Judy Wills
Black Confederates
Wed May 30 21:54:06 2001


I'm sorry to have missed out on a good fight. That's what I
get for not checking every day. Please let me join in now.

1) There are too many eyewitness accounts of black Confed-
erates to discount the idea. Check the Tennessee Pension
Applications which give the race of the soldier.

2)Bedford Forrest did indeed take 45 of his slaves to war,
promising them their freedom, no matter how the war came out. He kept his promise and hired some of them to work on his plantation in Mississippi. He got better workers than his neighbors because he paid more and had better living conditions for his workers. (Source: "A Battle From the Start", Brian S. Wills

3)There are a lot of people who claim credit for starting the KKK. Forrest wasn't one of them. He was the first Grand
Wizard..so-called because he was the Wizard of the Saddle.
The first Klavern was in Pulaski, TN. Huntsville claims to
be second and Athens claims to be third. (Source "A True History of the Ku Klux Klan" by the daughter of one of the
founders of the Athens Klavern, Miss Davis)

4)Some people think that Forrest wanted to revert to pre-war
conditions using blacks as labor for his proposed railroad. He came up with the idea of importing 1,000 Chinese coolies to do the work. There was a barbecue in Memphis in 1867 sponsored by the black community leaders. Forrest was an invited guest and he attended. Source: Brian Wills