An Unerring Fire

The Fort Pillow massacre, in which a Confederate cavalry force assaulted and captured an inadequately defended Union fortification in western Tennessee, is one of the most controversial episodes of the Civil War. The cavalry, led by Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, was accused of massacring the defeated troops, most of whom were African-American. In An Unerring Fire, author Richard Fuchs examines the event as a product of the social milieu and the individual personality of Nathan Bedford Forrest, who Fuchs believes was an accessorial inspiration before and a passive participant during the massacre.