Hoyt Cagle
Revisionist (A Nonsensical Appellation)
Tue Jul 24 09:32:37 2001


With all due respect, I fear that your lack of military knowledge does your reputation no small harm. Even if Forrest was not aware of the massacre (which I am certainly not conceding as some witnesses placed him squarely in the thick of it), ultimately a commanding officer is responsible for the actions of his subordinates.

The preponderance of historical primary source data certainly shows that a massacre did, indeed, occur. The burden of proof is on you to prove that it was "Union propaganda." I note that even you, Mr. Lowe, hedged just a bit by saying "there may have been a grain of truth in it." The URL provided below will take you to page after page of SWORN TESTIMONY by eyewitnesses (black and white) that relate the events of that day. There are even some discrepancies, which one would certainly expect from eyewitnesses relating the occurences of events in the heat of battle. If it were a case of a massive conspiracy of "Union propaganda" one would assume that the stories would be more carefully matched. Of course, those intellectually bankrupt revisionists who possess a personal agenda will not allow such details as facts to change their closed minds. (Please note that I am speaking in general here and not pointing to anyone in particular.)

At least Mr. Pitt has the intellectual honesty to admit that he is biased in favor of the South. Some of the others could learn from his honesty. Some revisionists live in denial and probably honestly cannot see that they are biased. They only exhibit a knee jerk reaction to all that reflects less than godlike qualities of anything concerning the Confederacy. I am Southern born and bred and have at least as many grandpas and greatuncles who fought for the South as any of you. However, I do not find it necessary to rewrite history to cover the human frailties of our ancestors. I proudly accept things as they truly were, not as I may wish them to have been. Ultimately, such revisionism greatly harms the Southern cause by making us all appear ignorant and indeed foolish.


Get the facts first. You can distort them later.
---Mark Twain

http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa&cc=moa&sid=e686098ef0758f00775874061def7d5f&q1=Fort%20Pillow%20Massacre&view=text&rgn=main&idno=AAW7861.0001.001


Regards to all,
Hoyt Cagle