The events at Fort Pillow need to be judged somewhere in the middle not at either extremes. I've seen both types of history on Fort Pillow, the truth is somewhere in the middle of those.

David I would certainly tend to agree with you. I will say this, since it was Confederate against former black slaves and unionist Tennesseans my view is that the animoisty level was much higher on both sides than had it been just Billy Yank against Johnny Reb...much like comparing the Americans against the Japs to the British against the Germans in WW2.

I've also heard...don't know how true... that some of the Confederates thought those white soldiers were Hurst men from out of"The Nation" and Forrest had already declared him an outlaw. So that and ex-slaves would seem to me to increase the animosity as I said, much more than if they were just a bunch of Mid-Westerners and Southerners.