured or defeated other Union forces, Forrest easily surrounded Fort Pillow in the predawn darkness of April 12, and continued the battle long after all resistance had ceased. The most compelling and disturbing portion of the narrative documents in excruciating detail the depredations of Forrest's command. Any objective reader will be convinced beyond doubt that a deliberate atrocity took place. After the battle, Forrest's command returned to Mississippi, taking with it a column of prisoners. Some 139 white soldiers made their way to Andersonville, where 107, or 77 percent, died in captivity. Many of those who died at Andersonville were residents of west Tennessee and veterans of the Mexican War, heightening the heartbreak of this story. Forrest retained 62 black Union soldiers as prisoners, and for the most part they fared better: even though most of them were wounded, three-quarters escaped and returned to their regiments. News of the massacre reverberated through the North, causing Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, by this time general in chief of Union armies, to relieve Hurlbut, no small feat given the general's Republican Party connections. West Tennessee Unionists were understandably afraid for their lives, and the massacre caused a groundswell of popular opinion, further encouraged by the Northern press. Senator Benjamin F. Wade's Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War took up the case, holding hearings in Memphis almost as soon as the smoke cleared. Wade's findings encouraged Radical Republicans to continue to pressure Abraham Lincoln to remove all restraints on the Union war effort. Events in Virginia obscured those at Fort Pillow, however, as Grant's Overland Campaign dominated newspaper coverage and government attention for the next several months. The book's final chapter, "Deliver Me From Bloodguiltiness," details the rest of Forrest's life. The Wizard was famously active, and unsuccessful, in politics, and had a key role in the founding of the Ku Klux Klan. Enigmatic to the last, late in life he apparently found religion, and died a penitent man in October 1877. River Run Red is a well-researched, engaging and thoughtful book on an oft-told story.
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22 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Help Me Mr. Wizard!, April 1, 2006
This review is from: River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War (Hardcover)
River Run Red The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War by Andrew Ward, 2005. 531 pages cover to cover. 100 pages of notes. 8 pages of 31 photographs. 2 maps. I have read and own nine biographies and histories of General N. B. Forrest and his cavalry and I'm pro-Southern. Although this work is described as an examination of the Fort Pillow affair by the author in my estimation it is not. River Run Red is an attempt to reduce General N. B. Forrest popularity and blatantly smear his historic reputation as an outstanding military commander. If one word could describe River Run Red it would be the author's repeated condescending use of the nickname 'Wizard' for General Forrest. I wish now I would have starting counting his term for the General but by the time I noticed he was using it at least once per page and sometimes three times per paragraph I deemed it was not worth the effort. Another distraction was Mr. Ward's own smug opinions frequently interjected after favorable Confederate quotes necessary for the story. They were either by whole paragraph or found between brackets. I found no such distractions after any of the Union quotes. References: Mr. Wards includes one hundred pages of valuable notes and references at the back of the book. I had to go to these many times when I questioned something in the main body of interest. I found either mistakes or outright omissions. One famous quote from a Confederate is only half published (the favorable part in reference to Gen. Forrest omitted) and is misrepresented as from "an unknown" when this is false. Another unfavorable quote, said to be from General Forrest and referenced by Ward in Hurst book 'Nathan Bedford Forrest', I did not remember. After an extensive search this quote cannot be found in Hurst's book either at the pages specified or anywhere near them. Research: Mr. Ward included more material on this one subject than any single work I've read but on new information on the actual fighting at Fort Pillow I find he submits little. The most valued information for me is the great detail about the people surrounding the whole story of Fort Pillow. There is no new detail on exactly how many soldiers were involved, how many were captured, how many were killed in combat, and how many were killed while trying to surrender. There are no detailed diagrams or maps showing the fort layout, the geography and positions of the combatants necessary in understanding a military event. There are no muster rolls, list of the dead, or captured. Most importantly I found his feeble attempt of the chronological order of the events at Fort Pillow contradictory and hard to follow. Bias: This work is simply biased. Mr. Ward's buildup to April 12, 1864 is very incomplete and misleading. This book is not for the uneducated novice. Mr. Ward does not give General Forrest any credit of his victories and actions before Fort Pillow. Any new reader of this history would wonder why the Union forces were so scared of Forrest's men in the first place. Mr. Ward states that Forrest was jealous of Duckworth's 7th Tennessee's capture of the Union garrison at Union City and was totally humiliated by his defeat at Paducah, Kentucky and suggest this led him to attack Fort Pillow and massacre its garrison. He fails to mention that the 7th Tennessee, one of Forrest favorite regiments, was under his command and performing his orders. Further he does not mention Forrest's raids into Western Tennessee and Kentucky were well over a hundred miles behind enemy lines and just getting to Paducah was considered a success. He states near the beginning of the book that military reports from General Forrest and his lieutenants were not to be trusted but includes Union reports frequently and without comment. At one point in the book Mr. Ward states that the Battle of Parker's Crossroads was a great and shattering defeat for Forrest losing all of his plunder and 500 of his own men there; these details obviously came from Union reports and those of Forrest are not even mentioned. Mr. Ward either does not know or does not appreciate the difficulty Forrest was in, being surrounded by a much larger force, behind enemy lines and was still able to escaped with 1500 prisoners and over thirty wagons of captured supplies. The Story: For both pro-Union and pro-Confederate the book has a section or chapter for you but Mr. Ward contradicts himself many times. This incompatibility of statements forced me to have to go back and reread sections of the book. I also found his notes in the back of the book, in many cases, more interesting than the main body of Mr. Ward's work. Dumbest statement from Mr. Ward: "The men who served in the Civil War called going into battle 'meeting the elephant.' No one knows exactly why. Perhaps, from a distance, the smoke roiling up from a battle resembled an elephant, but it seems to me just as likely that they could have been referring to the old saw about the blind men and the elephant, each feeling a small portion and none able to describe the beast as a whole." Recommendations: I recommend this book for the serious historians of General Forrest and Fort Pillow. I also recommend this book for Civil War reenactors for the vast amount uniform, horse equipment, and weapons details mentioned. This book has a wealth of quotes and facts. Warning: his references should be verified first, I found omissions and mistakes that question Mr. Ward's accuracy. For the new readers on who General Forrest was read Jack Hurst book 'Nathan Bedford Forrest'. For the military operations of General Forrest read 'The Devil Forrest' by John Allan Wyeth.
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