River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War - Hardcover

Ward, Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670034401 ISBN 13: 9780670034406

Publisher: Viking Adult, 2005

Synopsis

An account of the controversial April 1864 Civil War battle between Confederate cavalry leader Nathan Bedford Forrest and a garrison of Unionists and former slave artillerymen offers insight into how corruption and racism in occupied Tennessee played a role in the Confederate victory and how Forrest went on to found the Ku Klux Klan. By the author of Dark Midnight When I Rise. 30,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Andrew Ward is the author of numerous books, most recently the award- winning Dark Midnight When I Rise: The Story of the Jubilee Singers. He is a former contributing editor at The Atlantic Monthly, commentator for National Public RadioÂ’s All Things Considered, columnist for The Washington Post, and screenwriter.

From Publishers Weekly:

This massive narrative painstakingly recounts the notorious—and much-disputed—massacre of the Union garrison at Fort Pillow, Tenn., by Nathan Bedford Forrest's Confederate cavalry on April 12, 1864. The outnumbered garrison, containing an artillery regiment of 300 freed slaves and a cavalry regiment of 350 white Tennessee Unionists, asked for a truce but various errors on both sides led the Confederates to believe that the Union soldiers were refusing Forrest's call to surrender. The ensuing attack left approximately two-thirds of the garrison dead or taken prisoner. Ward (Dark Midnight When I Rise: The Story of the Jubilee Singers) details overwhelming evidence that many were killed while surrendering or wounded, and that the rebels slaughtered fleeing African-American civilians as well. A congressional investigation resulted, but Forrest returned to civilian life and reputedly went on to found the KKK. The author vividly builds his case, portraying a wide range of the actors in the drama as well as the broader context—western Tennessee's unhappy history of slavery meant that the Union garrison was riven from within while assaulted from without. Ward's story of this notorious "collision of Southerners—white and black" makes an outstanding addition to Civil War literature. (Sept.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0670034401
• ISBN 13: 9780670034406
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 576