Editing Nathan Bedford Forrest (section)

===Fort Pillow===
[[File:The Butcher Forrest and His Family All of them Slave Drivers and Woman Whippers.jpg|alt=The Butcher Forrest and His Family All of them Slave Drivers and Woman Whippers|thumb|This unsigned article from correspondent in [[East Tennessee]] described Forrest as "sallow visaged" with "black, snaky eyes" (''Chicago Tribune'', May 4, 1864)]]
Modern historians generally believe that Forrest's attack on [[Battle of Fort Pillow|Fort Pillow]] was a massacre, noting high casualty rates and the rebels targeting black soldiers.{{sfn|Buhk|2012|p=147}} Forrest's claim that the Fort Pillow massacre was an invention of U.S. reporters is contradicted by letters written by Confederate soldiers to their own families, which described extreme brutality on the part of Confederate troops.{{sfn|Clark|1985|pp=24–25}} It was the Confederacy's publicly stated position that former slaves firing on whites would be killed on the spot, along with Southern whites that fought for the Union, whom the Confederacy considered traitors. According to this analysis, Forrest's troops were carrying out Confederate policy. The historical record does not support his repeated denials that he knew a massacre was taking place or that he even knew a massacre had occurred at all.

[[File:Gen. Forrest shooting a free mulatto (Harper's Weekly, May 21, 1864).jpg|thumb|left|After Fort Pillow, U.S. Maj. Gen. [[David S. Stanley]] published reports describing Forrest's execution of a prisoner of war from Pennsylvania;<ref>{{Cite news |date=1864-05-10 |title=The Rebel Forrest a Cold-Blooded Murderer |pages=1 |work=Buffalo Weekly Express |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/buffalo-weekly-express-the-rebel-forrest/136248015/ |access-date=2023-12-24 |archive-date=December 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231204050526/https://www.newspapers.com/article/buffalo-weekly-express-the-rebel-forrest/136248015/ |url-status=live }}</ref> a news illustrator later created this image captioned "Gen. Forrest Shooting a Free Mulatto" (''Harper's Weekly'', May 21, 1864)]]
Consequently, his role at Fort Pillow was a [[Social stigma|stigmatizing]] one for him the rest of his life, both professionally and personally,<ref name="Cimprich2011">{{cite book|author=John Cimprich|title=Fort Pillow, a Civil War Massacre, and Public Memory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BeFiumliWOEC&pg=PR94|year=2011|publisher=LSU Press|isbn=978-0-8071-3918-9|page=xciv|access-date=March 22, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509181725/https://books.google.com/books?id=BeFiumliWOEC&pg=PR94#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Tap|2013|p=103}} and contributed to his business problems after the war.

Historians have differed in their interpretations of the events at Fort Pillow. Richard L. Fuchs, author of ''An Unerring Fire'', concluded:

{{blockquote|The affair at Fort Pillow was simply an orgy of death, a mass lynching to satisfy the basest of conduct—intentional murder—for the vilest of reasons—racism and personal enmity.<ref name="Fuchs2001">{{cite book|author=Richard L. Fuchs|title=An Unerring Fire: The Massacre at Fort Pillow|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PFRqUSZUEOkC&pg=PA14|year=2001|publisher=Stackpole Books|isbn=978-0-8117-1824-0|page=14|access-date=April 15, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509182010/https://books.google.com/books?id=PFRqUSZUEOkC&pg=PA14#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

[[Andrew Ward (author)|Andrew Ward]] downplays the controversy:

{{blockquote|Whether the massacre was premeditated or spontaneous does not address the more fundamental question of whether a massacre took place ... it certainly did, in every dictionary sense of the word.<ref name="Ward2006227">{{cite book|author=Andrew Ward|title=River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LLZ3KboxDBwC&pg=PT412|year=2006|publisher=Penguin Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-4406-4929-5|page=227|access-date=March 9, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509175431/https://books.google.com/books?id=LLZ3KboxDBwC&pg=PT412#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

John Cimprich states:

{{blockquote|The new paradigm in social attitudes and the fuller use of available evidence has favored a massacre interpretation ... Debate over the memory of this incident formed a part of sectional and racial conflicts for many years after the war, but the reinterpretation of the event during the last thirty years offers some hope that society can move beyond past intolerance.<ref name="Cimprich2011117">{{cite book|author=John Cimprich|title=Fort Pillow, a Civil War Massacre, and Public Memory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BeFiumliWOEC&pg=PR117|year=2011|publisher=LSU Press|isbn=978-0-8071-3918-9|pages=cxvii|access-date=March 22, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509181906/https://books.google.com/books?id=BeFiumliWOEC&pg=PR117#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

The site is now a [[Fort Pillow State Park|Tennessee State Historic Park]].<ref name="SmithHoffman2001">{{cite book|author1=Darren L. Smith|author2=Penny J. Hoffman|author3=Dawn Bokenkamp Toth|title=Parks Directory of the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jPMsAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Fort%20Pillow%20State%20Historic%20Park%22|year=2001|publisher=Omnigraphics|isbn=978-0-7808-0440-1|page=685|access-date=March 26, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509181937/https://books.google.com/books?id=jPMsAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Fort%20Pillow%20State%20Historic%20Park%22|url-status=live}}</ref>

Grant himself described Forrest as "a brave and intrepid cavalry general" while noting that Forrest sent a dispatch on the [[Fort Pillow Massacre]] "in which he left out the part which shocks humanity to read".<ref name="Grant1895">{{cite book|author=Ulysses Simpson Grant|title=Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VrInAWjWVJ0C&pg=PA411|year=1895|publisher=Sampson Low|page=411|access-date=March 18, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509182018/https://books.google.com/books?id=VrInAWjWVJ0C&pg=PA411#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>