Yankee historians delight in calling Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest "the Butcher of Fort Pillow," claiming that he instigated a "racist massacre" of surrendering black Union troops during the battle at Henning, Tennessee, on April 12, 1864. But is this true? Absolutely not! It is merely the North's fabricated version, one based not on reality, but on opinion, nescience, emotion, sciolism, presentism, spite, and an anti-South bias that is still very much alive to this day.
For those who are interested in the truth about the conflict, award-winning historian and Forrest scholar Colonel Lochlainn Seabrook has written Nathan Bedford Forrest and the Battle of Fort Pillow: Yankee Myth, Confederate Fact. This brief but comprehensive investigation blows the lid off what pro-North writers like to refer to as a "controversy," but which was in fact nothing more than an ordinary fight in which an overwhelming force (2,500 racially integrated Confederates) assaulted an indefensible fort filled with belligerent drunken soldiers (600 racially segregated Yankees) who refused to surrender in the face of impossible odds. Excerpted from Colonel Seabrook's popular title A Rebel Born: A Defense of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the book contains dozens of pages of new material, along with rare photos and illustrations, maps, details concerning the origins of the battle and the charges against Forrest, official reports, and important eyewitness accounts by those at the scene. Also included: an index, bibliography, and reference notes.
This work, which will help restore Forrest's reputation after being unfairly tarnished by 150 years of slander, falsehoods, and anti-South propaganda, is a must-read for all those who are in search of the truth about Nathan Bedford Forrest and the Battle of Fort Pillow. For the traditional South, Col. Seabrook's book - just one of 12 he has written on his famous Tennessee cousin - represents the final word on the matter. Available in paperback and hardcover.
Neo-Victorian scholar Lochlainn Seabrook, whose literary works range from astronomy to zoology, is one of the most prolific and popular writer-historians in the world today. A descendant of the families of Alexander H. Stephens, John S. Mosby, Edmund W. Rucker, and William Giles Harding, he is known by literary critics as the "new Shelby Foote" and the "American Robert Graves," and by his fans as the "Voice of the Traditional South." The Sons of Confederate Veterans member